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Health and Wellbeing Board
Thursday, 17th September 2026 at 1:00pm

 
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Just before we do the welcome, unfortunately, we don't have the required amount of voting
members present for the meeting to be core.
So I'm going to propose that we continue to have an informal meeting to discuss the
interesting items before us on an informal basis.
And the Democratic Services Officer will take
an informal note of the discussion's information.
There are no decisions to be made in any case.
Is everybody happy to proceed on that basis?
Yeah, okay, thank you very much.
Welcome to this meeting of the Health and Well -Being Board.
My name is Councillor Daniel Gossein,
and I'm the new chair of this board.
I'm also the new cabinet member for Adult Social Care.
and public health.
I'm new to the board and to the role,
so I'm very much looking forward to working with you all
and getting to know you all.
Welcome also to Councillor Stephen Worrall,
who's a new Councillor representative on the board.
Members of the board, I'll now call your names
in alphabetical order.
Please switch on your microphone to confirm your attendance.
And once you've confirmed your attendance,
please remember to switch off your microphone.
Mr. Mark Creelman.
Yes, here.
Councillor Crivelli, I think, is online.
Yes, that's correct.
I'm online.
Thank you, President.
Mr. de Souza.
Yes, present.
Mr. Robert Guile.
Present and online.
Mr. Stephen Hickey.
Present.
Mr. Shannon Catia.
Good afternoon.
present
put on
class that when you're speaking please could you refer to the page number top
of the agenda pack
and the paragraph number
so that members of the public can follow the discussion.
Please also indicate if you wish to speak by raising your hand.
Please can also ask anyone joining the meeting remotely to keep their cameras turned on.
We also have a number of officers present at this meeting who will introduce themselves
when they address the board.
I have apologies for absence from Mr. Ian Dodds, Dr. Ariane Jogia, Ms. Anna Popovici,
Dr. Caroline Scott, and Dr. Wakar Shah.

1 Apologies for absence

As this isn't a core meeting, we don't have to do the declarations of interests or confirm

2 Declarations of Interests

the minutes from the last meeting.

3 Minutes of the meeting held on 25th June 2026

So we're going to go straight into agenda item four, which is neighbourhood health in Wandsworth.

