Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Democratic Services Officer drew attention to the evacuation procedure as listed on the call to the meeting.

Diana Hall Hall and Douglas Blair sent their apologies for this meeting.  Ian Biggs (NHS England) was a substitute for Douglas Blair.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting.

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

Pamela Galloway (Warm Water Inclusive Swimming and Exercise Network) asked if there was a minimum period for a consultation, organised by the Council, to run.  Pamela Galloway explained that the Network had been asked to feed into the ‘Fit For Life’ Strategy (previously known as Leisure Strategy), though they had not received any notification that the consultation started on the 1st of May this year.

The Chairman responded that an answer would be provided within 5 working days from today.

To confirm the minutes of the above meeting as a correct record.

1.  To brief the Health and Wellbeing board as The Connecting Families programme comes to the end of the first year of operation for the team and to advise about the last year 2014/15 of phase one and progress made to date.

2.  To give an update about phase 2 (a new five year programme 2015 to 2020) and brief the board about the suggested new criteria, especially those linked to health.

The Chairman invited Paula Bromley (Connecting Families Manager) to introduce the report.

The Board made the following comments:

The Chairman highlighted complexity of work with families who had been involved from the start of the programme.  The Chairman congratulated Paula Bromley and her team on a successful outcome of the programme so far.  The Chairman asked Pamela Bromley if she had seen any blockages in the programme and whether it could be something that the Board could help with.  The Chairman also asked how other organisations, such as Job Centre Plus and/or Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), had been interacting with the programme.

Councillor Dine Romero asked if the Council’s Connecting Families Programme had been seen, by the Government, on shaping the national agenda considering the successful outcome of the programme so far.  Councillor Romero also said that she was pleased that this programme would continue, in more-less the same formula as it was happening so far, beyond the next national and local elections.

Pat Foster commented that it would be interesting to see the phase 2 of the programme and how mental health and physical health issues would be included.  Pat Foster asked about geographic spread of families which had been participating in the programme.

Paula Bromley responded that she would be happy to work with the Healthwatch.  Paula Bromley also said that families were spread across the area, and not just to a specific ‘pocket’ or Ward in the area.  Services were not accessible for some areas because they were not there, or those services were far away from those families. 

Paula Bromley said that working with the Job Centre Plus and DWP had been slightly difficult, though with some good outcomes which had helped the programme to become successful.

Jo Farrar commented that she was pleased with the programme which engaged families who found it hard to work with the Council in the past.  The Council had been receiving constant positive feedback from the Government and this was all down to Paula Bromley and her team, who built strong relationship with a range of partners, with tendency to engage with more health service partners.

John Holden asked if there were any ways of measuring societally value of the programme and if it would possible to achieve more for less in this programme.

Paula Bromley responded that the programme had been working quite well with health visitors and other health services, with a prospect to develop stronger links with more services which would benefit the programme. 

Paula Bromley also said that the team had been using some sort of mapping process in evaluating progress.  The government just developed a new cost benefit analysis tool, which could be tailored locally.

Paula Bromley commented that everyone would have to be clear what the set outcomes were in terms of what the Council wanted and what the families were encouraged to achieve.  Also, work in partnership with other people and organisations had been crucial.

Bruce Laurence commented that this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

This report sets out information for the B&NES Health and Wellbeing Board to consider the impact of winter on the Bath Health Community and the RUH during  2013/14.

The Chairman invited Dr Simon Douglass to introduce the report.

The Chairman also invited Dominic Morgan (Clinical Commissioning Group), Clare O’Farrell (RUH Bath) and Helen Mee (Sirona) to give a presentation to the Board (attached as Appendix to these minutes).

The Board made the following comments:

The Chairman welcomed the presentation and said that many organisations had been working together to improve the service.  The Chairman asked what plans had been put in place for January 2015.

Councillor Romero commented that mainly older population were in a need for these services and asked if there was any impact on paediatric services within urgent care. 

Councillors Romero and Hall also asked about the effect that mild winter had on urgent care.

Dominic Morgan responded that there was no significant impact on paediatric unit within urgent care.  Dominic Morgan also explained about planning on capacity with urgent care for older patients.

Dominic Morgan explained that despite of having mild winter this year there was still a significant demand for urgent care.  The demand had been similar as it would be in winter period though not with peaks in the urgent care demand which occurred during cold snaps in previous years.

John Holden commented that some airline companies suffer significant losses during winter period, though they make significant profits during summer period, which was all part of the planned forecast.  John Holden suggested that the NHS bodies should take the same approach and plan better for winter periods in terms of necessary resources rather than waiting for crisis to happen, and then react.

Dominic Morgan responded that we would have to be realistic as these systems were quite complex health care systems.  The point made about business case from some airline companies was a valid.  Dominic Morgan said that one of the biggest challenges had been about staffing levels during winter months.  It had been quite difficult to bring the staff on just for that period of the year, because all of the staff needed to go through a proper training before they start working.  The biggest challenge for all providers during the winter months was about workforce.

Clare O’Farrell commented that the RUH had received a lot of funding from the government, to deal with Urgent Care, and explained how that funding had been invested in different services for the benefit of patients.

Helen Mee explained to the Board about the work that Sirona had been undertaking in terms of the development of the Virtual Ward and Multi-Disciplinary Team.  Helen Mee also said that Health Visitor for active ageing had been in place since February.

It was RESOLVED to note the report and presentation and to receive a further update in six months.

This is the first Joint Annual Account and it provides a review of the work of the Bath and North East Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board since it was established in April 2013.

The Chairman invited Helen Edelstyn (Strategy and Plan Manager) to introduce the report.

Members of the Board welcomed the report, in particular the layout and how it was written.

The Board unanimously agreed that the Joint Annual Account represents close working relationship between organisations in the area.

It was RESOLVED to agree with the Joint Annual Account 2014 and to agree with a system of Boar Member ‘leads’ for each Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy priority area.

This report presents the draft Fit for Life Strategy which is out for consultation.

The Chairman invited Marc Higgins (Business Development Manager) and Jameelah Ingram (Public Health Development and Commissioning Manager) to give a presentation to the Board.

March Higgins and Jameelah Ingram highlighted the following points in their presentation (attached as Appendix to these minutes):

·  Vision

·  Evidence Base

·  What would be the Strategy contributing to

·  2017 targets

·  Helping people in staying healthy

·  Improving the quality of people’s lives

·  Creation of fairer life chances

·  Four key themes in the Strategy

·  Priority groups

·  Procurement

·  Consultation

·  Proposed consultation on draft

The Board welcomed the Strategy by outlining how it correlated with the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and also with the Clinical Commissioning Group 5 Year Plan.

The Board asked about levels of activity for younger people and also what work had been undertaken in reaching those ‘hard to reach’ areas.

Jameelah Ingram responded that initiatives, such as Director of Public Health Award, had been put in place and proved to be quite successful.  Jameelah Ingram also said that the Council had been working with a range of partner organisation (i.e. Curo in Foxhill) to engage more people in the ‘Fit For Life’ programme.

It was RESOLVED to support the consultation process and to request from officers to produce an update in one year.

The Chairman read out the relevant tweets from the public that were posted during the meeting.