Agenda item

Mr Kevin Byrne, the Council’s Head of Health and Strategic Partnerships, noted that the report had brought together the Hillingdon Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2025 (HJHWS) with a single performance report setting out progress in delivering the Hillingdon Health and Care Partners’ (HHCP) priorities, the Better Care Fund (BCF) plan and activities set out in the draft strategy.  The Board noted that the Strategy was 12 pages plus appendix.

The report included the vision and priorities that had been agreed by Board members at the workshop held in May 2021.  It included actions attributed to HHCP theme groups and provided a picture of the Borough going forward.  It would provide a statement of place which would be shared at a North West London (NWL) level. 

The report provided the Health and Wellbeing Board with a delivery framework which could be used by the Board to hold itself to account.  It was anticipated that it would now be the subject of a public consultation and that it would then be reported back to the Board at its meeting on 30 November 2021.  It was agreed that Service (Lead) Metrics would be included for all Delivery Plan Actions in Annex 1 in relation to Priority 6: Improving the ways we work within and across organisations to offer better health and social care.  This would ensure that partners knew when they had achieved the objective. 

Ms Sharon Daye, the Council’s Interim Director of Public Health, noted that partners were supporting people to live well, independently and for longer yet the role of the community (and the part that they played) had not been mentioned in the plan, just services.  It was agreed that further information would be included on strengthening community capacity and resilience. 

Ms Caroline Morison, Co-Chairman and Managing Director of HHCP, noted that more thought might need to be undertaken in relation to specialised commissioning as population health management tended to focus on the largest number affected.  Ms Morison would liaise with Mr Nick Hunt, Director of Service Development at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, to determine what action needed to be taken in relation to specialised commissioning and who should be involved. 

Mr Graeme Caul, Managing Director Goodall Division at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), advised that CNWL provided some specialised commissioning services in Hillingdon.  He suggested that consideration be given to including information about action currently taken by partners to deliver good services and about access to these specialised services. 

Although it was currently unclear, there could be the expectation that specialised commissioning should be dealt with at a regional level and that London could be deemed to be one such region.  Calculations would be needed to establish the current spend on specialised commissioning in NWL (and in Hillingdon) and consideration would need to be given to the improvements in the health of the local population resulting from action associated with the HJHWS. 

It was noted that the NHS was keen to maintain equality of waiting lists between the different Trusts.  This was likely to create tension as local authorities strove to constantly improve service provision, yet this could effectively mean levelling down to the lowest common denominator across a region/the country with regard to waiting lists. 

General practice sat at a NWL level but it was delivered locally and it was expected that, over the next year or so, there would be further changes: it was anticipated that pharmacies and opticians would be devolved to an Integrated Care System (ICS) level. 

Mr Gary Collier, the Council’s Health and Social Care Integration Manager, advised that Appendix 2 of the report set out key issues in relation to the performance of integrated health and care.  The BCF plan 2021/2022 had been directly aligned to the workstreams in the JHWS so that it was not seen as a separate piece of work.  Consideration was now being given to the inclusion of adult mental health and also expanding the scope of the existing scheme that was seeking to improve care and support for children and young people.

Since the publication of the report, the timetable for the BCF had been published.  Under this timetable, the planning requirements would be published on 16 September 2021 at the same time as the October to March 2022 NHS planning guidance.  Subject publication taking place in September, the 2021/22 plan would need to be submitted on 11 November 2021 and therefore delegated authority from the Health and Wellbeing Board (as set out in the recommendation) was required.  A decision on whether or not the plan was assured would be received on 2 January 2022 and the final date for sign off of the Section 75 agreement would be 21 January 2022. 

It was noted that Hillingdon had benefitted from pooled funding in relation to hospital discharge to meet the new and arising needs of local residents in a tangible and flexible way.  Consideration would need to be given to the governance of the BCF sign off process now that Hillingdon CCG no longer existed. 

Partners were asked to ensure that everything that they were doing as a system was being captured in the workstreams.  For example, transformation programmes being aligned to the new Hillingdon Hospital build. 

RESOLVED:  That the Health and Wellbeing Board:

1.         agreed the draft strategy at Appendix 1 of the report and agreed that it be made available for public consultation and that a final version be brought back to the Board at its next meeting.

2.         noted and commented on the single performance report provided at Appendix 2 of the report.

3.         delegated authority to approve the 2021/22 Better Care Fund Plan to the Corporate Director of Social Care and Health in consultation with the Co-Chairmen, the Hillingdon Board representative of the North West London Clinical Commissioning Group and Healthwatch Hillingdon Chair.