4 Neighbourhood Health in Wandsworth (Paper No. 26-197)

It's a joint report by the place executive, Merton and Wandsworth,
an executive director of adult social care and public health.
Mr. Mark Creelman is introducing the report, and Mrs. Lynn Wild will also answer any questions.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Chair.
So just to say we are bringing this paper really as a checkpoint in terms of the new health
and well -being board arrangements.
But suffice to say that neighbourhood health,
national priority, but as well as a local priority.
And the rationale behind neighbourhood health
is really about bringing integrated, joined up care
across providers closer to people in their neighbourhoods
and their homes.
Now previously, we've brought a number
of papers on neighbourhood health.
And the geographies of neighbourhood health
are in appendix one of the paper.
And there are many partners already in this meeting, so there is a wealth of kind of experience
in terms of within this room to answer any questions.
But basically, what we are trying to achieve is multidisciplinary approach to people's
care.
We are starting with the frail population, but I think it's really keen key to kind of
prevention, mental health, children and young people, but we're testing the model first
with frailty. Prevention will play a big part and we want to incorporate the wider determinants
of health to ensure that actually we are promoting health in our residents and we're actually
considering things like housing, et cetera, in that process.
We are currently, we've just received 1 .3 million pounds
from the ICB.
And that's to really focus on a number of initiatives
for the frail population, including proactive care.
Something called a virtual ward, which
stops people going into hospital and discharges them sooner
from hospital.
So, urgent responses, so actually when someone is at risk of being hospitalised, it's really
about getting care to them in their own home.
And then finally, just around discharge, enabling care to be put into discharge to remain and
make sure that people are safe.
One of the key things from the paper is about the role of the Health and Wellbeing Board.
So we have established an alliance of partners across Wandsworth.
I think probably partners would say we're making really good progress.
In being able to spend that 1 .3 million, we've seen some really great partnership working
across health, social care, et cetera.
And that alliance of partners will govern those pieces of work.
It's really important, though, that we recognise that the Health and Wellbeing Board will play
role in our local neighbourhood plans in terms of sign off. We are now in the
process of kind of starting to develop that neighbourhood plan but with that
has to be done on a kind of engagement and partnership level. Ultimately
the really important thing is what we're trying to achieve for residents and that
is care closer to home joined up you don't have to tell your storey multiple
times and that actually those services interact and are integrated in a way
that really makes sense in terms of better outcomes for the residents. So I'm
going to stop there and take any questions. Does the board have any
questions? Councillor Warrell. Thanks Mark and you'll have to bear with me.
Obviously, this coming in, trying to learn the whole process, and I know it's quite a
nightmare.
I have about six questions to ask, so I'm happy to do one, throw it up to the other
board members, then come back, if that's okay.
Great.
Okay.
So the first one, I suppose it's a general principle.
And it's a general principle around the membership of the relationship between the neighbourhood
scheme, the Health and Well -being Board and the Council in relationships.
The Health and Well -being Board is not an official council committee per se.
So I'm just wondering then what is the link between the work that's being done through
this and the local democratic representatives such as ourselves, because we are nominated
onto the board per se, but we aren't speaking on behalf of the council.
And what would then be the relationship with the OSCs within all the structures as well
to ensure that there is that line of representation that comes through.
Shall I try to answer that?
So in terms of the alliance, ultimately what will happen across the course of time
is that the ICB will become the strategic commissioner
and actually hand across a population budget for that alliance
to kind of ensure that it's meeting certain criteria,
certain metrics, and that will be managed
within the partnerships.
So partners are equal, including the voluntary sector,
et cetera.
In terms of the linked overview and scrutiny,
it would be the same as a commissioned service
through the ICB, so whether it's the ICB
or indeed the alliance that come to the overview
scrutiny. I think that would remain the same. And in terms of a written to kind of the local
authority governance, we have DCS, we have Jeremy, we have Lynn, all who are active members
of the Alliance as well. Does that answer your question?
Partially. I suppose as this develops, I'd be interested to then see how that relationship
that actually works with the elected members.
And that linking back with the OSCs at this moment in time, I think.
So I'll keep an eye on that in terms of how that works forward.
Ms. Zwaal.
I'm Lynn Wile, for those who don't know me.
I'm Assistant Director for Health Care.
And I think one of the things that's emerging in discussions with the LGA and across, well,
certainly Southwest London, but London as a whole and probably the country, is the important
role that the Health and Well -being Board has as a partnership board.
So, and really distinguishing the role of the Health and Wellbeing Board as a partnership
with overall responsibility for ensuring that our residents get the kind of service that
they need.
And then that the role of scrutiny being distinct from the role of the Health and Wellbeing
Board.
We are part of a community of practise, which I think Councillor Gosein would have gone to a meeting maybe.
I don't know if they've had the meetings yet.
And we've been at some meetings and members would be invited to some meetings to try and shape that role.
Because it's a key thing to not replicate.
We're not the place committee that was, we're not the provider alliance and we're not scrutiny.
But we are a powerful collaboration of partners that need to be ensuring for our residents
that the services are as they should be.
I think that was a very helpful question. I think as Councillors it would be helpful
for us to know, because I was in a similar position to Councillor Worrall in the previous
in having a role where my duty was to scrutinise decisions
made by the council.
What specifically will be done differently
that a councillor can look at and say,
okay, that's what I'm scrutinising.
I think that's a little bit unclear
and I think that's maybe what you were getting
towards, Councillor Worrall.
What will be done differently that we'll be able to look
and set apart and be able to scrutinise?
Or Mr. Creelman?
I'll hand to Jeremy and Lynn as well.
So I think in terms of neighbourhood health, scrutiny committees will look at acute hospital
services, they'll look at community services, mental health services.
I think neighbourhood health services then falls into that category as well.
So actually, it is kind of the new guy in town, although we've been doing lots of it
already, but I think it's a discrete piece of work which is called neighbourhood, and
so therefore scrutiny can kind of scrutinise and oversee what we are doing at a neighbourhood
level.
Mr. Teer.
Well, I just had a thought in simplistic terms that if I were a Councillor, I'd probably
want to ask when neighbourhood plans are presented whether there's evidence
demonstrating the three shifts that were intended to see and I think those will
continue to be the main questions in terms of whether neighbourhood plans
actually deliver on what they're intended to be.
Katiya, anybody else want to come in for Councillor Waller's next question?
Yeah, Miss Vivian Rush.
Thank you. I just wanted to ask whether carers, as the carers represented,
whether carers are going to be involved in any specific way in the neighbourhood health project.
I'm thinking in terms of the shared care records, how exactly is that going to work?
And also the virtual ward care in their own home.
What would happen? Would a carer phone a number?
Could you put some flesh on the bones?
So I think certainly in terms of the development, what we want to do is ensure that as we develop
neighbourhood teams and neighbourhood resources, absolutely involving carers and voluntary
sector organisations, the voice of the patient as well.
And so it should be on the principle of co -production.
I think we are at very early stages at the moment, so actually what we're looking at
the moment is what constitutes a multidisciplinary team.
And then there will be engagement from that point and absolutely with carers and carers
representatives.
I think in terms of the second question around the virtual ward, we've got Rob Gail on the
which CLCH currently manage and deliver.
And in our plans for frailty, they will be expanding that service, so actually there
is capacity within that team to basically avoid hospital admissions and then discharge
early.
I'm not quite sure whether there is self -referral into the virtual ward.
Maybe Rob can clarify that.
Because what it tends to be is when someone is recognised
to be acutely ill and in risk of hospital admission,
that's when the virtual ward services will wrap around them, yeah?
There are different routes into the virtual ward whether it be
through your GP, through social care, et cetera.
There are multiple routes but I would just ask Rob
whether self -referral is also a routine.
Mr. Garl, can you answer that question?
Not currently.
That's the answer.
I'm not answering, saying I can't currently answer.
The self -referral isn't an option at the moment.
Thank you for that honest answer.
Mr. Hickey.
Yes, still on this sort of quasi -constitutional type discussion.
I mean, I'm slightly concerned that at the moment there is no explicit patient voice
involved in the provider alliance.
And I think that, you know, I would like to register that I think there ought to be in
some shape or form.
Clearly, it's difficult to quite know what that would be, given the uncertain future
of Health Watch itself, which, you know, has that role at the moment.
But I think I would want to log that, the question of patient voice and making sure
embedded properly in this governance arrangements should be addressed.
I would completely agree and I think for the alliance partners it is something that needs
to be considered just in terms of the breadth of services and developments that will be
across the board in the alliance and how does patient voice get played into that whether
it's from consistent representation or indeed invitational representation.
I think we need to kind of discuss and consider that as the alliance.
Thank you.
Yes, Ms. Modave.
Thank you.
I just wanted to find out how local leadership forums are going to include the VCS in some
of the stuff that they're looking at now, as well as when you mentioned the Frailty
Commission.
I'm mindful that we already have groups in the VCS who deliver some of this work.
Are they going to be brought into the fold or what's that going to look like?
Thank you.
I think there's probably a couple of answers to that.
I think firstly in terms of local leadership, we recognise that the voluntary sector plays
an absolutely essential part, whether it's in the prevention of ill health or indeed
in reacting to ill health.
So the plan, and it will be prescribed to local leadership
teams about the involvement of the VCSE.
So I think that's the first thing.
I think just in terms of the frailty piece,
we have also identified some funding specifically
for the voluntary sector so that they can participate and be
part of the design of neighbourhood health.
Thank you.
Councillor Warren, I'm aware you have more questions.
Thank you, Chair.
I just want to take you to page 14, paragraph five,
which is the principle of making it easier for residents
to move around and for services to work together.
A concern that arises from this is, does that mean that you are going to be using a universal
assessment tool in order in a neighbourhood?
Because a lot of people that would be using this will have comorbidities.
So for example, do they go through one process and that information then gets spread around
the different agencies as they access them or refer to them, which then has issues around
protocol, around data sharing.
And so, as I said, because I haven't read some of the other papers, it might have been
dealt with already, but I know, especially from some patient groups, that that would
be a concern around issues around confidentiality and sharing of information.
Should I answer that?
Yes.
So, I think the nirvana is kind of a single assessment around the holistic needs of the
individual. But within that, you'll have different services with different criteria looking at
different aspects. So it's not that every organisation will use the same assessment
tool, but actually if you build on each of the assessment platforms, then you get a complete
picture of the individual. Data sharing is key, yeah. We're at very early stages of having
a conversation about that. Myself and Jeremy were just talking about how we bring the multiple
of different initiatives around data sharing together
that makes sense for one's worth,
and we will be engaging around that as well.
Does, yeah, Councillor Wolk?
Yes, just to follow up on that then.
If a patient in the neighbourhood structure
has various comorbidities
and it's accessing a number of services,
and you say they're building a platform of assessments,
One of the complaints that often comes through is yet another assessment process I've actually
got to go through.
I've got to share my information once again.
So and I recognise that you're saying that you're still discussing the data protocols,
et cetera, but it's the idea overall to simplify the process so that the patient's experience
is actually as pleasant as possible rather than what often happens based upon the practitioner's
needs around the patient itself.
So there is core information that will be relevant to every organisation.
However, a clinical assessment may be different from a social care assessment.
So it is about not, it's enabling not repeating your storey multiple times, yeah?
And people working off each other's assessments.
The other thing is by bringing disciplines together,
actually there was kind of co -learning around working with social workers and
community nurses where actually you begin to understand each other's
assessment processes and actually what people are looking for. Having come from
