Agenda and minutes

The Board is asked to nominate a chairman.

RESOLVED that Councillor Birch be appointed Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board for the Municipal Year 2012/13.

COUNCILLOR BIRCH IN THE CHAIR

The Board is asked to appoint a Vice-Chairman.

RESOLVED that Dr William Tong be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board for the Municipal Year 2012/13.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected 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 Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest.

Any other items which, pursuant to section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

There were no urgent items of business.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 14 February 2013.

It was RESOLVED that subject to the amendment detailed below the minutes of the Shadow Board meeting held on 14 February be confirmed as a correct record.

Minute 6: Draft Clinical Commissioning Group’s Plan for 2013/14

iii) Replace final sentence to state: There wasn’t a measure under local prevalence of depression that could be used currently as the metrics were often difficult to interpret.

The Board became statutory on 1 April 2013, this report asks that the Board agree its arrangements for substitutes and public participation at Board meetings.

It was agreed that Board Members be given the opportunity to nominate named substitutes but that it was crucial that substitutes if attending Board meetings had been appropriately briefed and had considered the agenda papers fully before attending.

The Board asked that public questions be given a slot towards the beginning of the agenda.

It was RESOLVED that;

i)                    the Board recommend to full Council that substitutes for each Board Member be permitted.

ii)                   the Board recommend to full Council that the Council and Committee Procedure Rules in the Council’s Constitution be amended to permit the Board to implement a scheme of public participation.

iii)                 subject to the Council accepting the recommendation in ii) above, the Scheme of Public Participation set out in Annex A of the agenda papers be approved.

The LINK’s final Annual Report for 2012/13 is attached for the Board to note.

The Board received the LINk’s final annual report and accounts in accordance with statutory requirements and agreed arrangements for making it publicly available by the statutory deadline.

The Board thanked Barbara Briggs and Debra Venning for all their efforts and hard work particularly over the last year and their input in terms of supporting the establishment of the shadow Health and Wellbeing Board and their efforts to support the transition to new arrangements.

It was RESOLVED that by 30 June 2013;

i)                    the LINk annual report be made publicly available on the Local Healthwatch Bracknell Forest website.

ii)                   The report be distributed to recipients as proposed in the report attached to the agenda papers.

To update the Health and Wellbeing Board regarding the Francis Inquiry and the Government’s response to the Inquiry with the purpose that the Board discusses and agrees a mechanism to identify the partners’ roles and responsibilities to implement the recommendations.

The Board received an update on the Francis Inquiry and the Government’s response to the Inquiry. The Board were asked to consider and agree a mechanism to identify partner roles and responsibilities to implement the recommendations.

The Chairman welcomed Sarah Bellars, Nurse Governor for the Clinical Commissioning Group, lead for safeguarding. Sarah Bellars made the following points:

• The report was huge and the third of its kind, it included 290 recommendations. The Department of Health had only just formally responded to the report in the previous week. Up until that point it had been difficult for health organisations to respond.
• Sarah Bellars would be chairing a steering group to oversee this work and would be inviting a representative from Local Healthwatch to participate in this work. A joint action plan would be developed, which would cover the whole local health economy. The steering group would need to report to NHS England by the end of the year. It was hoped that a joint action plan could be developed by July/September. It was envisaged that each individual organisation would undertake a review; reviews would then be gathered together to develop a joint action plan. The Board noted that a number of actions were already in place.
• The steering group’s initial focus would be around commissioners but by July, this would be much wider and would encompass providers and numerous other interested parties.
• Where there were glaring gaps in service areas, these would be addressed immediately. A large mapping exercise would be necessary to understand what already existed and what needed to be put into place.
• The Board noted that it wasn’t just one section of the NHS that needed significant improvement, a system wide approach was required, which would require all stakeholders to come together. It was clear that commissioners would need to lead this work.
• The role of the Board in this work was unclear however once the mapping exercise was complete, this would become clearer.

The NHS England representative reported that in advance of the Francis Report, quality surveillance groups were being established across England. These groups were meeting monthly and brought together commissioners and this included local authority representatives. These groups didn’t include providers and provided an opportunity for concerns to be raised in a semi formal way. She stated that a local authority representative would be welcome to join the group. Local Healthwatch would also be welcome to join this group.

The Chairman stated that the Francis report highlighted that some elected members did not know their role and in particular the expectation that they should be challenging health partners. It was important that elected members were aware of groups locally and at least be given the opportunity to ask questions, as they would be held to account by local residents.

The Board noted that it was important to understand the role of the Board as opposed to Overview and Scrutiny. The Board would take plans forward, whereas Overview and Scrutiny would undertake a scrutiny role.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Following a procurement process, the contract for Local Healthwatch Bracknell Forest was awarded to the Ark Trust Limited, this information report provides further detail on this contract.

The Chairman thanked all those that had been involved in putting together the tender for Local Healthwatch, a provider had now been selected.

Andrea McCombie-Parker reported that she recognised that the Local Healthwatch (LHW) provider would need to have a great deal of experience and expertise to carry out their role effectively, she believed that this was one of the reasons the Ark had been successful in the tendering exercise.

She reported that LHW had just completed creating its branding and this was about to be signed off. A communications strategy was being developed and she would be attending a full partnership meeting in the following week. She commented that partnership working in Bracknell Forest was very strong and she looked forward to working within it.

The Board commented that the communication strategy for LHW would be crucial in ensuring that the public understood the role of LHW, how they operated and what the public could expect.

The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) reported that they had already met with LHW and looked forward to taking the partnership forward with them.

The Board noted the report.  

The Board of NHS Berkshire has approved recommendations relating to changes to four services used by patients living in east Berkshire and south Buckinghamshire which are currently provided at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot. The decisions were taken following a three-hour discussion on 26 March 2013. The changes relate to maternity, minor injuries, stroke rehabilitation and general rehabilitation services.  

Dr Tong reported that at the NHS Berkshire Board meeting on 26 March 2013, recommendations on three issues; the Minor Injuries Unit, the closure of Ward 8 at Heatherwood and the closure of the Ascot Birth Centre at Heatherwood, had all been agreed.

The Implementation Group had met two weeks ago to begin work and would be chaired by Dr Kittell.

The Board highlighted the importance of ensuring that the public understood the function and purpose of the Minor Injuries Unit and that this message was communicated and publicised to the public correctly. Dates and timescales for the Unit also needed to be provided to the public and should be included in the action plan for the Unit. The Board asked to be provided with dates and timescales for the opening of the Unit and asked CCG representatives to take this back to Dr Kittell and the Commissioning Board and report back to the Board.

This information report describes the new structures for commissioning health and care services for the people in the Thames Valley following the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It details the new organisations that will be involved in commissioning from 1 April 2013.

Helen Clanchy reported that NHS England was still in the early days of its establishment and she hoped to develop a very positive relationship with the Board. NHS England would be responsible for:

NHS England would also have a role in considering the Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy.

In response to queries from the Board, it was reported that NHS England would be committed to producing transparent data.

The Director of Public Health reported that she would be meeting the new Head of Public Health England, who was also committed to ensuring data across the board was transparent.

The Public Health Consultant requested that some further detail be added to the section of the report around public health, in particular around the commissioning support that would be provided to CCG’s. She agreed to provide some wording for NHS England.

CCG representatives reported that they looked forward to working much more closely with NHS England.

To inform the Health and Wellbeing Board of the current pooled budget agreements and the new arrangements with the Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The Board considered the current pooled budget arrangements and the new arrangements with the Clinical Commissioning Groups. It was reported that the report detailed just two formal agreements, there were many more informal examples of very positive partnership working across Bracknell Forest.

The Board agreed that whilst these agreements were as a result of Section 75 agreements, every effort should be made to consider other applications for pooled budget arrangements wherever possible.

It was RESOLVED that the Board endorsed the approach to pooled budget agreements and joint working arrangements between the Council and health bodies.

Question: Would one of the Board members please identify the new route for submitting concerns in relation to the NHS care services we the public receive.

Also once a route is confirmed should members of the public provide a copy of their complaint to the Health and Wellbeing Board so it has visibility?

Ken Le Garde

Board Members reported that the public should not notice any significant difference in the way they report concerns or complaints. The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) function was still in place and the contact numbers remained the same.

It was advised that Local Healthwatch (LHW) would also now play a role in addressing any concerns that the public may have with local health services. LHW would also be permitted to access complaint data and would play a key role in ensuring that the voice of the public and patient was heard.

It was noted that NHS England would also be launching a national single contact number for complaints and Freedom of Information requests. This number would run alongside, PALS.

In response to concerns that the PALS service was not effective, the Board stated that if complaints were processed by PALS this information went into hospital recording and it was unclear how this complaint was handled. CCG representatives felt that CCGs needed to get smarter at bringing together all intelligence.

LHW stated that they would be undertaking unannounced visits to health organisations in an attempt to drive up standards.

The Board agreed that all complaint information and soft intelligence needed to be pulled together and that there needed to be a single access point for the public.

The Director of Public Health reported that it was important to separate patient experiences from patient complaints and to assess the level of ‘noise’. There were generally two groups of people, the first group was reluctant to complain but would make comments to people, the second group were formal complainants who would take their complaint further if unhappy with the response to their complaint. It was noted that complaints were regularly considered by NHS Complaints and the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service.

The Board agreed to work with Local Healthwatch to undertake some work around mapping of public complaints and comments.

The Board recognised the importance of taking action once complaint data was compiled to achieve better outcomes for the public, the Board would play a key role in this.     

None to report.

Board members are asked to make any additions or amendments to the Board’s Forward Plan as necessary.

The Board was asked to make any additions or amendments to the Board’s Forward Plan as necessary, the following points were made:

The Director of Children, Young People & Learning reported that new ‘Working Together’ Guidance had been published around safeguarding children and vulnerable people. She agreed to provide a summary of this Guidance to the Democratic Services Officer to be circulated for information to Board members. It was suggested that this could be an area for the Board’s sub groups to consider.

It was noted that there wasn’t a statutory requirement to produce an annual report for the Board, however it would be a useful means of demonstrating and publicising the work and actions of the Board over the year.

The Director of Public Health requested that the updates to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment be added to the July 2013 meeting of the Board. Updates from subgroups would also need to be added to the Forward Plan in regular intervals throughout the year.

4 July 2013

5 September 2013

12 December 2013

13 February 2014

10 April 2014

All meetings will be held at 2pm.

4 July 2013

5 September 2013

12 December 2013

13 February 2014

10 April 2014