Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Sital Punja (Councillor Barry Nelson-West was present as her substitute).

There were no declarations of interest in matters coming before this meeting. 

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2025 be agreed as a correct record. 

RESOLVED:  That all items of business be considered in public. 

The Chair welcomed those present to the meeting.  Mr Gary Collier, the Council’s Health and Social Care Integration Manager, advised that this was the Committee’s second session in relation to its review of Adult Social Care early intervention and prevention.  Witnesses had been invited to talk to the Members about neighbourhood working and preventative services such as reablement and the bridging care service. 

Mr Edmund Jahn, Chief Executive Officer at Hillingdon GP Confederation, advised that the Confederation was a Community Interest Company that had been made up of all of the GP practices in Hillingdon to provide them with support and help them to work in partnership with organisations such as the Council.  Mr Jahn was the Senior Responsible Officer for the development of neighbourhoods in Hillingdon for the healthcare sector, so GPs had been taking the lead in this area. 

Neighbourhood working could be described as “a collaborative approach where local communities and statutory services work together to improve the health and wellbeing of their population”.  However, because partners tended to work in silos within organisational boundaries, neighbourhood working aimed to break down those barriers in the interest of wrapping care services around individuals and communities.  Mr Jahn noted that it was often easier to work in silos but that working within a matrix provided a better experience for the service users. 

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) were thought to be a team of teams which included nurses, GPs, mental health practitioners, therapists, social care workers, health visitors, etc, that had their work organised in the neighbourhood geography.  They worked together at management levels and on a practical day to day basis around the needs of patients and residents.  Whilst accountable to their own organisation, each member of the INTs would also work into the neighbourhood leadership team. 

The INTs collectively owned a neighbourhood development plan which identified what needed to change to improve access for residents.  This way of working meant that the team would be able to recognise elements of care that were not within their professional remit and discuss these with other members of the team that were able to help.  This ‘no wrong front door’ approach would be more complex for staff but more effective and more personalised for the patients as it would avoid the ‘ping pong’ experience. 

Hillingdon had been recognised as being a well-developed Borough in comparison to the other seven boroughs in North West London (NWL) and would be classed as a Level 3 on the Integrated Care Board’s maturity index.  That said, there was still a lot to do.  Mr Jahn advised that, in order to move up from Level 3 to Level 4 on the maturity index, the management team would need to let the professionals get on with their jobs (for example, the development of a respiratory clinic had created an open environment for the teams) and look at how to make the finances work differently. 

It was recognised that getting staff to get upstream of the demand for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

The Chair noted that the authority’s finances were tight but that the Council needed to meet its statutory obligations whilst trying to prevent unnecessary spend.  As such, he advised that the Committee would be receiving reports on the budget for (and spending within) the Council’s Adult Social Care department at each of its future meetings.  The report would provide a financial summary, budget overview, savings progress and risks and mitigations to enable Members to delve deeper into savings targets. 

Officers would be asked to attend the next meeting on 29 April 2025 to talk to Members about how adult social care and health budgets were monitored and escalated.  The Committee would also like to know why the budget had been overspent in the past. 

RESOLVED:  That the discussion be noted. 

Consideration was given to the Cabinet Forward Plan.

RESOLVED:  That the Cabinet Forward Plan be noted.

Consideration was given to the Committee’s Work Programme.  It was agreed that a budget report be included on each agenda for future meetings. 

RESOLVED:  That the Work Programme, as amended, be agreed.