Adult Independence and Wellbeing subgroup meeting minutes
16-1-13, Cambridge House
Present
Name / OrganisationAlvin / Kinch / LINk
Andrew / Rice / SDF
Andy / Boaden / CAS
Barry / Coker / DMI
Barry / Silverman / LINk Southwark
Bekim / Berlajolli / Thames Reach
Carleen / Thomas / Lambeth family link
Catherine / Negus / CAS
Charlotte / Pamulake
Errol / Franklin / Men's Health Forum
Hazel / Saunders / Faces in Focus
Jacky / Bourke-White / Age UK Lewisham and Southwark
Jennifer / George / DMI
Jin / Lim / Southwark Council
Jo / Clare / Three Cs
Joan / Baxter / WPF Therapy
Layla / Davidson / Southwark Council
Les / Alden / People Care Association
Milly / Hutchinson / LINk Southwark
Phil / Mawhinney / CAS
Rebecca / Fenner / Peabody
Sabeena / Subba / DMI
Sharon / Kitson / Faces in Focus
Truly / Johnston / CAS
Vicky / Hartell / Metropolitan
- Southwark Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy engagement exercise – Jin Lim, Southwark Public Health Consultant
The Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy is the guiding document for Southwark’s Health and Wellbeing Board. Informed by the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Public Health regional outcomes framework, the strategy will prioritise actions and underpin commissioning in the short, medium and longer term in Southwark.
The priorities for the strategy are:
•Tackle the root causes of ill health and wellbeing, improving the wider determinants of health & wellbeing, and reducing inequalities
•Building resilience and enabling everyone, including the most vulnerable, to manage their own health & wellbeing and to live healthy lives
•Enable every child to have the best start in life
In light of the presentation (available to downloadhere) and in relation to the above priorities, attendees were asked to answer the following set of questions. The responses were as follows:
What knowledge or expertise can the voluntary sector bring to the strategy/objective?
The strength of the voluntary and community sector (VCS) lies in its ability to provide a holistic service that addresses the wider determinants of health such as employment, housing etc. e.g. the Thamesreach Employment Academy who support the homeless people with mental health issues back into work.
The VCS provides personalised services. They can explain conditions/how to access services in plain language. Service users/patients need to be seen as people rather than a condition/number.
What should be the measures of success/desired outcomes?
Greater focus on outcomes rather than outputs and processes.
The outcomes should be jointly decided by public and voluntary and community sector colleagues.
There are a great variety of strategies that need to be rationalised as part of the JHWBS.
Better joining up of services/prioritisation of mental health. A particular problem area is the lag in supporting people out of mental health centres and into council housing. The resultant cost in future services is huge because of this disconnect.
Connectedness/Loneliness has such a huge effect on health. Needs to be prioritised.
Greater focus on recovery, not just maintenance in relation to Mental Health.
GPs referring to VCS either through database of VCS providers built into their systems or a designated person working within GP practices.
What actions are needed?
To make engagement around strategic priorities meaningful, the general public need to be involved in resource allocation and be able to influence this.
Performance/quality of GP services is hugely variable across the borough. Lack of knowledge amongst local population about what constitutes a good service. This is reflected in people’s inability to self-manage conditions e.g. Diabetes. PALS service not visible enough/understood. Performance data should therefore include stakeholder perception of GP surgeries. By creating a benchmark, this could be used to drive quality up. VCS to raise awareness/expectations among patients of the kind of service they need/deserve.
Support needs to reach people earlier. People with long term mental health problems tend to have established these by 14 years old.
Revive Total Place initiative with greater VCS involvement
Greater VCS engagement with the Integrated Care Programme. Know what they are retendering and when they require input. Look at current performance.
- Improving how CAS represents and lobbies for the voluntary sector – Andy Boaden and Phil Mawhinney, CAS
CAS is constantly looking to give the local voluntary sector a stronger voice amongst policy makers. A number of exciting developments over the past few months have begun to provide CAS with a stronger evidence base and levers to influence to help the sector achieve this.
The Thinking allowed…about Health Summit. The summit was part ofa series of events between senior public and voluntary sector figures to create an action plan to improve partnership working in relation to particular areas of work. The Health Summit tackled Clinical Commissioning, the Health and Wellbeing Board, the transition of Public Health into the Local Authority and the formation of Healthwatch.
The action plan from the Health summit (outlined in the presentation which is available to download here) focused on issues such as market development, communication, strategic planning, collaboration and co-production. Attendees were invited to give feedback on the action plan. Key points included:
- The need for commissioning timetables
- Creation of subcontracting opportunities for niche providers in the developing Health agenda
- Organisational charts of Council and Clinical Commissioning Group
- An update list of providers for GPs to refer patients on to.
- Clarification over the role of Healthwatch in the new health landscape
- More information and engagement with the Integrated Care Programme
The culmination of the new system of Reps and the summits, alongside a review of CAS’s existing policy work, will be a CAS Policy Strategy that outlines priorities for 2013. This will be published in March and circulated amongst the members via the Cascade e-bulletin for comment.
Read more about how CAS are improving their policy work here