an integrated team previously, there is an awful lot of skills sharing that can
be done when we bring people together so that actually key people around the
individual get to know what the criteria for different services are, and it's a much slicker
response across services.
Mrs. Wolk.
If I could just add to that. The idea is that the nirvana, as Mark says, Mr. Krielman says,
is about bringing the team around the person, not the person going to the team members.
And that's the concept in which we will look into evolve and improve in our proactive care
model so that people aren't telling the number of their storey twice.
And we already have the London Care Record where certain information is shared across
professionals on a need -to -know basis.
And we do have information sharing agreements at a client level across the key organisations.
And if we think about safeguarding, which we're going to hear about later, clearly that's
key that we share information.
But it is that we all know that most people tell this storey several times, and they get
tired of saying the same thing and we're really aiming to to do that better over time.
Thank you Mrs. Wilde. Does anybody else have a question? I'm happy to go back to
Councillor Warren if he's got more questions but if anybody else wants to have a go.
Yeah, Vivian Rush. From the carers perspective, what really works is an app. The NHS app
has transformed our lives because now we have information at fingertips.
We don't have to make millions of phone calls and wait in a queue.
So if there was to be an assessment available on the app, whatever app it might be,
and then the patient can offer that, can allow whoever's coming, the health professional,
the care professional, to permission to look at it.
That might be one option.
So, I think a part of the consideration as we move forward with neighbourhood health is
absolutely how do we maximise kind of whether it's digital tools or information sharing.
There is a big challenge to us to actually ensure that we're getting information easily,
et cetera.
It's great to hear that the NHS app is transforming people's lives because that is still in development
as well.
And we are in early conversations about supporting people's knowledge around what services are out there for people.
So actually, whether you're a professional or a resident, you know what's out there, you know what the referral routes are, and you can self -refer to a number of services.
That might not be clinical services because that's part of the NHS app, but actually
digital, maximising our digital use will be really key.
Ms. Budaidi.
Thank you.
Sorry, just to go off that, because I've lived in another borough, I'm not sure how it works
in Wandsworth, but in Hammersing and Fulham, we use an app called Patches.
And that app's really good because what it does is you don't have to go to the doctor,
rather you put in what your problem is.
So for example, if I had a rash, I would take a picture of my rash.
Within 24 hours, a doctor would give me a call to either book me an appointment or
to prescribe the medication for me to go straight and pick it up.
I'm just wondering if a protocol like that could be really handy in minimising admissions.
Sometimes people are just really anxious or unsure, and they just need to know now what's going on.
And with a process like that, it will avoid a lot of people that don't actually need to come to the doctor or the GP.
And we'll just, yeah, so I wasn't sure if you guys know by, I just thought I'd mention it.
So it's not something that we currently use.
It's certainly something that we can take away and consider with our clinical experts.
But yes, again, what we do need to do is look at how digital can enable us to keep our residents
as healthy as they possibly can be.
And that might be around self -management and self -referral.
self -management being a big part of actually how we support people to kind of maximise their own health.
And just to add to that, within each of our, and it's unfortunate none of our GPs are here,
because now I'm talking on their behalf, but within each of our GP practises, they will have systems
which make it easier, as you say, through the app to be able to put a photograph, and they'll often say
go to the pharmacy instead of coming to me. So I'm not sure how uniform the approach is,
but I think most practises are using the GP app, the NHS app, which allows you to upload
and to make appointments, et cetera.
Thank you. Councillor Worrall, do you have more questions?
Two more, I promise, and then I'll keep quiet. Just first of all, a big thank you to Mark
I enjoyed reading it and found it really helpful.
What would be useful in the future, and whether you can incorporate the paper or not, maybe
separately in the discussion, is what are the challenges as well?
Because I think it's useful for us to be thinking, is what are the challenges about implementing
systems or changing systems that we can get our heads around to see where we can be more
supportive around?
So something like that would be very helpful in a paper.
It goes back to the purpose of the neighbourhood and what neighbourhood health means is you're bringing together a whole host of different partners.
Different work streams are commissioned in different ways in different areas.
So how does the alignment of commissioning then work within the structure?
One, to avoid duplication as a possibility and to maximise the impact that you actually have.
This is because it crosses so many different areas.
So there's a couple of things I would say.
So firstly, I think in terms of the development
of neighbourhoods, there will be an engagement plan, actually,
where we talk to the range of stakeholders
that are not necessarily around that table at the time,
so that people have an understanding of what
the aims are, actually how to access services going forward.
I think in terms of the challenges,
I think there are a number of challenges.
Certainly finances is one of them,
because actually, but across health and social care, we know that finances are challenging,
to say the least. It's really important, therefore, that as part of the Alliance, we are able
to talk about the resources that sit in each other's pots, and actually are we spending
that collectively to achieve the right outcome, yeah? One of the big onus on neighbourhood
health is about that left shift away from acute into community services and therefore
moving resources to that as well.
But you can't do that in a big bang approach.
You've actually got to be able to ensure that services are safe and of quality before that
happens.
I think in terms of commissioning, I'm going to look to my colleague, Kat Wyatt, is that,
For instance, last week we met across the children's portfolios in the ICB and children's
services to actually look at what do we commission.
Does it make sense?
Does it make sense at the different levels of needs?
And actually are we duplicating anything or are we able to build something together?
Again those are early conversations, but actually I think it was a really useful meeting and
And it enabled us to actually also challenge each other around where we fund or actually
you fund that, I fund that as well, actually should we bring that together.
So again, I think there is certainly movement in terms of looking at joint commissioning
much more effectively.
Thank you, Mr. Creelman.
Any other questions from the table?
I've got a couple of questions.
One measure of the success of the strategy
will be improved outcomes for our residents.
But how are we to tell apart the possible influence
of this strategy or whether those outcomes
would have happened anyway because of improvements
in other areas?
Given that 1 .3 million, I think, you mentioned
is being spent, how do we know that it's that 1 .3 million
that's making the difference?
So how will that be measured separately?
The other question is, if outcomes are poor,
and obviously we all hope that they aren't,
who's ultimately accountable?
Is it the ICB, is it this board with its oversight role?
Who is accountable for the success or not of the strategy?
Very good question.
So I think just in terms of measures, yeah?
So we have lots of different measurements,
whether it be in the BCF, whether it be kind of within our contracts.
And actually what we're working together on at the ICB is a kind of dashboard of neighbourhood health.
This is what neighbourhood health is about and these are the achievements that we want to achieve, so to speak.
Part of that is about reduction in non -elective admissions,
readmissions around discharge, reduction in falls, etc.
Now, from a health perspective, what we were really keen to do is not make that only about
health, including our partners' priorities in that as well.
So that's in development at the moment.
I think ultimately statutory organisations, our statutory organisations, therefore still
hold the accountability.
At this point today, that accountability hasn't been delegated to the Alliance.
I think the plan is though that in the future actually
Accountabilities and responsibilities will be delegated to the Alliance and the Alliance becomes this kind of entity in it itself
It will be governed
It will have contracts in place. So the ICB is still ultimately responsible for the health metrics
And I think that probably answers the question
Mr. Groom
Does anybody have any more questions or comments?
Councillor Warr.
Last question, I promise.
I just want to take you to page 17 and the map that's actually there.
If you could just explain and help me understand this, how do you determine a hyperlocal focus
and when the Earlsfield – all the others have been identified, but Earlsfield and Southfields,
that neighbourhood hasn't been identified according to this map.
and I'm just wondering when that will be decided.
It hasn't been identified, what do you mean?
On the map here it says hyper vocal focus to be confirmed.
Okay, so, I think the neighbourhood has been defined,
and we have brought a number of papers back
to health and well -being boards where this map
has been presented, and the thing about neighbourhood
is that it should represent neighbourhoods
that are recognisable to people.
Within those neighbourhoods, though, you'll have a multitude of different provisions,
so you'll still have primary care networks, although there is consultation about that
going through at the moment, and you will have some services that span neighbourhoods
depending on the level of activity.
So there will be some services that are absolutely developed at a GP practise level.
There will be some that are at a neighbourhood level and then there will be some services
that span neighbourhoods and may well be a whole borough approach or a pan -borough approach
for highly specialised areas.
So I think that development and that design, we've actually got a workshop next week where
we start that design process with the local leaders, with our social care colleagues etc.
to then start really looking at what services are going to be delivered.
We are starting with frailty, but that will kind of extend out to the other areas I mentioned previously.
Sorry. And the question was about going back to this map, the hyper -local focus.
Roehampton and Alton Estates identifies one in that neighbourhood.
I'm just wondering who is identified in terms of the Earlsfield area, or if you're still
working around that one at this moment in time?
I'll take that.
It is still in development, and as Mr. Krielman was mentioning, it is about the leadership
group in that area coming up with where they think things naturally suggest themselves.
I mean, you would recognise, I'm sure, that the other areas are areas of relative deprivation
in our borough. So they almost suggest themselves, whereas there isn't something that has as
yet in terms of a location suggested itself in that area.
And that group will be working through,
perhaps it's not a geographic focus,
but maybe on a specific issue that's endemic in that area.
And they are working through that.
It's fair to say our local leadership groups are
very nascent at the moment.
They are almost just learning to work together, and they'll work through the priorities,
although the other level priorities, which is on another page, are obviously overarching.
I would just add one thing to that, and the importance of data and population health management
information.
So whether it's from the GSNA or in terms of activity,
finance, need data, we have to do that
at the neighbourhood level so that you absolutely understand
what your neighbourhood priorities are
and what your residents around your neighbourhoods
are actually in need of.
Thank you, Mr. Creelman.
Any other questions or comments
before we move on to the next item?
Ms. Steckey.
It was just a thought really.
I mean, picking up on this, clearly the neighbourhood teams
are going to be absolutely critical to this.
So I wonder whether there needs to be, at some point,
some transparency about names.
Who are the neighbourhood teams?
And who are the key players in each of these neighbourhoods
so that it becomes visible and people
know who to talk to if they've got issues and questions
and so on?
So first, I think that's probably what our workshop is
about next week, but there are other boroughs as well that have perhaps already designed
what their MDTs look like. And actually there are no surprises. So actually, you know, a
GP plays a really important role. Community nursing and our community services across
a range of their services play a really, really key role. Social workers, et cetera, play
key role. So going back to the needs, you have to make sure that that multidisciplinary
team reflects the needs of the population that you're trying to serve. That may slightly
differ depending on which neighbourhood you're in, but on the whole there are a core number
of services that are pretty certainly in the frailty cohort that actually you would expect
to be part of that multidisciplinary team. And it's within the paper, but you know this
This isn't about creating new teams, this is about using the existing resources to come
together more effectively.
Thank you.
I believe Robert Garl would like to come in online.
Thank you, Chair.
Just one small point of clarity.
When asked about self -referral into the hospital at home virtual ward INT, we don't accept,
as I said, referrals into those teams, but our UCR service, our Urgent Community Response
service which responds within two hours does and there could be a potential for
patients who are received onto that caseload to potentially step down into
hospital at home bed so although we don't we do have a self -referral for our
UCR offer and I just wanted to let let you know. Thank you Mr. Gile. Does
I think we've had a very helpful discussion.
I'd like to thank Mark for his,
yeah, it's very easy to follow,
easy to read report for his helpful presentations.
Thank you.

