Agenda and draft 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.

The Panel received apologies from Councillor Saini, Councillor Pankhania and Kevin Burnett.

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 Eleanor Jackson had given notice that she would like to make statement prior to agenda item 11 (Implementation of the Suicide Prevention Strategy). A copy of the statement can be found on the Panel’s Minute Book and as an online appendix to these minutes.

Councillor Liz Hardman referred to two questions she had asked of the BSW ICB at the previous meeting in relation to the Ocean website and the 4 – 6 month waiting period and the shortage of midwives within the area.

Laura Ambler, Director of Place for Bath and North East Somerset, BSW ICB replied that actions were in hand to obtain this information to be shared with the Panel.

Councillor Lesley Mansell referred to the statement made by Councillor Eleanor Jackson and said that on the conclusion of that she had asked whether she thought the Council should adopt the ‘Social model of disability’. Councillor Jackson had replied that she believed they should, and Councillor Mansell asked for that to be noted in the minutes.

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

The Panel will receive a presentation on this item from the Director of Adult Social Care and Becky Brooks, Director of 3SG. 

The Director of Adult Social Care and Kate Morton (Chief Executive - Bath Mind and Chair of B&NES 3SG) addressed the Panel and highlighted the following points to them from their presentation.

Director of Adult Social Care:

·  Review carried out with the 3^rd Sector as contracts are due to expire in April 2025.

·  Savings target of £802k still to be achieved across Adult Social Care & Housing.

·  Lack of engagement with the Council cited by 3SG at the September CAHW Panel meeting.

·  Funding allocation of £3,439,048 from three sources (Council, ICB & BCF) make up the indicative total.

What the Commissioners have done so far…

·  Contract Management - A detailed review of the richness of the existing information, intelligence and insight.

·  Data Review - A detailed review of service specific data held by B&NES Council and HCRG Care Group.

·  Service on a Page - Produce concise, detailed overviews of existing services, reviewed by commissioners.

Contract Baselining

·  Information, advice and guidance 

·  Prevention & Early targeted support including independent living support

·  Support for Carers

Kate Morton:

·  Since September 2024 Panel meeting a great deal of co-production and collaboration has been carried out between the Council and the 3^rd Sector.

Market Engagement Events

·  24th September 2024 - Engagement with incumbent 3rd sector providers.

·  8th October 2024 - Market engagement event opened to organisations from wider market.

·  Two further events facilitated by Stone King Solicitors

o  30th October 2024 - Engagement event led by 3SG with Council commissioners on the art of the possible.

o  1st November 2024 - Engagement event with the 3rd sector providers, well attended (over 30 people).

Key Themes from the Engagement Events

• Focus on the joint purpose
• More alignment with the ICB
• Equal partnership and seeking to understand the needs of both the third sector and the Council
• Requires a strategic partnership approach
• Lack of Council appetite for risk as concerns about fear of challenge
• Over complicated processes - less transactional arrangements
• Open book approach to partners
• Concerns about new providers joining the market and then sub-contracting to local providers
• Wellbeing Hub is a great example of how well we work together

Next steps

·  Research those Councils who have managed to change their model and what lessons they have learnt

·  Develop commissioning models with the sector

·  Analyse themes from two market engagement events to inform the community support model

·  Develop commissioning intentions and commissioning model for 2025/26

·  Continue engaging with residents and service providers on bridging current contracts and future community support arrangements 

The Chair commented that this was a very positive message for the Panel to hear.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked what the status of the current contracts were and what will happen from April 2025.

She also asked if it was known whether Julian House would have to close, asked if there was a revised timeline for the Commissioning Model to be in place and what the impact will be on 2025/26 budget.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that contract bridging arrangements will be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

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. She said that it was the Liberal Democrat administration’s view that the Community-based Care contract should be provided by NHS service providers.

She stated that this follows on from a lack of trust when Virgin Care was sold to a private equity company in 2021 without the knowledge of local commissioners and said that this led to the Council decision to not extend the HCRG contract for Health & Care and to bring local Adult Social Care services back in house from HCRG in April 2024.

She said that whilst the award of the contract to HCRG was disappointing it was accepted that it was an outcome of a robust procurement exercise and hoped that they would work across the BSW area to develop accessible, effective and high quality services for our residents.

Councillor Born highlighted the following areas from her update report.

Englishcombe Lane Development

Planning permission has now been granted for the development of 16 new homes for people with complex learning disabilities and autism.

Royal Victoria Park café and leisure facilities

Following a recent procurement exercise by B&NES Council the current operator of the tennis and golf facilities, Excel Tennis Ltd, was awarded a contract to run both the café and the leisure activities for the next 20 years. It has already invested over £250K in refurbishment of the pavilion and café area - Treetops.

Budget Pressures

There are in-year pressures on adult social care budgets, primarily in the areas of learning disabilities and older people. These are being managed and Adult Social Care is currently predicting a break-even position at year end.

Drugs and alcohol

The B&NES Drug and Alcohol Partnership submitted a Synthetic Opioids Preparedness Plan to the national Joint Combating Drugs Unit as part of a national approach to tackle the risks from drugs like fentanyl or nitazines.

Black History Month

B&NES worked alongside AWP to arrange and host an event for Black History Month. Pauline Spence-McCalla, B&NES employed admin in the older adults mental health team was key in putting the interactive and fun agenda together.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked how the information relating to Drugs and Alcohol was being delivered to young people.

Councillor Hardman asked what impact the Food Access Toolkit has had so far.

