Agenda and draft minutes

Please note this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method.  Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on.  By entering the ‘meeting room’, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The Chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual, or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Jilani Chowdhury (Islington) and Cllr Chris James (Enfield).

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business.  (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear.  New items will be dealt with under item 10 below).

None.

Cllr Pippa Connor declared an interest by virtue of her membership of the Royal College of Nursing.

Cllr Pippa Connor declared an interest by virtue of her sister working as a GP in Tottenham.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution.

None.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 29^th January 2024as a correct record.

Cllr Connor noted that a response had been received from NCL ICB to the recommendations made by the Committee following a deputation regarding the proposed sale of GP practices from Operose Health to HCRG Group. Cllr Revah noted that further questions could be asked about the background of the new company that would be taking over the GP practices and Cllr Clarke expressed particular concerns about data gathering practices.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee were approved.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 29^th January 2024 be approved as an accurate record.

To provide an overview and update on the progress of the community and mental health service reviews including how co-design and co-production have been embedded in the design and delivery of the core offers.

Cllr Connor opened this item and welcomed the NCL ICB colleagues and the local community groups that had joined the meeting.

Lauretta Kavanagh, Programme Director for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism at NCL ICB, introduced the report which provided an overview of the Core Offer programmes for Community and Mental Health services across North Central London (NCL) including improvements for residents made in the past year as well as the vision for delivery and challenges going forward.

Kay Isaac, Director of Operations at the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, spoke about the investment into community services, the aim of which was to address health inequalities and reduce the ‘postcode lottery’ in terms of outcomes across the NCL area. The additional investment in 2023/24 included:

• £2.5m for children and young people’s services – priority investment areas included streamlined assessment pathways for autism, Children’s Looked After (CLA) service and CYP Special School Nursing.
• £1.9m for adult services – priority investment areas included work to reduce the length of hospital stays which had resulted in the average stay reducing from 34 days to 18 days. In addition, the time from referral to admission had reduced from 5 days to 3 days. Another priority area was faster responses for urgent care at home to help avoid the need for hospital admissions. Additional capacity had been provided for speech and language therapy.
• £6.9m for virtual wards – this investment had increased the number of virtual ward beds in NCL from 118 to 175, enabling more people to come out of hospital earlier and receive the same treatment at home.

Lauretta Kavanagh explained that 2023/24 was year 2 of the implementation of the core offer and that significant progress had been made with the additional investment made being generally against the tide of the wider financial pressures faced by the NHS. There was a lot of data to demonstrate increased access to services, increased workforce capacity and also work to level up the quality of services.

Jess Lievesley spoke about other major developments including the merger of the two Mental Health Trusts in NCL, which was expected to be completed by October 2024, the recent opening of a new inpatient facility at Highgate and the development of a single point of access for crisis mental health services.

A video presentation was played to the meeting about the transformation of community services and improved access to services in NCL. This video would be uploaded onto Youtube so that it could be accessed by a wider range of community groups and a booklet was also being produced for distribution. It was also suggested that the information could be promoted at the Mental Health Strategic Partnership in Barnet.

ICB officers responded to a range of questions and discussion points from Committee Members and community groups:

• On the issue of waiting time for autism diagnosis, Ruth Glover, Director of Open Door, commented that the process could often be complicated as young people with autism also had other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

This paper provides an outline of the 2023-24 work programme for the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

This was the last meeting of the 2023/24 municipal year and a new work programme would be prepared for the first meeting of 2024/25 which would be in June/July 2024. There were already some standing items in the schedule but Members were invited to submit further suggestions for agenda items.

It was agreed that the Committee should continue the practice of dedicating at least one meeting per year to discussion with a wide range of community groups on a specific issue. This could potentially focus on mental health as in previous years or on a topic such as care for older people.

The dates of meetings for the 2024/25 municipal year are yet to be confirmed but are expected to take place in July 2024, September 2024, November 2024, January 2025 and March 2025.

Meeting dates for 2024/25 will be published shortly.