5 Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Age Well Update (Paper No. 26-198)

So as the meeting is in court, there's nothing to agree.
So we'll move straight onto item five,
which is the joint local health and wellbeing strategy
age well update.
The report by the Director of Public Health,
Mr. Shannon Catio, will introduce the report.
Thank you, Chair.
This report provides the Health and Wellbeing Board
with a strategic update on progress made
with our age -well priorities,
which are amongst the 19 steps
in our joint local health and wellbeing strategy.
It draws on the age -well annual report,
which is in Appendix 1,
and presents to you the progress, assurance,
and opportunities for further action
in relation to the areas around false prevention,
dementia, and social isolation.
Overall, the report indicates positive progress
across all three priorities,
and evidence of strength in partnership working,
and improved reach of preventative services,
with a clearer focus on supporting older residents,
carers, and people with long -term conditions
to remain independent, connected, and well.
I'm joined by several of the STEP leads
and STEP sponsors who will give a brief highlight in turn
and be able to take questions.
Thank you.
I think the first item is falls.
Mr. Brian Roberts, can you present on that please?
Thank you, Chair, and thank you for introducing this.
Mr. Kettow has talked about this being positive.
I would say it has been.
So we've had 621 emergency admissions falls in old people.
That aligns with the national metric,
of which a very small proportion of those people
have fallen more than once.
And this aligns with some of the work that's been done
to align health and care data.
So when Mr. Krewelman talked about aligned health
and care data and some of the outcomes framework,
I'm involved in that from an social care perspective.
And also, some of the work in here also is joining
some of that data up to demonstrate those things.
And obviously that is a journey rather than a destination.
So a small number of people who fell more than once
For those people that then come into adult social care,
the vast majority end up in preventative services.
So either care tech or equipment or re -abment to get them home and
that also then describes why that's a small number of people.
So 621 falls, 602 people that equates to,
which is exactly the same number of fall sensors we gave out in the borough for
that same 12 months.
So that's a one to one relationship.
not one relationship, is we've had over 6 ,000 preventative
support classes for residents.
So that's a 10 to one ratio.
For every fall, we've provided 10 classes for people.
And that all contributes to a 12 .3 % reduction
in falls from when we started some of this work,
and a 4 .3 % reduction for the last four months
compared to the 12 months before that.
There's much more work we do in aligning urgent community response services,
which Mr. Gahl has just talked about, with care homes and
supporting those care homes which make up 25 % of the falls.
But in that, we have seen a marked reduction in the variation of those care homes, the falls in those care homes as well.
And that speaks to the joint work that we have done.
And very finally, so we have also, between myself and my team
and the ICP health insights team generated the map
on page 30, which is describing the rates of falls
per LSOA, so lower super output area,
so the lowest we can get to while not being identifiable.
And the green pins are where we're running
preventative services.
And this is showing that, to the map to the left,
to those falls, so there's further investigation
we need to do in terms of variation.
Falls without the care homes in, and then to the right,
falls without the care homes in, and the red circles
are just showing where those big numbers are
and those changes where we need to do some more work
around some of those care homes.
So in summary, good work, good progress, more to do.
Thank you, Mr. Roberts.
As the paper's essentially in three parts,
it probably makes sense to take questions around falls
before we move on to dementia and social isolation.
So does anybody have any questions
on this part of the paper or comments?
Mr. Gremen?
I suppose mine is a comment, and it's probably for,
we have a number of plans, we have a number of strategies,
and actually part of the neighbourhood plan
is for us to kind of make sense and be concise and coherent about what our joined up plans
are.
Because actually what we want to be working to is a joint objective, whether it be in
prevention or whether it be in health and social care.
So part of the neighbourhood development is also to then kind of ensure that we are bringing
prevention and et cetera really into the fold of neighbourhood health.
Thank you.
Does anybody else have a question?
OK.
Ms. Dehke.
Yes, sorry, maybe in the paper.
I hadn't spotted it.
Do these statistics include falls in hospitals,
in St. George's, for example?
So it absolutely should do, yes.
So, but the falls in the map is not where people fail necessarily, it's where they live,
where the vast majority of falls happen.
I just want to make that clear in case that raises any other questions.
I guess the follow -up question then would be how significant, I mean, are falls in the
hospital setting a significant factor in the total numbers or a minor issue?
The vast majority of falls in this data are falls that have happened to residents either
in a care home, 25%, or while people are in their own homes.
That's the evidence that nationally
and the last time it was audited,
but by me, funnily enough, that was the case then.
Thank you.
Unless there are any more questions,
we can move on to the next part of the report,
which is the dementia update.
and Miss Kristen Crossley, I believe, will be presenting on that.
Yes, thank you.
Hi, everybody.
So I'll start with an update on the dementia step.
So it's part of the Wandsworth Health and Wellbeing Plan,
and it covers five key areas.
I just want to draw you back to why dementia matters.
So just a reminder that the current prevalence of dementia
is 1 in 14 aged 65 and over and 1 in 6 aged 80 and over. So looking ahead around
2 ,350 people aged 65 and over are living with dementia and Wandsworth today and
that's expected to increase to over 3 ,800 by 2045. So that just clearly
reinforces the importance of our priorities here.
So I'll just start with prevention.
Just to confirm, this is page 32.
So this remains a long -term priority.
It aligns with a number of local strategies
and links in with other steps as part of the 19.
And we've got really encouraging progress here.
So we've got the Dementia Awareness Measure Survey,
which took place and we're gathering the information from there
that's going to be used towards local insights.
So it's being analysed to shape future prevention campaigns.
And also the dementia prevention messaging is also part of the NHS health cheques.
So that just reinforces the message of what's good for the heart is good for the brain.
We've also got the prevention messaging in the Swap to Stop, Health Bus Outreach and
the Dimension Action Week and there's many other initiatives that take place within the
borough and nationally.
We've also got the Heritage Boxes Programme.
This is actually expanded to include three new culturally themed boxes which have been
recently launched and we can continue to work with partners to promote the
dementia friendly communities and venues so this is a newer initiative
across Bournsworth. So just moving on to diagnosis so our priority here is to
promote a timely diagnosis and reduce the variation in the diagnosis rates
across the borough. So fortunately we remain in a strong position here. So the dementia diagnosis
rates is 77 .56 % and that exceeds both the national ambition of 67 % and our local target.
Within that, the diagnosis rates across practises and primary care networks have been reviewed and
we're looking into targeted approaches, just to kind of support those areas that have lower
rates.
Moving on now to the services and support, so what we actually committed to was reviewing
and refreshing the local dementia support resources, improving how information is shared,
and increasing connectivity across dementia services.
and I'm really happy to say that a major achievement here was the publication of
the refreshed Living with Dementia, Getting Help in Wandsworth guide. It's a
very comprehensive resource and it's hosted on the Wandsworth Council website
on their dementia page as a PDF and it has been used across health, social care,
voluntary care sector, so it's all encompassing.
It's been really well received.
I'm always getting updates to say how it's being used
and great feedback on kind of how it's supporting people
out in our local population.
It doesn't just help residents living with dementia.
It also supports their carers in terms of groups
and activities that are happening in Wandsworth.
Also professionals have actually really commented on how it helps them understand the services that are out there and how it all joins up.
Because that was a big thing that was coming out of patient and carer's voices when we were going to different engagement events.
And something else that's been really important is part of partnership working is the dementia information sharing meetings.
So that gathers a number of professionals in the space within dementia and it helps
everyone kind of improve referral pathways and awareness of local support and also events
and kind of what's coming, for instance, when Dementia Action Week comes about, just so
then we can also promote it within our channels as well.
As of June, there's been two new dementia advisors as part of the Alzheimer's Society
in Wandsworth Start and they're providing the practical support following diagnosis.
The memory assessment service is doing really well in terms of providing assessments, but
They also fortunately provide a life after diagnosis programme.
So that helps people understand their condition and access support early because obviously
can take people some time to kind of digest what their diagnosis may mean for them.
And it's nice to know that that support's there.
Then we've got Wandsworth Carers Centre.
So around 35 % of the carers in the borough are supported through them.
So that just reinforces that strong voluntary sector engagement.
So that actually leads me on to the carers section.
And so we've got our carers.
They're a core strength of all our dementia priorities because where would we be without
them?
So we've got a focus on early identification of carers,
supporting carers' health and wellbeing,
and that support continues through the Wandsworth Carers' Centre,
adult social care, Royal Trinity Hospice,
and as I mentioned before, Alzheimer's Society and others.
There's too many to mention.
So they support with training, dementia cafes, peer support,
and also respite. We've got a Wandsworth Carers Centre that hosts a few dementia cafes that
means that people living with dementia can be supported whilst there's some form of
group discussion with the actual carers to support them with helping to prevent issues from
escalating and signposting. Also within the Alzheimer's Society there's the side -by -side
befriending service. So that supports around 40 matches per quarter. We've seen that that
really supports reducing isolation for people living with dementia and providing respite
for carers, which is much needed. There's also the Royal Trinity Hospice. That plays
a big role in identifying carers and kind of signposting them to access support. That
of supports this Wandsworth Dementia Guide resource because they can also use that as well
to help kind of signpost to different services and activities that are available.
And we've also got further promotion of the carers contingency planning as part of the
universal care plan. So as mentioned previously in other discussions, that's one of the key
focuses going forward. The final area is care homes. So there's been positive
progress here. We've got 25 care homes in Wandsworth and 19 of those have actually
got access to a universal care plan. So that's increased from 56 % to 76 % in a
And as you'll see in the slide deck,
that Wandsworth is on top in terms of that.
The work constantly continues to support
the enhanced health and care homes framework
and recent developments there as per the slides
is the uptake of digital innovations.
So that's supported by multiple ICB projects
for residents living with dementia,
but even other people within the care home that might be supported by using the different items
and support. We've also recently had the Alzheimer's Society come to a Southwest London -wide
care home forum to talk about meaningful engagement and just kind of to give those
those kind of like a training type session on what could be used within
care homes just kind of sharing of knowledge about what what people see
outside of care homes that can be used to support within the home like reminisce
and kind of social interaction because that's how you obviously get people
coming out of their rooms within the care homes to actually get to get get to
kind of have some social activity and engagement.
And just to kind of cap that off,
the key priorities here,
increasing uptake of that universal care plan.
So yeah, just striving to increase that percentage.
Strengthening personalised care planning,
as we know that that's obviously dementia residents,
they've improved that within the universal care plan
in terms of understanding what's important to people
in their day -to -day life, preferences or wishes
about their care and lasting power of attorney.
And I guess as the council and even the general public,
a lot more people will have access
to the universal care plans
and be able to do them themselves.
So it's not just something for people within care homes.
You'll have that opportunity soon.
That's everything from me.
I welcome any questions.
Thanks Miss Crossley.
I'm aware that there's Miss Shohala Abbas and Mr Paul Sharakovsky from are they here
or?
I'm online.
Paul is there?
Yes.
You're welcome to take part.
I'm just introducing you to the people attending here in case you want to contribute to this
conversation as well.
No, just that Paul couldn't be here today. Paul works as a local services manager, so
it's his team that have, are on the ground doing this amazing work. My only thing is
I'm a local community in the volunteering lead for the London as a region and I work
a lot with the underserved communities. At the Health Services Society we do talk about
prevention but we talk about it in a risk reduction way and I just want everyone here
to be kind of like mindful of that.
Because when we're working with different,
especially global majority community,
I think when we talk about prevention,
we have to be mindful that we don't put
the illnesses back on them.
So it's just looking at how do we work towards
reducing people's risk of developing dementia
in the first place and also getting to crisis point.
That's the only input I've got.
Thanks, Ms. Abbas.
Yeah, Ms. Medeli.
Thank you, so I think based on,
Christine kind of highlighted quite a few ways
where the VCS have been supporting.
So what I wanted to know is what is the timeline
on the CISP procurement, because I'm mindful
that soon is gonna come to an end,
and that means some of these beautiful services may too.
You would like to answer that, yeah?
Yeah.
I might sign post to Mark.
Mark?
I'm sorry, just what was the exam question?
It was asking the timeline on the CISP procurement.
I'd have to take that away and come back to you.
Councillor Laurel?
Yes, thank you for this.
I think it's also important to celebrate success and highlight success and learn from success.
I just want to go back to the diagnosis rate of 77 percent that's quoted here, higher than
the London average, for example.
Be useful to understand why it's so successful and what can we learn from that success that
might also be transferable to other areas as well.
Would you like to answer that question?
I will have to take that away.
Obviously, it's fantastic that GP practises within the Wandsworth borough are doing so
well. We can't say the same for all boroughs, so it isn't like for like if we do a comparison
with others. I don't know what the winning solution is in terms of as to why, so I'm
definitely happy to speak with our clinical leads in the space to find out if there's
anything different that they're doing from their counterparts.
But yeah, just congratulations to the GP practises
in terms of keeping those diagnosis rates as high
and above the national ambition.
But if I can take that away, I can feed that back
in a future report.
I'm aware that Ms. Rush has a question.
But I think, Mark, you want to come in on this point,
do you, very quickly?
I think probably from a GP perspective,
Wandsworth has historically had a very strong focus
on dementia diagnosis.
I think it's probably because, actually,
it's a recurring kind of conversation
within our GP practises,
and the work that kind of Kristen does, et cetera,
keeps that on the agenda, yeah?
But historically, Wandsworth have always performed very well.
Ms. Rush.
Yes, I want to acknowledge the very good work
that's going on.
Dementia is very isolating,
and it's isolating for carers as well as the patients.
Wondering, is there any idea of increasing
the number of befriending services?
Because one of the aspects of dementia
is no longer wishing to leave the house.
So whereas the dementia cafes are marvellous,
