March

2014

Health & Wellbeing Board Newsletter

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Health & wellbeing board

sign charter for disabled

children ............................ 1

We sign up to the London

Living wage ....................... 2

Public Health .................... 2

Tower Hamlets Housing

Forum .............................. 3

East London Foundation

Trust ................................ 3

H&W and mental health

strategy ............................ 3

Time to Change campaign 4

HWBB Member Profile .... 4

Council .............................. 6

JSNA .................................. 6

Healthwatch ..................... 7

Barts Health NHS Trust ... 8

TH Clinical Commissioning

Group ............................... 8

SPOTLIGHT ON Better Care Fund…………………......7

Dear Partners

Welcome to the latest issue of the Health and Wellbeing Bulle-tin, which is published three times a year. The bulletin is produced for all members of the Health and Well-being Board and members are encouraged to share this with colleagues. The aim of this Bulletin is to alert members to key developments, research and policy, consultations and events. You will see that the format of the bulletin has changed. This is

now presented in more of a newsletter format. If you have any comments on this please contact Dunya Dervis. If you have any feedback on the content of the Bulletin, or ideas for improving it, please contact Charlotte Saini or Leo Nicholas.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING BOARD SIGNS UP TO

THE DISABLED CHILDREN’S CHARTER

At its meeting on 6th February, the Board agreed to sign up

to the Disabled Children’s Charter. The Charter outlines

seven key commitments which the Board will need to monitor in order

to improve outcomes for children and young people with disabilities. A

needs assessment on children with disabilities was also produced as

part of this work. The Disabled Children’s Charter

Further issues of the HWBB

Bulletin are scheduled for June 2014 and

October 2014. If you have news or events

you would like featured for the next Bulle-

tin please contact Charlotte or Leo by

1st May 2014.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING BOARD COMMITS TO THE

LONDON LIVING WAGE

At the September meeting of

the Health and Wellbeing

Board (30 September 2014),

the Board committed to pay-

ing the London Living Wage,

affirming the Board’s belief

that fair pay promotes a

healthier life.

In Tower Hamlets, the Health

and Wellbeing Board is made

up of statutory and voluntary

partner organisations. The

statutory partners, Tower

Hamlets Council (including

Public Health), Barts NHS

Trust, East London Founda-

tion Trust and Tower Hamlets

CCG have all confirmed that

they pay the London Living

Wage to all of their own staff.

The payment of the London

Living Wage will also be made

into a requirement for any

contracts they commission

from third parties. The board

is now working with its

non-statutory partners from

the voluntary and housing

sectors to see how they can

move towards adopting the

London Living Wage.

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ALL PAPERS

FROM THE

FEBRUARY

BOARD ARE

AVAILABLE

ONLINE.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Since the last update, Public Health received approval through Cabinet for its pro-curement plan. This has been a fantastic opportunity to look at what we have commissioned in the past, learn from it and look forward to innovative ways of delivering public health programmes locally and take full advantage of the op-portunities our move to the council are creating.

We have taken a fresh look at our commissioning around a range of issues including healthy eating, physical activi-ty, healthy weight, tobacco and sexual health. Through the pro-

cess we have been seeking to encourage even greater lev-els of involvement of local or-ganisations working together to promote healthy lives as well as providing opportunities for local employment. In view of the particular importance of early years and childhood that has frequently been discussed at Board meetings, it is exciting that there is currently a review of child health being led by public health focussing on the role of school nursing in pro-moting a vision of health in schools and also anticipating the transfer of health visiting to the council in 2015. For more information contact: Anoushka Lakhtaria

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East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) Department of Psychological Medicine Opens for Business. The Tower Hamlets Department of Psy-chological Medicine commenced on 6 January 2014. This is a one-stop shop for people of all ages who re-quire mental health assessment in the A&E department at The Royal London Hospital or who are inpatients at The Royal London Hospital, Mile End Hospital or the London Chest Hospital. This is an evidence-based ap-proach based on the RAID model – Rapid Assessment, Interface and Discharge, developed by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust. The team will combine expertise in adult and older people’s mental health, including specialist alcohol and drug support.

