Agenda item

To receive an integrated partnerships update.

Lewis Willing provided the Wokingham Partnerships Update.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       The coming winter had required the Council and its partners to develop several winter plans, including the Better Care Winter Pressures Plan, and the Covid Adult Social Care Plan.  Plans had been submitted on time to the Department of Health and Social Care.  System partners felt that generally the Partnership was well prepared and organised to meet all the key areas of the plans.

·       The plans had resulted in extra services being developed, with teams around the health and social care system to be expanded as required. 

·       A Voluntary Community Sector mental health pilot had recently begun.  Using a Population Health Management approach, it had been noted that there was an increase in the number of people reporting issues with their mental health as a result of Covid.  The pilot had begun with the Citizens Advice Bureau, offering support in dealing with some of the causes of mental health problems, such as debt advice, and offering onward referral to other voluntary mental health organisations.

·       The Population Health Management approach was used to help direct local projects and was best practice.  A Population Health Management Analyst would be employed to support work.

·       There would be an increase in Primary Care social workers to support an increase in the frequency of Multi Disciplinary Team meetings.  Increased social work presence would allow Primary Care Network leaders to have a ‘go-to’ person for support with social care and allow for regular meetings with social prescribers and the voluntary sector and Primary Care Network leaders.

·       The Wokingham Integrated Partnership had also agreed to fund an enhanced medical capacity in the Consultant Geriatrician team.  The second wave of the pandemic had already had a huge impact on the need for geriatrician support for hospital type treatments, including O2 and Dexamethasone, which allowed Covid positive patients with compromised respiratory function to remain in their place of residence. The additional hours would also enable Multi-Disciplinary Teams to have access to Geriatrician advice on complex or challenging cases.

·       There were a small number of occasions when people were delayed in being discharged from hospital, or ended up becoming a Non-Elective Admission, as they needed extra support with medication only calls. Better Care Fund Winter Pressures finances had been made available to fund these calls.

·       The Cancer Champion scheme developed by Involve would continue to be supported.

·       The Home from Hospital service would be increased and would now be available 7 days.  The number of hours that the service was in operation and the duration of the support offer would also be increased.

·       Following the first wave of Covid 19, it had been established that care providers in the community (in both care homes and home care) would benefit from further infection control nursing support.  This was being put in place across Berkshire West.

·       Councillor Hare commented that he had seen an advert in Oxfordshire Mind, for the position of Primary Care Wellbeing Project Manager for Wokingham.  He questioned whether they would support those with stress and anxiety.  Lewis Willing stated that they would and that it was a new post.

·       Martin Sloan indicated that there was the mental health pilot in the Earley plus area.  In addition, a tender had been put out to fund a Voluntary Community Sector partner with mental health expertise.  Oxfordshire Mind had been appointed and it was hoped that a team would be in place by February.

·       Dr Milligan commented that a huge amount of work had been undertaken and that it was good to talk about mental health in equivalent terms to physical health.

·       Katie Summers agreed that it was good to see successful partnership working and commented that the message of ‘One team’ needed to be celebrated.  She was pleased that the benefits of the Population Health Management methodology were being seen.  She felt that there needed to be a greater focus on children and young people going forwards.  Katie Summers would be working closely with Nicky Cartwright, the Director of Joint Commissioning and invited the Director of Children’s Services to work with them to share the learning that had been undertaken in the adult’s forum and to begin to replicate it for children and young people.  Carol Cammiss welcomed this.  Katie Summers commented that she wanted to be able to talk about the ‘household approach’ rather than adults and children and young people, separately.

RESOLVED:  That the update be noted.