it does also seem like the befriending scheme,
it would be very, very useful, which could also
provide respite for the carers.
And also I would like a little bit more information about young carers.
What you feel is going to be on offer to them to support them.
Thank you.
You would like to come in on that one.
Tia.
Thank you.
That Ms. Crossley.
Yeah I don't know whether, yeah someone was going to comment.
The Side -by -Side Alzheimer's Society is commissioned by Adult Social Care. I don't know what their
future plans are in terms of commissioning arrangements, but thankfully Paul has stepped
in so you can maybe comment on that.
Yeah, good afternoon. Yeah, I'm Paul Banks. I'm one of the commissioning managers in Adult
social care and side by side forcing in my portfolio. I also have a particular focus
on carers. So side by side, I mean there is capacity in the service, is a bespoke service
supporting people with dementia. We have our long -term commissioning intentions. We need
to go through a governance process, but part of our portfolio of preventive services includes
side by side and it forms a package of commission services that are currently being reviewed
for longer term procurement. So too early to say because we would have to go through a full
governance process and I can't, I can only make recommendations and we don't make decisions at
this stage. You have to go through the commissioning board, procurement board, but it side by side is
definitely the scope of our longer term plans. It's currently got I think about two or three
years left on its contract. Two years. Thank you. Mr. Kithir, did you want to come in on
that? Anybody have any questions, Miss Farah? And support for young carers, if you could
tell us a little bit more about that. So touch on it probably briefly in the next couple
of items. So there's some information within the social isolation step update as well as
the paper that we'll be bringing shortly on the following item, gone carers charter. I'm
from adults, so young carers falls within some of the work that we do, but I'm directly
Commission in adult social care. So perhaps if we cover off the next couple
of items and then if we can come back to that question if you felt still
have some outstanding questions. Thank you. Does anybody else have a question or
comment on this part of the paper? I just wanted to ask, it's good to
hear that there's already in place a targeted approach to reduce variation in
diagnosis rates between practises.
I was wondering if somebody could tell us
what that targeted approach is,
so what is being done specifically
to improve the consistency between practises.
I can touch on that.
So the targeted approach is leaning on
the Alzheimer's Society's relationships
that they have with GP practises within the area.
and also to kind of refresh the documentation on dementia diagnosis and
prevention to GP practises and because sometimes I guess if they're not seeing
and having to refer on a regular basis it's just generally a refresh of
information that they may already be aware of, but it's just to kind of bring it back to the top of
their mind to say, okay, this is what the processes are and it may have been that they've last looked
at it maybe like a year ago, but it's just to kind of bring the information back. We have our forums
that involve practise leads and we've got our GP clinical leads that support us with kind of
getting messages out to GP practises and also their partners.
So it's, it's nothing new and amazing.
It's just about revisiting kind of what's worked in the past and leaning on our
partners and like within the group of the partnership board of,
of what they can do to kind of support kind of updates and making sure that
people are aware of all the information and the services.
And that's what we've also found, that the feedback's been by this Wandsworth Dementia
resource that's on the website, that it's helping health professionals.
So it's not even just for people with dementia and carers.
It's about helping them understand kind of what services are out there, because sometimes
navigating the pathways can be quite difficult.
So yeah.
Thank you.
That's very helpful.
Mark, would you like to come in?
I think the nub of the question, though, is that we also monitor on a very regular basis.
So actually the support that Kristen has spoken about actually follows some of the data that
we receive back, and this is both a local measure, but it is also a South West London
measure that goes to the board.
If there are any questions on this part of the paper, we can move on to the next section
on social isolation. And Mr. Paul Banks, Commissioning Manager, Prevention and Well -being is attending
remotely and he can present the update. Thank you. So for the benefit of people following
the Agenda Pack, I'll be summarising the social isolation step that's in sections
9 to 12 of the reports and detailed more thoroughly in the appendix on the back of page 25. So
So the social isolation step is very broad.
It's bringing together prevention, community connexion,
accessible leisure, digital inclusion, transport, practical support.
So there's a particular focus on older people, unpaid carers,
and residents with long -term health conditions.
But I guess the key point to sort of hone in on there is that
as much as the activity and the outputs, great to see
within the report. It's what difference does that make for residents, you know, their independence
and their ability to connect with others. Measuring that's really tricky, but we try
to capture that in the report with some case studies and there is some data that I'll touch
on later on. So just reviewing, looking across the last year of 25, 26, there's been really
strong progress in a number of the priority areas, in particular the sports, leisure and
culture aspects of the step. So key delivery targets were met with the access for all scheme
exceeding over 10 ,000 members. The concessions at that time were expanded, the community
sports and physical activity network came operational and it was a fantastic year with
London Borough of Culture programme which involves schools and artists and volunteers and local
organisations and providing lots of opportunities for residents to participate through attending
the activities as well as being a volunteer and so therefore has supported their well -being and
social connexions. Within that area of culture as well there was some work for the Women and
Girls' Group, so to understand and address the barriers for participation in sports.
And that's been operationalized, although it's too early to, I guess, to understand
what impact that's had yet. And there's still the review of underused leisure assets and
sites to continue.
Something else such on progress on community resilience and digital inclusion has been
more mixed. Digital inclusion support continues across the borough, particularly for older people,
unpaid carers and residents at greater risk of poor health and wellbeing and social isolation.
There's also been the AI -enabled Carers Pilot, which has received really positive feedback,
and about 90 % of reporting usefulness and trust in the AI bot. However, there's been
fewer uptake for use of full care as assessment. So in that knowledge, the pilot has been extended
to continue furthering our understanding and evaluation and development of that AI chat
bot.
What else was there? Community -based provision as well, continues to create opportunities
and meaningful social contact. Within adult social care, we funded 245 lunch club activities
and around 300 physical activity and full prevention sessions each quarter. And so these
activities are helping to bring together and people together and connect communities. In
supported to return home from hospital to hospital through commission support. And also
the enhanced community navigation service, which is essentially social link, social described
link workers sitting in the Paddle Social Services front door. They supported around
1500 people during the previous year. And on average, those supported are reporting
a 32 .5 % improvement in their wellbeing. The report also responds to the board's previous
request for greater attention to young people and young carers. So Wandsworth has several
forms of support, including weekly peer support, wellbeing activities, individual cheque -ins
and co -purchase youth cafe models. In the previous year, there's also been a separate
12 -month programme funded to support young adult carers, so age 16 to 25 through advice, mentoring,
financial assistance, mental health referrals and peer activity. However, identifying young
carers and reducing stigma and maintaining continuity with young people's well -being
and it still remains an important challenge and leads me on to kind of a specific request
of this board, which is really about trying to help us build on and have a stronger barrow -wide
adoption of the Wandsworth Adult and Young Carers Charter, which this board has an overview
of. So it's now in its third year and the charter sets out priorities for the statutory
authorities, functionary organisations, local organisations and private businesses that
they can pledge to work towards to make sure that local carers receive the support that's
appropriate for them. And this will be discussed in more detail in my colleague, Maria Niafitu's
paper that she's published on the Carers' Charter. And I just wanted it sort of on the
record for this social isolation step as it's such an important area to highlight that we
to sort of create a promote and receive wider organisational signups of the charter and to help
us sort of deliver those ambitions across the border. And just finally for me, as I was saying
earlier, it can be difficult to measure the outcomes of social isolation. I mean, one
intervention necessarily is the reason why someone is being helped out of social isolation.
But one of the measures we do use is the ASCOF, the Adult Social Care Outcomes measures. And
that is positive. We're seeing an increase in that. So we've moved from 45 .6 to 48 .9.
And comparing that to the England figure, which is 45 .4, so it's demonstrating positive
outcomes there. And Wandsworth is reported to ranked second in London for its quality
of life measures. The latest data for over 65 in unpaid care isn't available yet. So
I can pause there and take any questions. Thank you, Mr Banks. Any questions from the
board? Councillor Warr. Thank you, Chair. Out of the three work streams that have been
described, I think this one is probably the most dependent upon the voluntary sector.
small groups delivering to different communities.
We know the funding review that's currently taking place
at the council level has identified that there are cuts
going to be made, including possibly losses
in the grant funding through small grants funding.
Access for all is up for discussion.
I'm just wondering in terms of the resources
that are on the table at this moment in time
and possibly for the future,
how much of this work is actually at risk,
or will have to be reconsidered,
because the funding streams that this relies on,
including the Bureau of Culture monies in the past,
might not be there in the future.
Absolutely valid point.
I think in terms of our current commissioned activity,
most of our ones worth preventative contracts
will need to be recommissioned by April of 2028.
So over the next couple of years,
we've already got the contracts embedded.
However, as I said earlier on,
all of our preventative commissioned activity
does then need to be reviewed and go through
with receiving approval.
I can't speak to that.
Obviously, it has to go through that governance process.
Whether spending review impacts that is a discussion
that we have to present to our commissioning procurement board.
However, the spending review does,
and the administration's priorities
do talk about prevention as being sort of a core pillar
to what we do.
So I guess it's my job to obviously present
the investor save aspects of our preventative services. I think it was announced on Tuesday
night that certain areas will be reviewed due to the spending review. At the moment,
I guess it's quite vague what that actually means in terms of the fund for sector infrastructure.
but you're right, Les, the Wandsworth Grant Fund will be ceased to continue for the next
four years unless the financial position changes and that will have an impact on the ability
to pilot new activities. So I guess we have to work with the resources that we definitely
have and that we know and work with our partners and as you say, a very strong voluntary community
sector. Our commission partners, we're currently co -producing a collaboration agreement, a
framework of some sort to try and work with our partners to best use our resources and
make all of our services as sustainable as possible and avoid duplication and develop
that culture of collaboration. So there's a few things that we are doing within our
portfolio that I have, you know, influence on that's going to hopefully try to ensure
that we still do have a strong offer for social isolation.
Thank you, Mr. Banks.
Does anybody else have any comments or questions?
Councillor Warrell.
Yes, just to follow up once again about the voluntary sector.
Your priority four was about the infrastructure
and capacity building.
I note that obviously the procurement was not successful
and an interim contract was announced
and it looks like for one year, one financial year.
I don't know if I'm reading that correctly.
I'm just wondering what's happening in development with that because that is key to some of the
Lot of this rests upon that infrastructure development and and support for the vulnerable sector
Yeah, so obviously this was reported on 25 26 and at the time of writing the information I had so
Yes, so what when the current infrastructure and service?
I needed repurcurement. It did go out for procurement. That procurement failed or was
abandoned for reasons that I'm not sure of. However, the interim, to make sure there was
still an offer in the borough, there were shorter -term contracts which have now expired.
There was then the move towards the SIST, the Community Infrastructure Partnership. But again,
it was announced in the spending review on Tuesday night that there wouldn't be the additional
funding for that. So I think as a council we need to understand what that then means
for the infrastructure support. And that's not within my gift to be able to talk about.
I'm afraid at this particular meeting I'm not privy to that. But I think we'll be taking
that away with officers. And I know the Von Schuss sector officer can be very keen to
understand what support is available through the council in the coming weeks and months,
I guess.
Mr. de Souza, would you like to come in on that?
Yes.
So just, I think, just from my point of view, the work we're doing on particularly implementing
our health and wellbeing strategy and our work on labour health, health and care prevention
is absolutely paramount in all of that work.
And to implement that work, we need a sustainable voluntary and community sector that's absolutely instrumental.
I think the focus has shifted because of our financial situation.
We need to ensure we've got a financially sustainable sector, but we're shifting from an approach of grant giving.
So in fact, the work that Mr. Banks talked about,
We were commissioned services to meet
our identified priorities.
And in fact, the work we're talking about in the alliance,
we're looking at how we shift activity.
So as part of the frailty work,
we're looking at how our voluntary sector
is fundamental to that.
We've got some good examples live at the moment.
Thank you.
Ms. Modeide.
So just two questions for that.
Number one, how do you choose
what VCS organisations are going to get that support,
and number two, what do we do in the meantime?
Because I asked the question earlier,
there's no timelines, but yeah,
what I'm worried about is we're going to continue
to do the work, get burnt out,
and not get any of the money for it.
Mr. D 'Souza.
Yeah, so I think clearly the work is continuing.
We need to accelerate our plans.
In light of, you know, we're clear on our financial situation, so I think we need to
now make progress with, we're clear on what funding is available, so it's about them making that.
We need to go through a process toward that funding. This is a joint pot of money between
the Council and the ICB, so the process is underway. We can update the board in future
as that work progresses.
Thank you, Mr. de Souza.
I can only reiterate what Mr. de Souza said
about the focus on prevention.
I think that's gonna be absolutely critical
given the finance situation that the council faces.
A lot of these decisions are still to be made,
but there will be appropriate forums,
obviously the Health OSC, to discuss them.
Yeah, the answers will come,
and obviously I'll be answering
some of those questions in due course.
Do we have any, Ms. Rush?
Just a quick one, just to say that these activities to combat social isolation amongst carers
have been very effective.
In particular, the culturally mindful creative health programme, and I think it would be a
real pity that this wasn't repeated because the impact was tremendous amongst carers.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I mean, it's so much great work and really, really encouraging outcomes that are reported
in this paper.
Does anybody else have any questions on the paper or comments before we move on?
I'd like to thank Mr. Catillo and his team for an excellent paper.