The overall aim of the service is to prevent unnecessary admission into (mental health) in-patient care, reduce length of stay on acute general wards, resolve immedi-ate issues and concerns and direct patients to primary and secondary services to provide on-going care. For more information click here.

Annual Plan Consultation in Tower Hamlets

The outcome of the Trust’s Annual Plan consultation meetings will be discussed and debated in a Trust-wide consultation meeting on Thursday 6 March 2014 from 5:00pm – 7:00pm also at Toynbee Hall. For more infor-mation contact Janet Flaherty

The Tower Hamlets Housing Forum held a joint workshop with the Health and Wellbeing Board on in February. The workshop to looked at ways in which health and hous-ing organisations can work better together to deliver the Health and Wellbeing strategy and improve outcomes for local people. Feed-back from the workshop will be provided to the Health and Wellbe-ing Board and the Tower Hamlets

Housing Forum.

Poplar HARCA has been commissioned by Tower Hamlets Public Health to deliver the Aberfeldy Well London programme, which aims to gener-ate a resident-led approach to promoting health and wellbeing in areas of poor health. The programme is gen-erating significant resident engage-

ment -including two successful Par-ticipatory Budget events and the Aberfeldy fete. Four apprentices have been recruited by the pro-gramme, and a local organisation which uses Community Organising principles has been fantastic in en-gaging many residents, and has it-self grown in leaps and bounds.

Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association is also lead-ing on one of the UK’s 12 Our Place pilots projects. The pressures fac-ing health services are such that health providers will increasingly rely on a broader range of partner-ships to improve health outcomes. Locally, Diabetes is a key feature and the Association has been work-ing with Public Health and the CCG to explore co-design, co-production and the role Housing can play to improve the health and wellbeing of its residents.

For more information contact Sarah Fullegar

TOWER HAMLETS HOUSING FORUM

TIME TO CHANGE

UPDATE

The Council is currently looking

towards implementing an over-

arching Mental Health policy for

employees as part of the Mind-

ful Employers accreditation. The

policy is currently undergoing

consultation with the Trade Un-

ions with an aim to implement

this Spring.

Additionally, Thursday 6th Feb-

ruary marked Time To Talk Day

where the Council and its HWBB

partners held a day long cam-

paign to encourage staff and

Tower Hamlets residents to talk

about their wellbeing. THH, the

Idea Stores and Mind in Tower

Hamlets will all be taking part.

As follow up from the Time to

Change pledge made by HWBB

members in October 2013, a

Time to Change working group

is being set up to keep track of

the progress made against each

organisation’s Time To Change

action plan and to share best

practice and encourage partner-

ship working around the stigma

associated with Mental Health.

HWBB MEMBER PROFILE

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DR SOMEN BANERJEE

INTERIM DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC

HEALTH

During training, Somen gained wide experience working in public health with the World Health Organisation, Department of Health, NICE, Public Health Observatories and the British Heart Foundation Academic Unit in Oxford University. He did his medi-cal training at Guys Hospital and be-fore starting his public health train-ing worked in the spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and spent a year as a GP registrar in. He also has a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford Uni-versity.

WHY DO YOU THINK HWBBS ARE IMPORTANT?

The big opportunity of Health and Wellbeing Boards is that leaders across the health economy not only come together to develop a shared vision of health and wellbeing but they also have the levers to make change happen.

My experience of working in Tower Hamlets has taught me that the ‘impossible is possible’ because there has always been a refusal across the partnership to accept that a borough with high levels of deprivation should not have the best services. This principle is what binds the members of the Board together across organisations and sectors.

Through a relentless focus on the priorities of the Health and Wellbe-ing Strategy and collective mobilisation of resources (people and money), I think we have an unprecedented opportunity to combine ‘vision with action’ and improve the health and wellbeing of people in the borough.

WHAT ARE YOUR 3 MAIN PRIORITIES FOR HEALTH AND

WELLBEING IN TOWER HAMLETS OVER THE NEXT THREE

YEARS?

