Agenda item

Councillor Watts, Leader of Islington Council, introduced the report on progress on developing place-based care and support in Islington. The JHWBSC was informed the key aspiration was to centralise and bring together services in order to more effectively tackle the issues faced by residents.

Maggie Kufedlt, the Corporate Director for Housing and Adult Social Services for Islington Council, outlined the progress made in Islington. The following was highlighted:

• There had been workshops and events held with staff and residents.
• The five key developments in the localities programme in Islington focussed on building connections between teams, engaging the voluntary and community sector, the strategic approach to prevention and early intervention, supporting primary care networks, and forming integrated locality teams.
• Islington had a successful integrated network in health and care where staff came together to discuss various issues, such as residents who presented with complex needs, and assisted them together. The aim was to expand on that existing integrated network and increase the number of professionals represented, such as those from housing. 
• There was concern at the lack of understanding by residents of what services were being provided in North Islington. The Council sought to address that by having staff and elected members inform residents at a street level of available services.
• There had been a Frontline Managers OD event where 20 frontline managers discussed what needed doing and existing barriers which prevented staff from being able to do their work. They also discussed how they could work together as leaders to overcome those barriers and challenges.
• A market place event would be held in April 2019, which would inform residents of the services and what was available.
• Engaging the voluntary sector was a key part of the development in the localities programme in Islington. The Council would be meeting with the voluntary and community sector collectively and then individually to discuss their role in the localities programme.
• There would be eight smaller networks across the three locality areas and the GP federation would be leading on that work. 
• Islington Council sought to have an operating prototype model by April 2019.

Following both presentations by Haringey and Islington on their integrated care progress, the following was noted in discussion:

• Members of the JHWBSC welcomed the progress made by both Haringey and Islington.
• Any operating model created needed to be needs driven and not criteria driven. 
• The voluntary sector welcomed the proposed initiatives that increased their involvement within the locality based care plans. In order for the voluntary sector to deliver the maximum potential, it was encouraged that any obstacles which prevented their involvement, should be removed at a strategic level.
• Staff on the ground had been energised by the proposals, particularly within community services in North Islington and North Haringey.
• There was concern that GP staff were not as actively engaged within communities as they could be and this needed to be addressed for the locality-based care to succeed. It was noted that the impending proposed change to the GP contract provided recurring funding for individual GP practices to take part in primary care networks.
• Regarding the NHS Long-Term Plan, both boroughs had already carried out a substantial amount of work surrounding integration and primary care networks. It was important that the boroughs did not start over but developed on the parts that had been successful.
• A critical element of Council involvement in the locality-based care was having housing involved in the discussions.
• Members felt historical learnings should be considered when looking at what had previously worked in similar locality-based plans.
• Islington neighbourhood services of the 1980s was highlighted as being a scheme which could provide valuable lessons on what worked well within an integrated care system. Cllr Watts had reservations about that joint working model and he noted the negative aspects of that service should be avoided in any future model created. Haringey’s Director of Children Services informed that a positive learned from that service was the connections it built between different services and agencies which should be replicated in any future model.
• The methodology of developing an integrated care system should emulate that of Greater Manchester’s which, similarly, created a prototype and looked at how that could be developed and built upon. 
• There was a significant amount of funding provided for the integrated and place based systems work. This would allow the Councils to create an effective system from the groundwork upwards.

RESOLVED

To note the report and slides and comment on key opportunities, challenges and priorities within the work – as well as similarities and differences and opportunities for collaboration between the two boroughs’ approaches.