6 Wandsworth Adult and Young Carers' Charter - One Year Report 2025/26 (Paper No. 26-199)

And we can move on to item six on the agenda, which is the Wandsworth adult and young carers
charter one -year report 2025 -26.
and presenting that will be Mr Paul Banks. Of course yeah Ms Marie Nioffetu.
I pronounced that correctly. Thanks chair. Good afternoon I'm Marie Nioffetu,
Commissioning Officer in Adult Social Care. So I'm pleased to be presenting
the Wandsworth Carer's Charter Annual Report for 2025 to 2026 which covers
pages 41 to 52 in the pack. So in the pack you will notice that in addition to the written
report you will also find an infographic which provides a snapshot of the scale and breadth
of activity across the four charter themes that has been delivered over the year 2025 to 2026.
And to start things off I would like to provide an overview of some of the progress reflected in the
services completed a young carers go pick review and established a multi agency young carers subgroup to strengthen coordination and support for young carers.
Wandsworth Carers Centre continues to provide therapies, training, information and emotional support for carers, whilst primary care colleagues help strengthen the identification and recognition of carers through GP practises.
And the infographic gives a flavour of some of that activity.
So the infographic shows that there was an 11 .5 % increase in carers recorded on GP registers
over that period.
827 carers are now accessing wellbeing support.
Over 1200 peer support attendances and there are more than 50 co -produced young carers
sessions have been delivered over that period of time.
So one of the key lessons from the reporting cycle is that whilst organisations are doing
a great deal of positive work and helping to support carers. It can be quite difficult
to consistently evidence collective impact across the system and demonstrate the specific
contribution of the charter itself to progress. And these challenges have led us to think
carefully about how we strengthen accountability and monitoring going forward. And this is
why we've introduced a new pledge approach, which was launched during Carers Week this
year. This involves asking organisations to make a specific commitment about what they
will do to support carers and young carers and then report back on progress. And the
aim of this is to improve accountability and strength for monitoring and also to help us
better evidence impact over time. So as of today, we have seven organisations in total
that have made pledges. So that has increased from two, which was originally noted in the
written report. And these organisations include the Prevention and Wellbeing Commissioning
team in Wandsworth Council, integrated care support services, Hestia, Age UK Wandsworth,
Blind Aid, Enable Social Prescribing and Public Health Wandsworth. And to provide some examples
of pledges made, Hestia have pledged to strengthen how staff identify and support unpaid carers
and Public Health Wandsworth have committed to ensuring unpaid carers are considered through
its equality, diversity and inclusion reporting. So while it's too early to fully assess the
of the new pledge system.
We're clear that there is a lot more work that's needed
to increase participation.
And we would like to see significantly more organisations
making commitments over time.
However, we still see the pledge approach
as being an important next step
in the evolution of the charter
and a key mechanism for strengthening accountability
and monitoring moving forward.
So then that brings me towards the recommendations
which are before the board.
So first off, we're asking the board
to continue championing the charter
and to encourage partner organisations across the borough to consider making pledges in support of unpaid carers and young carers.
And then the second ask is for the board to support a move towards biennial reporting.
So while a year can seem like quite a long period in theory, many of the activities being delivered through the charter involve longer term change and meaningful outcomes can take time to emerge.
So a two year reporting cycle provides a more proportionate and sustainable approach.
It reduces the burden of reporting on organisations and also allows richer evidence for impact
to be gathered.
So in summary, the support demonstrates both the progress that's been made across Wandsworth
in support of unpaid carers and young carers and the challenges that also remain around
evidencing impact and maintaining engagement.
And the pledge approach, which has already been implemented, is a key part of our response
to those challenges.
and hopefully with the continued support of partners across the borough, we will help
strengthen accountability and drive further progress moving forward.
And then to close and to finalise, I'd like to thank all partners and unpaid carers who
contributed to the report and I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you, Miss Nyofu.
We won't be agreeing to any recommendations because we're chorid, but I'm sure there'll
lot of support expressed for the idea of the Charter. Who would like to come in with first
question? Councillor Warrell.
I recognise I'm probably talking the most around this table. My apologies to everybody.
But these papers bring up a lot of interesting issues. In terms of this paper, thank you.
I really enjoyed the layout in terms of the approach, the quick summary of the issues,
progress, challenges, and what you're doing about the challenges.
Great to read and easy to absorb, so thank you for that.
In terms of the two -year cycle, I know we're not agreeing anything.
I would prefer to adopt a two -year cycle, but every year just get a one - or two -page summary report of activities.
I think that would be useful.
I think this year has shown us how quickly something can change,
And in a two -year period, sometimes you just need that cheque -in almost.
So a one -page summary would be great within that two -year process.
So, yeah, that would be my – when it comes back for discussion, would be my suggestion.
The other thing is I was just thinking, in terms of the change towards a pledge system,
I was just wondering, working in the voluntary sector myself, sometimes it gets confused.
Pledges are quite useful, but they actually show no real benefit for the organisation
themselves in terms of buying into a system.
So a pledge system is great.
I suppose how are we supporting organisations to understand the benefit for them in actually
signing up to a pledge system?
otherwise it just becomes another chart or another piece of paper you sign up to, etc.
So how do we move away maybe from a KPI structure, which most people are tied into, to much more
seeing this as a developmental process and a much more organic and something that can
be incorporated in a much easier way that has benefit for all, rather than just a pure
reporting mechanism?
Ms. Neufte, would you like to come in on that?
Yeah, certainly.
So I would say that we have provided some recommendations in terms of what the pledges
could be.
It doesn't necessarily have to be too much of a stretch.
It can align with organisational priorities that already exist.
So the formation of a pledge can already fit with the plans of what the organisation has
already.
And in terms of like, you know, potentially the risk of not fulfilling any pledges, I
I would just like to say that the current approach is based on accountability through
transparency and reporting.
So we don't really want to enforce anything.
We're just asking partners to identify commitments and then provide updates.
So it's to support continuous improvement and build a culture of shared ownership rather
than it being a compliance exercise per se.
Thank you.
Ms. Rush.
Thank you for the report. I am very keen to know how many organisations could potentially
give pledges. So I think the challenge here is that there isn't a fixed number of organisations
eligible to make a pledge. It's open to so many different types of organisations. It
could be council services, NHS organisations, voluntary and community organisations, private
sector organisations, local businesses. I think the number is quite substantial and
I don't think we have a fixed number on that. But what we can do is track the number of
pledges received and then try to keep reinforcing the importance of the charter and making a
Thank you. Why are the numbers so low? Do you think that there's a gap in people understanding
what it is they might be able to offer in terms of support for carers? Do they need
more examples of the types of support or do they need to attend some kind of forum where
they could be given more information and helped with some facilitation regarding their particular
organisation and how they might naturally be able to make quite easy pledges?
Yeah, I think there's some potentially good suggestions there. I think at this stage, it's
perhaps too early to say, to ask the question of why is the take -up too low, because the pledge
system was only introduced in June this year, so it has only been a few months. However, I think
from initial engagement with partners,
some of the comments that we've heard is
that a lot of partners want to put a lot of thought
and consideration in what those pledges are.
This is a new system.
So I think perhaps there is some time that's needed
to adjust to the new way of working
and to put some thought into those pledges.
I think some other feedback that I've received
from engaging with partners is that a lot of organisations
initially didn't realise that they were eligible to sign up to the charter and to make a pledge.
A lot of some organisations thought that because they're so, you know, that their whole
organisation was to support unpaid carers, that their work is so aligned with unpaid carers that
it wasn't for them because it's just ingrained in the organisation. But actually, we want everyone
to pledge. So I think just to continue to push that message, I think is really important. And
that then that takes the ask back to the board if everyone here can also push that across
your networks as well. And then hopefully in the future we do see an increase in uptake.
But I think that is for future reporting to kind of really look at and analyse in terms
of if there are any barriers that come up.
Yeah, I'm aware that Mr Paul Banks is waiting online, but can I just bring in Mr D 'Souza
quickly on that?
Yes, just on the point of pledges, I was going to,
I'm committing as the chair of our Wandsworth provider
alliance to take this proposal to our alliance meeting.
So the alliance is made up of all our health partners,
the voluntary sector, the council,
so we can look at what we can do.
And I think noting that last point,
a lot of the work we do certainly within adult social care
and the council to support care is ingrained
trained into our way of working.
So we need to think about this as a relatively new approach
we're taking where we're asking to commit pledges.
But I'm gonna take that back into our alliance
and neighbourhood health and care.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Paul Banks.
I think I was on mute there. Just echoing everything Marie was saying really, I mean,
the messaging is really important because I think even, you know, representatives that sit around
the Health and Wellbeing Board, which is, you know, the genesis of why the carer's charter
has developed, we still haven't got, you know, all reps signed up, you know, all organisations
sitting around this table. I reach out to individual service managers across the council
to try and get organisation buy -in. We have commissioned partners and wider networks. And
So I'm not quite sure why the messaging isn't landing.
And I think it does need that joint approach
for everyone to recognise that the carers charter
is for all organisations, including businesses,
to really consider what they can do to support carers.
And pledges are a gang to those priorities
that carers are told are so important to them.
So yeah, it's just reiterating that.
And of course, it's an ongoing piece.
I think we were just probably surprised that it's not had the initial uptake for pledges
as we first anticipated, bearing in mind we are in the third year, so it's not a new document.
All we're asking really is the pledge system is a new way of recording and evidencing,
and that's not to add extra burden to any organisation. It's simply to help us capture
an evidence and go back to those organisations to say, oh, you said you're going to do this,
just interested to know what's happened and what impact that's had for carers. Because Marie,
in previous years, last year and this year, spent a lot of time trying to reach out across the
borough, across the systems to try and understand what's been happening. So this is more just an
effective way of capturing and evidencing. So yeah, absolutely not trying to create any new
work for anyone. And the pledge form is very sort of straightforward way. And the information
on the websites, I think, I feel is really informative. It does have some examples. What
discussions that have come up this week, and it could be something we do move towards,
which is perhaps actually listing somewhere on that website what pledges have been sort
of committed to and organisations that are supporting it
to make that more transparent or in future updates,
that could be the future updates
to the Health and Wellbeing Board,
could simply be an appendix of that
to make that transparent.
So yeah, we can definitely take that away.
Councillor Wolk.
Thank you.
I just wanna bring the board's attention to page 44,
Paragraph D, the case study of life, a life alongside caring.
And going back to a previous point that's been made around timelines, around replacement for funding, what's actually happening for the future.
I mean, 62 ,000 was given through the ones with grants of fund for
projects that were not commissioned per se through a mainstream commissioning process, but allowed for innovative work and everything else.
So the loss of this money has major impact to organisations in terms of planning for the future and how they can be innovative.
So guidance about what's going to replace it or how to actually work around that would be useful to come through as quickly as possible.
I know decisions are made quite, funding reviews have been taking place over the last couple of months and we're still making decisions.
but to reiterate that time is not on the side of some organisations in terms of
Their planning especially when they're one or two people who are actually doing a lot of work
Absolutely understand the concern and the need for people to have clarity as soon as possible
And yeah, we'll bring all the decisions to the overview and scrutiny committee as soon as we can
Miss rush
Just quickly to say that I do endorse the idea of an annual feedback report that Councillor
Worrall suggested. It depends upon the format that works best. I also do think when organisations
are asked to feed back, they do suddenly become more accountable or they wake up to the fact
that they've made the pledge and maybe they haven't done the work that they really wanted
to do. So I think if it's not too much work to have an annual report back. Also, how is
the momentum going to be maintained months to months? It's fantastic to hear that you
have all these ambitions to support organisations to feedback. Is there enough effort to keep
the momentum going?
Mr Neill for two or Mr Banks?
Yeah, we have said one really. Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to take that. I think, yeah, I don't
think that we necessarily need the detail of report that we've, you know, we have put forward here today at Half a Mile Being Board every year, just because I think in terms of some of the outcomes, they're very similar to the previous year's report. So a lot of what is featured in terms of progress is actually has been repeated almost from the previous year. And I think, you know, the benefit of having, you know, maybe
I can see the benefit of having a less detailed report,
maybe like a snapshot report just to show momentum.
But I think you don't need the full report every year
because I think there is a lot of duplication.
And the feedback that we've had from partners is that,
you know, it is quite a burdensome to keep reporting on these outcomes.
And actually, I noticed there was a reduction as well in terms of submission from partners
and who was coming forward and actually providing feedback and inputting into the report this
year compared to the first year as well. So that's the reason why biennial reporting was
proposed.
Just add to that as well, which is there is no resource dedicated to overseeing the charter.
You know, Maria and I take that within sort of the scope of our day job to drive this
forward and as we have carers at the centre of everything that we do and carers within
our portfolio. So we do work closely with Wandsworth Carers Centre and partners and
as I say putting carers at the centre of everything that we do. So there is a balance there of
obviously us driving this forward and one of the mechanisms that we do that with is
the Wandsworth Carers Partnership Board.
So that meets quarterly, has a range of representatives,
including carer reps on that.
And a slight change that we're doing to that,
in terms of references to actually build that meeting
around the Carers Charter and every meeting will dedicate
a percentage of that meeting time to review each one of those priorities.
So it gives us as a sort of board group for carers partnership, some scrutiny over the
charter and the uptake and actions that are coming out of that. So that's one of the mechanisms
that we'll be using to sort of oversee it and I guess workshop around any actions that
we need to progress. So there is kind of a work stream, I guess, focus on this charter
to make sure it's obviously heavily on the agenda.
Thank you. I think we can find broad support for the idea of a yearly update.
My question would have been similar to yours, Councillor Warrell.
How do you maintain oversight moving to a biennial report?
As long as there's something to fall back on, I can perfectly understand the reasoning
as to why it shouldn't be a full report. But, yeah, I think we can agree on that.
But given the fact that we're not a core meeting, it's an unofficial agreement, but I think,
Yeah, we will all agree that's a good idea.
Okay.
Unless there's any more questions or comments,
we can move on to the next agenda item.
I'd like to say thank you to Ms. Neofertu
and Mr. Banks and their team for another excellent report.
And we can move on to item seven,