Nelson Mandela said ‘Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is

merely daydreaming,

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Firstly, the overwhelming evidence shows that health inequalities are not inevitable but to change the pattern of generations requires intervention from before birth,

through early years and childhood. With health visiting coming to the council and the oppor-tunity to redesign school nursing, I would like to see Tower Hamlets leading the way in estab-lishing a comprehensive, integrated child health system from maternity to adolescence so that children born and growing up in Tower Hamlets have a fairer chance to lead healthy lives.

Secondly, despite recent improvements, we cannot afford to be complacent about tobacco. Smoking remains the biggest cause of preventa-ble disease in a borough with amongst the high-est rates in the country. In New York, they made reducing smoking levels a big priority and cur-rent levels are 14% compared to 21% in London (they used to be similar to London). It shows what can be achieved with high level will and ambition. We need to continue to help people quit, but we also have to extend even further

our work to ‘denormalise’ smoking in the bor-ough through enforcement of the smoking ban, tackling illegal tobacco and stopping kids starting in the first place.

Finally, prevention needs to be built into our

system. Wherever people access service in Tower Hamlets, whether NHS, Council or non statutory, there is an opportuni-ty to provide con-sistent advice, infor-mation, signposting and support to help people lead healthier lives. In three years times, not just in health and social care services but also across ‘non health’ services such as housing and em-ployment.

HOW WILL WE KNOW IF HWBBS ARE REALLY

MAKING A DIFFERENCE?

In one sense, it is about above trend improve-ments in the high level health trends monitored through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment such as health life expectancy, premature death

from the major killers (cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic lung disease), smoking prevalence, obesity, diabetes and infectious dis-eases.

However, it is ultimately about the outcomes that matter to people. We know we have some fantastic services in Tower Hamlets and it is in-spiring to hear the testimonies of people who have used them. These are services that that listen to their users and develop them in part-nership. We will know that we have made a difference when the people living and working in Tower Hamlets tell us that we have. That is why it so important that the Health and Wellbe-ing Board is continually engaging with and lis-tening to the population that it serves.

‘Prevention needs to be built into our system”.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

MEETING: HEALTH & WELLBEING BOARD

WHEN: 24TH MARCH 5PM—7PM

WHERE: MULBERRY PLACE MP701

Agenda and papers will be

available online here a week before the meeting.

COUNCIL

The Council is working closely with the CCG to integrate health and social care. A key driver of this work will be the Better Care Fund (formerly known as the Integrated Transformation Fund). This was announced in June 2013 and brings together national-ly £3.8bn of different funding streams largely but not total-ly from the NHS, with the ex-press purpose of the funding being re-directed locally on health and social care to drive closer integration and improve outcomes for pa-tients and service users and carers.

The Health and Wellbeing Board will have responsibility for setting the direction of travel and priorities for the programme and oversight of progress through its sub-group the Integrated Care Board. The planning for the use of this funding will be ex-pected to show a golden thread to this Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Joint Strategic Needs Assess-ment. The better Care Fund paper and action plan will be presented at the HWBB in February and then again in March for final sign-off.

For more infor-mation contact Leo Nicholas or Charlotte Saini

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Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Service

The new Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Strategy was approved by Tower Hamlets Council’s Cabinet on 8th January and the Tower Ham-lets Partnership Executive on 30th January 2014.

This is a multi-agency partnership strategy which aims to ‘support the sector’s role in achieving One Tower Hamlets and providing excellent services which will improve the quality of life of local people.’ The Strategy has five key objectives: VCS shaping strategy and services Building strong community leader-ship and social capital

VCS resilience and financial stability Strategic commissioning and copro-duction Monitoring, evaluating and demon-strating impact. The next VCS conference will be held on 27 March 2014. This year’s theme is VCS independence in a changing and challenging world. We are lining up stalls, exciting speakers and workshops. Please save the date and check THCVS website for more information and to book your places for the conference and its many workshops.

