Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 5.

The Chair drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Onkar Saini, Paul Crossley, Bharat Pankhania and co-opted member Kevin Burnett.

Councillors Jess David and Anna Box were present as substitutes for the duration of the meeting.

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

(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 4.4 Appendix 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 Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Michael Auton declared an other interest with regard to agenda item 10 (Adult Social Care Improvement Plan Progress Update) as through his work with Community Catalysts he works with many people involved in Adult Social Care.

The Chair informed the Panel that she intended for an update of the Early Help Task Group to be given at their October meeting.

Questions to Councillor Alison Born (Cabinet Member for Adult Services) have been received and responses have been circulated. A copy of them can be found as an online appendix to these minutes.

The Panel will receive a presentation regarding this agenda item.

The presentation was deferred until another meeting of the Panel.

The Cabinet Member(s) will update the Panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions on the update provided.

Councillor Alison Born, Cabinet Member for Adult Services addressed the Panel and highlighted the following points from her update.

Newton House

B&NES families who draw on care and support at Newton House came together on 18th July to share their experience and hear from the working group looking at options for future building-based respite services. The meeting was attended by 4 parents, managers from Dimensions and council officers, who recognized the value of continuing to regularly meet together to take this work forward.

Updated the group on the contract changes coming up in 2026 and a strategic piece of work to review current services and develop a Learning Disability, Autism, and Neurodiversity framework. This is a significant undertaking, encompassing community support, day support, and supported living services. Respite care is also part of this broader initiative.

Discussed the importance of long-term planning, including understanding future housing needs for individuals and families. By working together, we can ensure that the B&NES Local Plan reflects the housing needs of individual and families.

The update has been shared with all families who use Newton House support. The working group will continue its work on the all-age respite and all families will be invited to take part, with more opportunities for engagement opening in the autumn.

Community Support Recommissioning

Recommissioning of community support services is progressing as planned. Several tenders were evaluated in August, with more evaluations happening in September, with good level of engagement from health and social care practitioners and carers, as relevant for each service. We are on time to finalise contract awards by the end of September. A communication strategy is being updated, and procurement outcomes will be communicated later in the autumn.

Community Resource Centres & Extra Care Housing

CQC conducted an unannounced inspection of Cleeve Court in July following a ‘test and learn’ approach with an expert by experience as part of the inspection team. The inspection concentrated on the domains of Safe and Well Led as these were rated as requires improvement in the previous inspection. As part of the inspection methodology the service has worked with the Lead Inspector to develop an action plan, and this has been updated and reviewed with the Lead Inspector in early August. It is expected that the inspection report will not be available until mid-late September from CQC.

Visits – Suzanne Westhead (Director of Adult Social Care) and I visited both Cleeve Court and Combe Lea during August and were delighted to meet staff, residents and some visiting relatives. Since taking these regulated services back in house in 2020, B&NES has invested significantly in both staff and infrastructure and I was struck by the many improvements since I last visited.

Both homes are clearly offering high quality, person centred care in a comfortable and homely environment and staff are committed to ensuring that residents live fulfilling lives for the time that they are there.

Cool Spaces

With our Summer’s becoming warmer, Public Health and Sustainable Communities have worked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Panel will receive an update from the B&NES, Swindon & Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB) on current issues.

Laura Ambler, Executive Director of Place for Bath and North East Somerset, BSW ICB addressed the Panel and highlighted the following areas from within the update.

Chair announced for new Integrated Care Board cluster

Rob Whiteman has been announced as the new Chair of the Dorset, Somerset and BSW Integrated Care Board cluster. Previously Chair of NHS Dorset, Rob’s appointment comes as ICBs across the country, including those in the south west, come together across much larger geographical footprints as part of the government’s planned changes to the form and function of Integrated Care Boards.

While work is continuing at pace to formally establish the new cluster organisations, the three existing ICBs remain focussed on delivering their respective operational plans and developing programmes that will deliver the improvements required by the recently published 10 Year Health Plan.

Hospital passports for members of the Gypsy, boater and traveller communities who have a learning disability and/or autism

The ICB has worked with providers to help more individuals with a learning disability and/or autism, who are at risk of hospital attendance or admission, to receive a hospital passport.

There are a small number of people with a learning disability and/or autism living in Bath and North East Somerset who are members of the Gypsy, traveller and boating communities who have such passports. 

It is currently not possible to provide everyone with a health passport and this work is targeted at those at greatest risk, such as individuals who have frequent attendances and admissions to hospital under the high intensity user programme.

Working together to co-design the future of neighbourhood health, including the delivery of integrated neighbourhood teams, presents further opportunities to develop health passports.

Update on region’s new £20 million specialist mental health facility

Work to put the finishing touches to a new purpose-built specialist mental health inpatient facility in Bristol is well under way. The Kingfisher will be a state-of- the-art care environment, fully equipped to provide personalised support to autistic people and those with learning disabilities whose needs cannot be met by existing community mental health services.

Having this modern facility based locally will help to ensure that more patients living in Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire receive the specialist care they need closer to home, while also reducing the likelihood of people being cared for out-of-area and away from family and friends.

The Kingfisher has been designed and built with input from service users, people with lived experience of the type of the care the new unit will be providing, as well as their families and carers.

When fully open in 2026, the facility will be able to provide short-stay admissions for those in genuine need of supervised hospital-level care.