7 Annual Report of the Safeguarding Adults Board (Paper No. 26-200)

which is the annual report of the Safeguarding Adults Board.
Report by the Executive Director
of Adult Social Care and Public Health.
And Ms. Fiona Martin, independent chair
of Richmond and Wandsworth Safeguarding Adults Board
will introduce the report.
Thank you very much, Chair and colleagues.
I'm joined by our board manager, Ali Smith, and Ernest Johnson,
the head of safeguarding here.
So the key message I want to give the board today
is that the safeguarding arrangements in Wandsworth
remain effective.
They're supported by a strong partnership who
work across social care, health, police, housing,
and voluntary and community sector.
The report does provide you positive assurance
that the safeguarding practise is being effectively
monitored through the established multi -agency arrangements.
However, safeguarding isn't about just responding
when abuse or neglect occurs.
It's also an important part of our wider
health and wellbeing system.
Safeguarding does help to prevent, harm, reduce inequalities,
promote independence and strengthen community resilience,
all of which are priorities within the Wandsworth
joint local health and wellbeing strategy.
The strong evidence provided by the report
is that safeguarding interventions
are making a positive difference to residents' lives.
Almost all of the recorded safeguarding outcomes,
that's 99 .7%, were fully or partially achieved,
and risk was reduced or removed
in the vast majority of safeguarding inquiries.
80 % of people reported feeling as safe as they wanted to be following a safeguarding
intervention.
And I think this provides assurances that safeguarding activity remains person -centred
and focused on the outcomes that really matter to people.
Many of the issues we see through safeguarding are also issues that are driven health inequalities.
Issues such as self -neglect, social isolation,
poor mental health, substance use, homelessness,
frailty, and dementia are recurring themes
in safeguarding activity, and we've heard a lot
about most of those today.
They're not challenges that can be addressed
by one organisation alone, and they require
coordinated response across health, housing,
social care, community safety, and the voluntary sector.
The completion of the Hope Safeguarding Adults review,
which is included within the report,
reinforces this point.
The learning highlights the importance
of recognising cumulative risk
and responding effectively to self -neglect,
improving partnership working with housing services,
and escalating concerns earlier when risks are increasing.
So looking ahead to our priorities for 26 -27,
they include strengthening prevention
and early intervention, improving responses
to self -neglect and complex vulnerability,
improving referral quality, and embedding learning
from reviews, and making better use
of safeguarding intelligence to understand risk
and inequality.
As the independent chair, I am particularly
interested in how we move further upstream
and we prevent the problem from escalating
into safeguarding concerns.
That's obviously going to lead to better outcomes
for our residents and it is something that we've been talking around this
table and it's good to hear everybody talking about it. Neighbourhood health
provides an opportunity to bring together that safeguarding intelligence,
the health insight, housing knowledge and community connexions to identify
emerging risks. So we would like to use that neighbourhood health planning and
place -based partnership arrangements as a mechanism for intelligence sharing and
shared prevention priorities.
I think this is gonna help us coordinate support
around residents and communities better.
So in conclusion, the report provides positive assurance
that safeguarding arrangements in Wandsworth are effective,
and that partners do continue to work together
and protect adults at risk.
We highlight the close connexion between safeguarding,
prevention inequalities, inequalities rather, and wellbeing.
So I think there's a real opportunity
from the boards to work together and use that shared intelligence and community partnerships
to intervene earlier and further improve the outcomes for the residents here.
Obviously, I was going to invite you to note the report and recognise the contribution
that safeguarding makes to the health and wellbeing strategy and support continued collaboration
between health, neighbourhood health rather, and place -based partnership arrangements,
but I understand the issues with quarrisy.
Indeed, but thank you very much for your excellent paper and for talking about a good service
that we provide in adult safeguarding.
I think ofstead rating is good, and we've learned lots of important lessons recently,
particularly with the case of hope.
So it's really encouraging to hear about the way forward
and how those lessons are being applied.
I'm conscious of time because there are a couple
of papers after this.
This is obviously a very important subject
which I'm sure people would want to ask questions about.
If you can keep your questions sort of relatively concise
when asking them.
Does the board have any questions
or comments about the paper?
Just a little comment really. So I'm really, really supportive of using place -based partnership.
Many of our providers and sectors are around that table. It's just a footnote that the statutory
responsibility there will still fit with the ICB and there's something that we need to kind of work
through there just in terms of responsibilities and accountability. So we do have obviously
the representation from the ICB on the board.
They've been really good about keeping us abreast
of all the changes and are very on board
with the assurances we're seeking.
So, absolutely.
Thank you, does anybody else have a question or a comment?
Okay, well thanks very much.
Thanks again for your presentation.
and yeah, we'll move on to, yeah,
item, I think it's item eight of the agenda,