The Director of Public Health replied that the toolkit has been developed by the University of Bath and was a board game designed around case studies from people who have experienced food insecurity and was seen as a good way to promote discussion as to how people could be supported. She added that it was in its early stages and therefore slightly to early to give an indication of its impact.

Responding to the issue of Drugs and Alcohol she said that Project 28 do carry out some work within schools, but that it was a difficult balance to find between informing them of the risks and sharing awareness in relation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

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

Laura Ambler, Director of Place for Bath and North East Somerset, BSW ICB addressed the Panel and informed them that today she was accompanied by Caroline Holmes, Director of Place – Wiltshire, BSW ICB.

Laura Ambler began by acknowledging that the Panel wish to discuss in more detail the award of the Integrated Community-based Care contract that had been recently awarded to HCRG Care Group and said that if it was felt that a further discussion was needed following this meeting then that could be arranged.

She said that she would attempt to address a number of key themes / questions that have been raised, these being;

·  Engagement / Procurement process

·  Patient / Public involvement

·  Nature of a Private Provider

·  Role of the Council / Panel

She stated that the ICB had a legal duty to proceed with the procurement as the current contract was coming to a conclusion with no scope for it to be extended. She added that this meant that there was no option for a public consultation to take place as it was not optional.

She explained that the ICB are not legally allowed to limit who can make bids for the contract as part of this process.

She said that they were looking for a Lead Community Partner to be established to work in partnership across the system including with our voluntary sector, primary care, mental health and acute providers.

She stated that the process had been followed robustly, in line with national Public Contracts Regulations (PCR) guidelines and that therefore the outcome must be abided.

On the matter of patient and public involvement she explained that they were seeking a transformational approach and that would be achieved by using our priorities to develop outcomes-based commissioning.

She said that it was the ICB’s responsibility, as Lead Commissioner, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the new provider who would engage with service users in discussions on the provider’s proposals. She added that the ICB have previously engaged with the public, service users and providers on their priorities as set out in their Care Model and ICP Strategy. The care model and ICP strategy then informed the commissioning intentions for this procurement.

She stated that the commissioning intentions were also informed, where appropriate, by those with lived voice and service users.

She explained that the Lead Provider and the ICB are looking to engage with service users and broader communities and want to work with the Panel for their views as part of that process.

On the issue of Private Providers within this workspace she reiterated that no block or favour is given to any provider and that a robust process was followed. She said this comprised of the following stages.

·  Selection Questionnaire

·  Invite to Tender (1)

·  Dialogue sessions alongside Local Authority colleagues to probe and test the bidders thinking and their proposals.

·  Once at least one potential successful bidder had been identified we were able to proceed to Invite to Tender (2)

·  Responses were then received  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

This report provides a summary of progress with implementation of the 2019- 2023 B&NES Suicide Prevention Strategy.  It also provides an outline of next steps with the refresh of the local strategy and an update on the BSW Suicide Prevention Strategy. 

Councillor Eleanor Jackson addressed the Panel, a copy of her statement is attached as an online appendix to these minutes and a summary is set out below.

‘Quite a few years ago now I attended a wake at St Nicholas Church, Radstock for a 20 year old NEET, who had taken his own life out of loneliness and depression. A grant had been found through our then in house youth services for some art therapy for the bereaved young people, but a long term solution was needed. I asked around the group, ‘What can BANES do?’ The answer was unanimous. The youth clubs are doing great work for children, but we feel we are being abandoned when we turn 18.

Reading the report, which is a good systematic approach to the problem (but suicide is not like knife crime or growing food. It has a myriad network effect, scarring families and communities), I am not really sure that there is a grasp of recent changes, and the challenge of social media abuse and bullying. Not to mention the ease with which young people can gain information about methods.

There is no mention of the side effects of some drugs, such as a well-known anti high blood pressure prescription medication producing suicidal thoughts.

One fact re our young people: whether at home or school – or the youth clubs, they need stability and continuity. They need to know where and how they can get professional help if they need it. Labelling won’t help. This council making sure that such expertise, and local knowledge is available is crucial.

Suicides are more than statistics, and whatever their age or background, there needs to be effective prevention now.’

The Associate Director of Public Health addressed the Panel and explained that he was also Chair of the BSW Suicide Prevention Group. He said that he would like to emphasise that a lot of work is carried out within schools and with young people on this matter.

He said good relationships were in place with the Transport Police and Samaritans and that training had taken place with their staff. He added that locally it was a low number of deaths that occur on the trainline, but that these can often happen away from the station areas.

He said that he was also aware of the many local organisations that are working hard on the stigma of this issue and felt that people were now more able to talk about things more openly.

He stated that they do recognise the impact that each death will have on the family and friends of those involved.

Councillor Alison Born commented that this was a complex issue and said that the report shows the breadth of work in place to attempt to address it. She also wished to thank all those involved in these service areas.

The Associate Director of Public Health introduced the report to the Panel and informed them that the number of deaths locally from suicide had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

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 workplan to the Panel and the following subjects were

noted as potential future items of discussion.

·  Community Support Contracts

·  Integrated Community-based Care Contract (HCRG)

·  Suicide Prevention Strategy – March 2025

·  Synthetic Opioids

·  Transport to Hospital Schools (HERS)

·  Music Service

·  Home Education

Councillor Eleanor Jackson informed the Panel that Fosseway School in Westfield had won a national award for the quality of its Religious Education.

The Chair said to pass on the congratulations of the Panel to them regarding this achievement.