Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 December 2023 were approved as an accurate record with no matters arising.

Report of Steph Downey, Integrated Adults and Social Care Services, with Hospital Discharge Coordinator

The Committee received a report and presentation detailing the work undertaken to improve the flow of people from hospital to their own home, with a focus on the Department of Health and Social Care’s polices on Admission Avoidance, Home First and Discharge to Assess, and the improvements that additional Better Care Fund monies have achieved both for individuals and for the health and care system.

The report discussed the impacts of COVID 19 on reablement services and residential care admissions. The following actions were outlined:

·         Following the reflections of winter 2022/23 it was agreed to invest additional Better Care Fund monies into community reablement services, and employ a Strategic System Lead who would oversee Transfers of Care on behalf of the NHS and Social Care.

·         With an investment of circa £400k an additional 16 FTE workers have been recruited into the PRIME reablement service.

·         Alongside this there has been investment via Central Government Market Sustainability Grants in the long term home care market, and a rebalancing of the Department’s Medium Term Financial Strategy based on investment in community services and a reduction in spend on bed based care, leading to an overall reduction in the forecast.

·         The Strategic System Lead for Transfers of Care commenced in post in September 2023 and the impact of her role so far and the work across the system is outlined in the presentation to the committee.

Further information was given on discharge data, community packages data, reablement data, and residential care data.

The Board asked about the scenarios that would cause residential care admissions, preventative measures for postponing the development of frailty, and for the numbers of hospital admissions where the hospital acts in the role of a hospice.

RESOLVED:

      i.        The Committee noted the report and presentation.

Presentation of Michael Brown and Yvonne Probert, Healthwatch Gateshead

The Committee received a presentation reviewing Healthwatch Gateshead’s Annual Update.

Healthwatch Gateshead provide:

·         a free signposting and information service for health and social care

·         outreach and engagement activities to enable them to hear people’s voices and to inform their work.

·         Research reports that demonstrate good practice and highlight gaps in services which is then raised with commissioners, service providers and partners.

The presentation gave an overview of the highlights from Healthwatch Gateshead’s Annual Report 2022/23. The Healthwatch Gateshead Committee agrees on 2 or 3 themes of work per year. Themes identified for 2024 are:

·         Mental Health

o   Women

o   Young people

·         Social Care

o   Impact of right care right person

o   Home care services

o   Digital Exclusion

·         Youthwatch

Further priorities are set in November following an annual survey to gather public experiences and the Annual Meeting which takes place annually in September.

Communities that the Committee will be focusing specific outreach and engagement for are:

·         Jewish Community

·         Refugees and Asylum Seekers

·         Young People

·         Women

The Committee discussed dentistry access, including education for children on taking care of oral health and the difficulty registering with a dentist and receiving appointment slots. The Committee also asked about women’s health and what the new Youthwatch initiative has captured so far.

RESOLVED:

      i.        The Committee noted the presentation.

Report of Barry Norman, Integrated Strategic Lead Commissioning, Integrated Adults and Social Care Services

A report was presented to update the Committee regarding the Capacity and Demand planning for Adult Social Care services at home, and work being undertaken on the new model to support the ‘Home First’ approach in Gateshead.

Gateshead continues to follow the Discharge to Assess approach but has now been able to plan resources for 2023-24 and 2024-25 and invest in required services to support people at home. This includes receiving ring-refenced funding from the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund, to support Adult Social Care markets for the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The report covered the current position of the model and its impact.

The Committee discussed staff retention and the use of direct payments.

RESOLVED:

      i.        The Committee discussed and noted the report and work undertaken by the service.

Report and presentation of Steph Downey and Joanne Thompson, Integrated Adults and Social Care Services

A presentation was given describing the practice model Strength Based Practice that is used in Adult Services and explains the methods used to embed the model within the service.

The service’s focus is on embedding strength-based practice within the service as a practice model. The report outlines how this is being embedded into the service, and the impact of this so far.

Adult Social Care’s work with the National Development Team for Inclusion launches in January 2024, supporting the development a Community Led Support model. The team have worked very successfully with a number of Local Authorities, on making the shift from traditional case management models to a strengths based model of care, helping people to have better outcomes, and ensuring that internal processes reflect ambition for strengths based practice.

RESOLVED:

      i.        The report was noted.

Report of the Chief Executive and the Strategic Director of Corporate Services & Governance

The Committee received an update on the 2023/24 Work Programme and notice to submit items for the 2024/25 Work Programme.

RESOLVED:

      i.        The Committee requested to add the following items to the 2024/25 Work Programme:

a.    End of life care and continuing health care

b.    Dentistry update

c.     Orthopaedics referrals