Agenda item - Chair's Communications

The Chair of the Board will start the meeting with a short update on recent developments on health and wellbeing.

27.1    The Chair stated:

“Ofsted review and outcome

Our children’s social care services have been officially judged ‘good’ following a three-week inspection by Ofsted in July. Checking back through old inspection reports for the city we have never had a ‘good’ judgement for our children’s social care services before.

Some of the key points in the report are:

·                     The senior leadership team, supported by strong cross-party political and corporate support, has worked effectively to improve services

·                     Social workers’ morale is high, and they enjoy working here

·                     We provide a joined-up response to the needs of vulnerable children and families

·                     Children in need of early help and children in need of protection receive prompt and appropriate help

·                     Social workers are tenacious in seeking to build meaningful relationships with children

·                     They and their managers are aspirational for the children in their care and demonstrate a strong focus on improving their experiences and outcomes

·                     Young people have good access to a range of housing and living options.

I would like to congratulate Cllr  Dan Chapman, lead cllr for Children, Families and Learning , Pinaki and his staff team as well as our partners for this improved inspection outcome.

Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy Policy Panel update

The Board asked that a policy panel be set up to help with the development of the refreshing of the  Health & Wellbeing Strategy for the city. I am happy to report that the panel met for the first time in July and will be meeting again shortly. We  are planning to being a formal report to the Board in November.

Winter planning

Although it is still warm outside officers across health and social care have been working on the winter plans. This meeting there will be one report on the night shelter facilities and further reports will come to the board as necessary..

Rottingdean Branch GP Surgery closure

The Board is aware that the Rottingdean Branch surgery is going to close and that patients have been informed. The CCG have kept the council up to date with the ongoing situation and the latest letter explaining about lack of cover was recently received. This latest letter is available here: https://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/Published/C00000826/M00008123/$$Supp30367dDocPackPublic.pdf

In addition we are aware of the merger of the GP services in the North Lanes announced on Friday. We are expecting further information on this shortly but have been pleased to see that all the GPs, nursing and other staff will be moving to St Peters surgery and the patient list will move there as well.  Further information will be provided shortly.  

Fast Track Cities

As the Board is aware the council and partners have signed up to be one of the Fast Track cities, committed to  the reduction of HIV by 2020. The year one fast track cities initiative report be being published in a couple of months and will come to the Board.

However the World Health Organisation  recently reported on some of the work being undertaken in city. This report is available here: https://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/Published/C00000826/M00008123/$$Supp30367dDocPackPublic.pdf

Urology Service

Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals have  informed our Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee that the Trust is planning to move out-patient urology services from RSCH to PRH where they will be co-located with surgical urology which was single-sited at PRH around 3 years’ ago. HOSC will monitor the situation as the changes come into place.

September is world Alzheimer’s month

September is world Alzheimer’s month and as the Board may remember we have been promoting and supporting Brighton and Hove become a Dementia Friendly city. The Board would like to thank all the staff across the council and CCG staff who have already participated in the Dementia Friends training.

Older Peoples Festival

I am happy to announce that the Brighton & Hove Older People’s Festival is back in town!

 Over the past five years, Impact Initiatives have brought huge added value to a modest £10,000 grant from Public Health to create this festival - which has grown from 16 events in 2013, to 111 events across 58 venues this year!  Starting on 24^th September the 2018 Older People’s Festival is set to be a vibrant and exciting two week celebration for people aged 50+ in Brighton & Hove.

 The festival fortnight is packed full of events, tours, talks… chances to try all sorts of new things and meet new people.

 If I could encourage people to  look at the website (www.opf.org.uk) and  or take one of the brochures to  help us to spread the word!

 Brighton & Hove has around 38,400 people aged 65 or over, which represents 13% of the population of the city - and this is increasing  every year as people are living longer. We want older people to have a good quality of life, and for the city to be a great place in which to age. We believe that making the city friendly for older people will make it friendly for everyone.

We want to challenge stigma around ageing by presenting a positive profile of older people. Celebrating the United Nations International Day  of Older Persons throughout the festival is key to this - it gives us an opportunity to highlight the many achievements & contributions that older people make to our city, as well as tackling outdated attitudes & negative stereotypes. The celebrations and activities also promote active & healthy ageing and give older people more opportunities to get out and about, meet new people and try new things.

Finally

At the last Health & Wellbeing Board Councillor Janio  sent in a letter to the Board  concerning the primary care provision in the Hove area. The minutes show that that the Board agreed the following :

‘Agrees that this letter is referred to the CCG and be addressed as part of the presentation at the September Board’

Unfortunately,   the presentation of the Brighton General Site and the additional paper from the CCG providing an update of the primary care strategy, the HUBs and also the urgent treatment centre will now be coming to the Board in November.