Agenda and minutes

To receive and hear any person who wishes to address the Committee. The Chairman will select the order of the matters to be heard. Each person will be limited to a period of five minutes. Public participation time must not exceed thirty minutes.

Requests to speak must be submitted in writing to the Assistant Director Legal & Governance or the officer mentioned at the top of this agenda letter, by noon on the working day before the meeting and the request must detail the subject matter of the address.

Alan Rice, representing Weston Housing Action (WHA), spoke about link between poor housing and poor health. He said WHA Now get 1-2 related referrals a day and referred to the findings of a 2018 Kings Fund report on the costs of poor housing (£1.4b/year) and value of addressing this with each pound spent reportedly yielding the equivalent of £4 worth of health benefit.   He gave a number of local examples where the social housing subscription scheme had apparently failed, noting the role of the medical panel in assessing these applications.  He was concerned that findings of the panel could be inconsistent with supporting evidence provided by other specialist clinicians and requested more information about the composition of the panel and the basis on which its assessments were reached.

The Chair thanked Mr Rice for his address and invited him to detail his concerns in writing to the Board for a full response.

A Member must declare any disclosable pecuniary interest where it relates to any matter being considered at the meeting. A declaration of a disclosable pecuniary interest should indicate the interest and the agenda item to which it relates. A Member is not permitted to participate in this agenda item by law and should immediately leave the meeting before the start of any debate.

If the Member leaves the meeting in respect of a declaration, he or she should ensure that the Chairman is aware of this before he or she leaves to enable their exit from the meeting to be recorded in the minutes in accordance with Standing Order 37.

None.

Minutes of the Health and Wellbeing Board Meeting on 5 July 2023 to approve as a correct record.

Resolved: that the Minutes of the last Board meeting held on 5 July 2023 be approved as correct record.

Report of the Principal Head of Commissioning, Partnerships and Housing Solutions, North Somerset Council

The Director of Adult services introduced the item and outlined the governance requirement for bringing this item to this additional meeting of the Board for formal ratification of the Better Care Fund Plan. She said that all parties were committed to starting this process earlier going forward.

The Principal Head of Commissioning, Partnerships and Housing (NSC) then outlined the Better Care Fund Plan set out in Appendix one of the report; and the supporting documents around BCF finding streams, capacity and demand for intermediate care services and ambitions on making progress against the national metrics – set out in Appendix two.

The following points were raised by Board Members in the ensuing debate:

• With reference to the earlier public address on the linkage between poor health outcomes and housing/income, there was discussion around what was being done by the partnership to support the local population and carers in particular.    Council officers referred to the highest priority given to housing within the district’s two Locality Partnerships and the work being done within the Council to deliver better housing.  With respect to income support, they also referred to a range of support packages including the Discharge Grant and the Council’s ongoing support to people struggling with energy bills. With respect to carer wages, they referred to a range of initiatives including the Fair Cost of Care pay awards and the Care Bonus scheme.  Pay and conditions in the West of England care sector were some of the best in the UK and this had helped in the current challenging situation.
• Members raised the issue staff capacity for dementia care.  Officers reported that a market survey indicated sufficient dementia care and an excess of domiciliary care. They were however guarded against complacency noting that there had been some localised access issues.
• In response to a query about discharge support for people with serious but short-term issues, officers confirmed these would be dealt with by the transfer of care hubs.

In concluding the discussion it was:-

Resolved:

(1)        that the Better Care Fund Plan be approved;

(2)        that the use of mandatory BCF funding streams be agreed;

(3)        that the assessment of capacity and demand for intermediate care services be confirmed; and

(4)        that the ambitions on making progress against the national metrics be confirmed.