Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Zoom Meeting. View directions

Contact: Derek Morgan  01344 352044

Media

Items
No. Item

87.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

 

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

 

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

88.

Urgent Items of Business

Any other items which the chairman decides are urgent.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.

89.

Minutes from Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 119 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 1 December 2022.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 December 2022 were approved as a correct record.

90.

Matters Arising

Minutes:

There were no matters arising.

91.

Public Participation

QUESTIONS: If you would like to ask a question you must arrive 15 minutes before the start of the meeting to provide the clerk with your name, address and the question you would like to ask. Alternatively, you can provide this information by email to the clerk at committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk at least two hours ahead of a meeting. The subject matter of questions must relate to an item on the Board’s agenda for that particular meeting. The clerk can provide advice on this where requested.

 

 

PETITIONS: A petition must be submitted a minimum of seven working days before a Board meeting and must be given to the clerk by this deadline. There must be a minimum of ten signatures for a petition to be submitted to the Board. The subject matter of a petition must be about something that is within the Board’s responsibilities. This includes matters of interest to the Board as a key stakeholder in improving the health and wellbeing of communities.

Minutes:

No petitions had been received, nor had anyone indicated a wish to put a question to the Board.

92.

Winter Pressures pdf icon PDF 548 KB

To outline ongoing winter pressures experienced across the Frimley Integrated Care System and detail the local and system wide response to these pressures with considerations for learning and next steps.

Minutes:

The Board received a report on the ongoing winter pressures experienced across the Frimley Integrated Care System and it detailed the local and system wide response to these pressures with considerations for learning and next steps.

 

There were pressures across the system and issues to be addressed, with an increase in GP and 111 demands in particular, along with emergency care and pediatric services.  On 29 December 2022 an out of hours critical incident had been declared. There was a lot of collaboration with a task and finish Group to improve discharge and flow. Communication was key and collaborative working from Gold Call through a number of organisation. There was an improvement into January but there were still capacity issues and taking steps to help with discharge flow. A critical incident though had also been received on 6 January 2023. During this time, tracking data was utilised which were grouped into four enabling urgent and Emerging Care Strategic objectives.

 

It was outlined that there was joint planning taking place to support discharge into the community and home care. There was also homecare services and guest accommodation when required. The funding supported this. There was also additional funding which had been acquired for the Integrated Care Funding process. Collaborative care had also been critical.

 

A Discharge and Flow task and finish group had been set up across the Frimley ICS and they had received a total of £433,000 in Government funding.  Strengths and weaknesses had been identified with several next steps to implement. Most notably that they would continue to submit fortnightly reports on ASC DF until 31st March (the end of winter). Furthermore, BCF End of Year report (May 23) and they would be assessing the impact of schemes and evaluating the value of service continuity.

 

The update was NOTED.

93.

Census Data for Bracknell Forest on Health Related Matters pdf icon PDF 64 KB

To provide headline information on key demographic and socio-economic changes that have occurred in Bracknell according to the 2021 Census which will impact on service and other plans of all agencies.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was provided with the headline information on key demographic and socio-economic changes that had occurred in Bracknell Forest according to the 2021 Census which would impact on service and other plans of all agencies.

 

The detailed report outlining the key findings from the 2021 census compared with those from the 2011 census was received by the Board and included the following:

 

·       The population of Bracknell had increased by 10% to 124,608 in 2021.

·       The age structure included an 18.5% increase in the 4-15 year old age group and 26.2% in the elder population (50+).  Bracknell Forest still had a younger population than the rest of the South East, however, there had been a 33% increase in the population of the 65+ age group – something that wasn’t uncommon with people living for longer.

·       Those in the population affiliated to no religion was 40.4% which was a 11.9% increase from 2011.  This was a similar increase to in England as a whole.

·       There had been a slight increase in English proficiency of around 1.3%.

 

The Board found the census data useful and noted the changes in the overall population structure and the related demographic and socio-economic attributes.  Agencies were advised to take due cognisance of these changes in their service planning and delivery.

 

A question was raised of “What Next” to do with this data.  Agencies were advised that they would be doing further analysis and would be sharing the detail to organisations to place on their own websites.  It was suggested that the JSNA website would be a good place to start.  

 

Particularly for some agencies it would be useful to know more about the levels of deprivation in certain areas.  However, it was noted that that from 4 May 2023, the Electoral Commission was changing the ward boundaries, and this may make comparison data slightly less reliable.

94.

Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Board Annual Report 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 84 KB

To receive the Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Annual Report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board received a report and presentation from Brian Boxall, Independent Chair of the Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Board on the Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Annual Report 2021/22 outlining the key points covering the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.  Support was requested for its further circulation. This was the third report from the Safeguarding Board. 

 

The Board was reminded that under the Care Act 2014, the Safeguarding Board was required to publish an annual report that must clearly state what both the Board and its members had done to carry out and deliver its objectives and should set out the content of its strategic plan.

 

During 2022, the Board had agreed to extend the duration of the plan to 2023.

 

The plan adopted a systems approach to ensure approaches to statutory safeguarding responsibilities and was underpinned by the following strands:

 

1.     Prevention – Partners working together.

2.     Protection – Ensuring a robust outcome focused approach to protect people at risk experiencing abuse and neglect.

3.     Partnership – Will seek out assurance about the effectiveness of local partners and collaborations to safeguarding

4.     People – Will seek out assurances that people who use the services are involved in the safeguarding process.

 

The overarching strategic direction for 2023-2023 was:

 

“Working together, and as individual partners, we will be vigilant to be able to identify, understand, prioritise and respond quickly to risks and issues arising throughout our local community, particularly those caused or intensified by the impact of Covid-19 as captured in the Board’s risk register.”

 

The report outlined the Safeguarding Board’s structure and multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and it was noted that, although there were a number of joint learning sessions, it was also down to each partner to complete its own individual training to staff.  Partners were asked to report back on training completed.  There were supported learning events with the Fire Service to discuss safeguarding and also an individual session with the Thames Valley Police to see what safeguarding was in place.

 

All agreed that there had been very good partnership working as detailed in the Strategy with a completed risk register, however, it was noted that there were budget pressures, an increase in demand, staff fatigue and mental health workforce pressures and recruitment and retention risks to keep in mind.

 

Information sharing was going well with the Memorandum of Understanding in place as well as working together to avoid all working on the same thing and not duplicating each other. 

 

There had been a 10% increase in contacts in the past year, but only 18% had led to referrals into the Children's Service.  One of the concerns was around what was happening to the other significant amount of information that had come in and that had been reviewed as part of the MASH.  The number of reports relating to adults was less. There was an audit taking place to look at that at whether the information was correct and whether it was going to the right places.  The figures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.

95.

Early Help Strategy pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To discuss the Early Help Strategy.

Minutes:

The Board received a detailed report outlining the Early Help Strategy 2023-2026.  This strategy aimed to create a shared approach to meeting enhanced needs across the wider children’s early help workforce, recognising the need to support agencies to develop the skills and expertise to do so.  Just as this strategy created and endorsed a principle of working with families, not doing to them, it established a way of working together with partners to facilitate a more productive shared approach.

 

The approach being taken was to ensure early identification, community support, acute and targeted services, and family safeguarding.

 

What was consistent was the reasoning for not accessing services/activities,

which were as follows:

 

·       Lack of confidence and anxiety

·       Too high a cost

·       The service/activity was not right for them

·       The timing and accessibility mainly due to lack of public transport

 

The service had completed diagrams to put words into pictures and the strategy was still being reviewed.  It would be brought back to the Board again to discuss in detail.

96.

Sexual & Reproductive Health Commissioning pdf icon PDF 105 KB

To note the arrangements for the re-procurement of sexual and reproductive health services.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board would not be discussing the detailed annexes containing exempt information so the meeting would not proceed into a private session.

 

The Board received an introduction to the presentation which outlined the work that had been undertaken in 2022.  The report was seeking approval for the procurement of sexual and reproductive health services.

 

Funding for sexual and commissioning sexual health services came from local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and NHS England.  This procurement was specific to the local authority funded elements for specialist sexual and reproductive health provision.  

 

The Board noted the arrangements for the re-procurement of sexual and reproductive health services which was detailed in a presentation. There would be a stakeholder event and continuation of the joint commissioning arrangements.

 

The next steps would include a sexual and reproductive health needs assessment.  The work was ambitious, and some activities would need wider engagement, such as through infrastructure implementation.

 

The Board AGREED to the procurement and to a health needs assessment being completed.

97.

Agency Updates

To receive any other agency updates.

Minutes:

The Board was reminded that the elections would be taking place on 4 May 2023.  This would mean that the pre-election period would commence on 22 March 2023 and there would have to be limited communication, particularly around political messages and decision making.

 

If anyone was not sure if something could be published, they should contact the elections team - elections@bracknell-forest.gov.uk.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk