Minutes:
East Berkshire Public Health
Stuart Lines, Director of East Berkshire Public Health, reported that work was progressing looking at how the shared team was working across the three Local Authorities (LAs) and clarifying the relationships between the LAs, the ICS, and partners in Berkshire West. Work was ongoing to deliver the living well and starting well priorities linked to the Health and Wellbeing strategy.
Partners noted that Bracknell Forest had led the way in establishing a community map and expressed that this was a model that could be shared with other LAs in East Berkshire.
Adult’s and Children’s Social Care
Grainne Siggins, Director of Bracknell Forest Council’s People Directorate, highlighted that demand over the four-day Bank Holiday did not put the service under as much strain as expected; however, the Emergency Duty Service for the six boroughs was very busy across Adult’s and Children’s Social Care, particularly around mental health. The service has seen a significant increase in mental health activity out of hours.
Work was progressing in terms of preparing for the Adult Social Care assurance process which would be starting next April. The guidance had not yet been received but the service was preparing as best as it could without the guidance. It was hoped that partners could share their experience of what reviews have looked like.
Following the joint Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) inspection last year, the written statement of action was being submitted today. Children’s Social Care had also received notification of an Ofsted inspection.
Skimped Hill Health Centre
Fiona Slevin-Brown, Frimley CCG, updated on the Skimped Hill Health Centre. The team had had its last action learning set for the population health management programme and Fiona thanked Heema and colleagues who had been engaged in supporting that work. As part of that, there had been some analysis focusing on young people aged 18-25 where they had seen an increase in presentation of anxiety and depression. There had been collaboration across health and social care looking at interventions and engaging with the young people themselves.
Heathlands
Fiona presented an update on the new Heathlands facility which opened at the end of March. It has been real success and there has been fantastic feedback from residents from both the dementia care and intermediate care parts of the unit. The length of stay at the unit was around eight days. Heathlands was established as a partnership project across health and social care. Councillor Birch added that the facility was officially opened by HRH The Duke of Gloucester on 17 May 2022.
Town Centre development
Fiona advised that, as part of the wider estate strategy for the ICS, bids have been submitted to establish integrated care hubs and to address some of the estate challenges. This included some plans for development in the Town Centre. As the plans were still in the early stages, Fiona would bring more information at a future meeting of the Board. (Action: Fiona Slevin-Brown)
The Ark
Philip Bell updated that The Ark had been awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, celebrating the volunteers’ work during Covid. Volunteers had made an invaluable contribution to support the Covid response. Councillor Birch added that volunteers had provided 32,000 hours of help and carried out over 16,000 essential tasks for people in the community including picking up medication, with 4,000 pharmacy deliveries having been made. The doctor in charge of the vaccination centre at Waitrose also gave a presentation and they had carried out 180,000 vaccinations at that site alone. Frimley ICS was the greatest deliverer of vaccinations in the country.