Councillor Michael Auton commented that the NHS 10 Year Health Plan was likely to have wider issues for the rural areas of the Council and its older population, in particular regarding the digital changes. He asked if the BSW ICB had a specific plan for the region’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

This report will outline the progress that has been made towards the ASC Improvement Plan alongside key activity that the ASC Leadership Team is undertaking to enable sustainable improvement.

Councillor Alison Born introduced the report to the Panel. She explained that the Adult Social Care Improvement Plan is aligned to specific CQC feedback and structured according to the CQC Local Authority Assessment Themes.

She stated that there are 9 improvement priorities across the four CQC Themes with 15 projects/action plans to deliver them.

Councillor Liz Hardman said that she could see a lot of positives in the report and asked if it was felt that they were able to meet the challenge of enabling sustainable improvement.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that she believed they would be able to achieve the work set out in the Improvement Plan and was particularly proud of the work carried out so far with carers and the Carers Centre. She added that a Healthwatch survey was due to be distributed in the next month to ascertain further feedback and that the Panel would be updated on this at their January 2026 meeting.

Councillor Jess David stated that she was reassured by the report and asked if there was any indication of when the next CQC assessment might take place.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that she expected the service to be assessed again by the summer of 2026 and that there would be a focus on public experience, with themed assessments also likely.

Councillor Lesley Mansell said that the service must do its upmost to ensure that there is a level playing field for all in terms of the co-production of services. She added that whilst the EQIA with the report was welcome, its focus was the Improvement Plan and she asked for a separate one to be provided for the service users.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that there is a level playing field in place for co-production and that a range of communications was being used to share information with organisations such as Live Well B&NES and the Community Wellbeing Hub.

With regard to further EQIAs, she said that this was under consideration as part of their ongoing work and that they would seek to demonstrate their understanding of protective characteristics as work progresses.

Councillor Joanna Wright asked if the service had enough resources for the work they are required to do.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that to have the contingencies available within this financial year for extra staff has been so helpful. She said that where possible staff were using new IT products / apps to aid them in their work. She explained that for the forthcoming financial year they were seeking and additional £5m of investment to assist with two continuing areas of growth, older people and transitions.

The Chair asked how often staff have to undertake equalities duty training.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that this was mandatory for all staff on an annual basis.

Councillor Wright asked when the Panel could expect to discuss the forthcoming Council budget.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) places a strong emphasis on understanding and addressing the health needs of children and young people. Central to this approach is a commitment to capturing their voices, and a key mechanism for this is the biennial Schools Health and Wellbeing Survey (SH&WS), which has used the “Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire” (HRBQ) since 2011.

Councillor Alison Born introduced the report to the Panel. She explained that the survey provides robust data and insights into the health, wellbeing, and behaviours of children and young people, supporting evidence-based service planning and targeted interventions.

She informed the Panel that the work is supported by St John’s Foundation, which has provided grant funding to B&NES Council to enable the continuation of the SH&WS for five survey rounds on a biennial basis, through to 2030.

She stated that a number of areas for concern have been identified and that the survey highlights persistent inequalities affecting vulnerable groups, including pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) either now or in the past six years, those with s SEND, young carers, children looked after and those identifying as LGBTQ+, pupils living with just one parent or from BAME backgrounds.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she felt that the survey was a useful tool and was pleased to see that arrangements were in place to start the organisation of the next survey.

She asked what can be done to improve the response rate (58%) from Primary Schools, while noting that 100% of Secondary Schools had responded.

The Public Health Principal replied that all schools are invited to take part in the survey and that they had not received a direct notification to say that a school would not be taking part. She said that the assumption was that they had not had the time to complete it.

Councillor Hardman asked what can be done to improve the areas of concern identified.

The Public Health Principal replied that Public Health use the survey to assess where resources should be placed, promote particular campaigns and to advise partners in B&NES, Swindon & Wiltshire.

Councillor Hardman said that she was concerned that the inequalities for Young Carers were across many of the categories.

The Public Health Principal replied that the concern was shared and she was aware of work planned to begin to address this.

The Director of Public Health & Prevention added that they would also welcome suggestions for where the results of the survey could be shared.

Councillor Anna Box raised a number of points on behalf of Councillor David Harding who had left the meeting.

·  The increase in self harm from 14% to 17% in primary schools. Was this known why and is there a policy to address it?

·  Vaping remains high with 27% of secondary and 54% of FE students having tried e-cigarettes at least once. Work to be done……

·  Exercise – No mention of this within the survey to address obesity or losing weight. Young people should be encouraged to enjoy exercise.

The Public Health Principal replied that self harm remains a priority locally and that Mental Health support teams were in place across BSW alongside School Nursing.

She explained that a Parent & Carer seminar had been held recently on vaping and hoped that information gained from this would lead to ways that could be identified to reduce numbers.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chair.

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel. Any suggestions for further items or amendments to the current programme will be logged and scheduled in consultation with the Panel’s Chair and supporting officers.

The Chair introduced the item and referred to the following items that were already on the workplan/had been raised at this meeting:

October (Children)

Covid figures / Flu / Vaccination update

Play Policy

Free School Meals – Auto enrolment

Safety Valve - DfE/Culverhay issue

St Michael’s Primary School/Orchestra of Everything update

November (Adults)

Modern Slavery

January (Adults)

CQC Action Plan Update

Other (no timescale)

Home to School Transport

Community Wellbeing Hub / Live Well B&NES (Attend the Panel)

Attainment gap, to include wider determinants project from public health

The Panel RESOLVED to note their current workplan and these proposals for future reports.