8 Healthwatch Annual Report 2025-26 (Paper No. 26-201)

which is the Health Watch Annual Report.
And yeah, I'm sure Mr. Akey will have a few questions.
So yeah, Mr. Steven Hooky and Ms. Sarah Cook,
is Sarah here as well?
Hello.
Yeah, to introduce the report, so Ms. Akey.
Okay, thank you very much, Chair, and I'm conscious as well as time, so I'll keep
you very short.
This is an annual report.
We are statutorily obliged to produce one and to present it to the Council in particular,
so this is what we do every year.
By definition, an annual report tends to be backwards looking, and I hope it's reasonably
self -explanatory, and I don't propose to go through it.
If there are questions about specific issues, myself or Sarah, who leads the team, I'm very
happy to answer.
I think this year is slightly different in that the real question is about looking forward.
And as I think the paper summarises, the government has announced it's abolishing Health Watch.
The legislation is currently going through Parliament.
But the truth of the matter is that nobody quite knows what's going to happen next, which
leaves everyone, I think, in quite a difficult position.
I'm certainly including us, but also the council and the ICB.
We read quite recently that ministers are,
there may be a lot of criticism of it, of the decision.
Essentially, I mean, the organisation Health Watch,
you can change whatever.
That's not the real issue.
The real issue is by independent patient voice.
Because the basic core proposition
is that this work should be brought in -house to the council
and to the ICB, which is a good thing in some ways,
but loses independence.
And that matters objectively, but also actually
to patients themselves.
Because speaking to an independent body
is different from speaking to the people who actually
deliver the service that you wish to talk about.
I've read that ministers are now getting slightly cold feet
and are talking about reviewing their decision.
So that doesn't help anyone very much in the short term.
In the meantime, the current form position is that we will end presumably in March.
The government has reminded councils in particular who are the commissioning authorities for
this that they do have a statutory responsibility to maintain the service until such time as
the legislation is passed and they are formally told that the service should end.
And I think the government has also said that if, by any chance, there were to be an extension,
e .g. for a transitional period, which I think realistically may be necessary almost under
any scenario now because it's so late, that in that scenario I think the expectation is
that the funding would continue for whatever that transitional period would be.
So that's where we are at the moment.
In terms of what happens next, I think everyone is, to be honest, waiting a little bit to
hear what steers come from the government.
It's worth saying that in different parts of the country people are responding differently.
There are places, I mean, I think Richmond is a case in point where the Health Watch
organisation is planning just to close next March.
And we as an organisation would have to face up to that potential possibility.
and we don't know, but you can't rule that out.
Other parts of the country have decided autonomously,
in a sense, to start opening discussions
about possible futures, about how they might design
some sort of version of an independent patient voice
going forward.
I think it's in southwest London, to be honest,
we're very much in the foothills of this.
and so we don't know is the short answer.
I think it's becoming increasingly urgent
because we're now in the end of September.
It's only six months away, so the future is very unclear.
As far as the actual organisation,
Health Watch in Wandsworth is delivered
by Wandsworth Care Alliance.
I think Wandsworth Care Alliance,
and I'm a trustee of that,
it clearly has to consider its own future
and his own viability and sustainability going forward.
But I should say that we as an organisation
are very keen that the experience and the skills
and, to be honest, the core staff team, which
is the heart of us, and the volunteer team,
shouldn't just be dispersed to the four winds.
That would seem to us quite a major step backwards.
But that's a parochial concern, as it were,
for us as an organisation.
That's really not a very head up of where I think we are at the moment.
I think it's really important that the Council and the ICB should be having discussions about
what they would like to do, you know, in a sense, if the government gave no steer at
all, what actually would be the preference locally, because otherwise there's a risk
of the thing just falling apart.
That's what I want to say.
Thank you, Mr. Hickey.
And yeah, it is a very uncertain time
and it's very difficult, I can imagine,
operating with such uncertainty.
I guess the key issues here, as you say,
it's the question of an independent voice.
That's, so a question for us to address as a board
is how that's preserved.
And also about the transition to whatever the replacement is
and whether Health Watch does come to an end
and whether there's a gap before the new system is in place
and what we do then.
But you make a very valid point
that you have a lot of experience,
you know, having worked with HealthWatch,
you and your team, can we use that experience
in any way going forward with whatever replaces it?
So I don't know if anybody has any comments or questions,
and you may have questions, Mr. Hickey as well,
of the board relating to this paper.
Councillor Wourel.
Yes, thank you.
I think this is actually a very difficult paper
to discuss at this moment in time,
because we're dealing with a series of unknowns.
My concern is, there are several concerns.
One is, whilst a decision is being made,
you run the risk of a brain drain
from the organisation itself.
Valuable knowledge gets lost, gets dissipated.
We've seen that from time to time,
with organisations facing potential closure,
coming back from the brink, the key personnel
that you need to make it successful, actually get lost.
It's very difficult for me to say, oh, actually, we need to do this because part of this rests,
once again, with the funding review that you're undertaking, how you're going to take things
forward, how it all fits within together.
I think the important thing is that an independent patient voice needs to be in place.
I would prefer to actually see funding made available for the existence of an organisation
to continue in its own right rather than to be taken to the council itself.
You can't criticise yourself if something gets
operated from the inside, you need that independence.
I don't know what, as the government,
the national government's still making decisions,
we don't know what permutations actually lie.
What I think is important though is rather
having discussions around the possibilities
is that we need Mr. De Souza and the others
to come forward with a series of ideas
that we can actually discuss and unpick
and see what's within a very short timeline, unfortunately,
what are different options rather than sitting here,
because we can navel gaze for the rest of the afternoon
about what's the best way forward,
because we're dealing with a series of unknowns
at this moment in time.
Would you like to come in?
Mr. De Sousa.
Yeah, so I think firstly, I think just absolutely
to recognise the importance and the hugely important work
of Health Watch as that champion and resident voice.
We absolutely recognise that.
And acknowledging this hugely difficult circumstance
where the uncertainty of the timeline,
the legislation, the passage of the legislation,
the time scales.
We are certainly, in my team,
so the council commission, we commission Health Watch.
So my team are absolutely at the moment looking at
all of that and considering how to do that.
But of course we're constrained because we can't
progress things without knowing further.
I think there's just a final point on the funding,
which is in various things I've seen published,
there are references to the government funding
for Health Watch.
Over time, and I'm talking about since the predecessor
to Health Watch, there have been various government grants
for this function, but over the years,
they've all been effectively rolled into
the council's main grant, and if,
in terms of the council's position,
that whole grant has been completely reviewed
in terms of the fair funding review.
So whilst on one hand there might be national things
saying the funding is there and it has to remain,
There isn't any
identified
Source of funding so I think I have to just make that
Point but we are working
Carefully on this and of course as the ICB colleagues will need to because I think like the current series that the duties get
Split between the council and ICB which isn't particularly
Helpful on one level but then that's what we need to wait
for that next step mark crewman
So I suppose it's just to say that within the ICB there are a number of conversations
that we need to have, firstly at a local level, actually at a borough level, but then also
across South -West London as a South -West London ICB.
Those conversations have started and one of the things are what are the options there,
and we want to work both with across boroughs but also with our borough partners to ensure
that it's a joined -up approach but actually that we are also meeting the
needs to have that independent voice. I take the urgency because actually we are
we are facing a kind of abyss aren't we and and it may be that we have to look
at the options whilst the unknowns happen. And apologies I need to leave.
That's fine we're running a little bit over three o 'clock but we don't have I
I think there's only one paper left.
Does anybody else have any other comments on this paper?
Well, in which case, I'd like to thank Stephen and Sarah
for coming in and presenting the paper,
and for the great work that they've always done
with Health Watch, and yeah, whatever happens in the future.
Hopefully, we can do justice to your legacy.
Okay, so thank you.
So, last item on the agenda, item 9, the work programme.
Mrs. Wilde will introduce this report.

9 Work Programme (Paper No. 26-202)

Thank you, and I will be extremely brief, because it's pretty self -explanatory.
It's the papers that are coming forward on the forward planning dates.
As ever, I will invite members, as this is a partnership,
anybody who has an item that they'd like to suggest that we need to discuss,
please let us hear or I know so we can add it to the programme.
I also just wanted to mention, because I'm not sure
if all of our board members are aware of this,
that while we don't have a seminar programme planned,
what we do have is we're part of a community of practise
for health and wellbeing boards, which is,
we've been selected across London, and it's,
of actually the country, and it's been run by NHSC,
video NHSC through the aegis of the Better Care Fund,
in order for boards to better prepare
to govern the neighbourhood health -ish work.
And we've already done some work on this,
but we will continue to evolve that, including to update
our terms of reference.
And we were lucky enough to also get
selected to get targeted support.
That doesn't mean we're the worst health and well -being
board at all, but perhaps because we're the best.
So we're getting targeted support also
through that programme, which again will help us
as a partnership to mature ourselves
and to be really strong system leaders in the neighbourhood
health space.
So again, any suggestions for seminars
outside of what I've talked about,
Please let us know. We're always welcome.
As long as you're putting your hand up and say, I'll organise it.
.