For more information contact Khadiru Mahdhi

The JSNA Reference Group is now established and has representation from the Council, CCG, Health Watch and the Voluntary Sector. The JSNA summary document has been re-freshed to update data and incorpo-rate findings from the 2011 Census. A stocktake of JSNA factsheets is be-ing conducted to identify gaps and priorities updates. Priorities for in

depth needs assessment are being identified. A communications plan is being developed to disseminate key findings across the council, NHS, vol-untary sector and other partners. The DPH Annual Public Health Re-port is in draft from and will focus on a life course analysis of health and integration of health messages by lifecourse. For more information please contact Anoushka Lakhtaria

UPDATE

JSNA (Joint Strategic Needs Assessment)

HEALTH AND WELLBEING STRATEGY

AND MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGY

The Health and Wellbeing Board met on 6 Feb-

ruary and formally ratified the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, as well as

approving the Mental Health Strategy. The health and wellbeing strategy

will be published and available online shortly.

February Board Feedback

HEALTHWATCH

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Healthwatch Tower Hamlets has launched a more user friendly web-site with up to date information on local Healthwatch activities and better links to links to national and regional strategy and policy devel-opments. www.healthwatchtowerhamlets.co.uk

The site is gradually building & sign-posting information that aims to provide patients, carers and users with information to enable them to make informed choices about the services. Located on the ‘Find Ser-vices’ page you can access ‘NHS Choices’ and search for services in your area based on your postcode. Specific signposting information is also being developed.

Healthwatch Tower Hamlets has agreed to fund local community and voluntary groups to work in partnership on three key projects, due to start in February 2014: Housebound – to gather infor-mation on the experience of house-bound residents particularly those who are Bangladeshi, Somali or live alone. Patient Leaders Programme – to recruit; up skill, support and incen-tivise patient leaders to take part in commissioning, quality review and service design. Barts Health patient voices - to en-able groups who may regularly hear feedback on Barts Health services to collect that feedback and send it to Healthwatch.

A new group of local volunteers have been recruited and trained to undertake Healthwatch visits to health and social care service pro-viders. Healthwatch have undertak-en twelve visits this year to date and the information gathered has been used to report on the quality of GP practices and Barts Health in particular. Reports are available on the Healthwatch site to download.

Contact Healthwatch

For more information: Web www.healthwatchtowerhamlets.co.uk

email in-fo@healthwatchtowerhamlets.co.uk Phone 020 8223 8922

S

BETTER CARE FUND

In the 2013 Spending Round, the Government announced a national £3.8 billion pooled budget for health and social care services, building on the current NHS trans-fer to social care services of £1 bil-lion. The Spending Round docu-ment stated that ‘the Government will introduce a £3.8 billion pooled budget for health and social care services, shared between the NHS and local authorities, to deliver better outcomes and greater effi-ciencies through more integrated services for older and disabled peo-ple’.

Local Authorities and Clinical Com-missioning Groups (CCGs) are re-quired to Submit a jointly agreed DRAFT Better Care Fund Planning Template to the Local Government Association (LGA) and NHS England

by 14 February 2014. This is an ex-ternally imposed deadline. The FI-NAL Better Care Fund Planning Template must be submitted by 4th April 2014. NHS England guidance states that both of these templates need to be agreed and authorised by Health and Wellbeing Boards.

The Better Care Fund has been initi-ated by government to promote a greater level of cooperation, joint planning and integrated delivery of health and social care. The recon-figuration and redesign of health and social care services is central to the intentions inherent in the Health and Social Care Act and the Care Bill. Funding mechanisms are likely to become increasingly com-bined into pooled arrangements, underpinned by integrated working and focused on improving health

and wellbeing, supporting more people in community based settings and services and reducing demand on acute care. The Better Care Fund provides an opportunity to transform care so that people are provided with better integrated care and support. It encompasses a substantial level of funding and it will help deal with demographic pressures in the health and social care system. The Better Care Fund is an opportunity to take the integration agenda for-ward at scale and pace, building on the WELC integrated care pro-gramme, and successful bid to be-come a “Pioneer”.

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Barts Health NHS Trust

CQC reports into Barts Health: The CQC published its reports on Barts Health this month following their inspection of its six hospitals in No-vember. The report on the Trust is tough but fair. It recognises the chal-lenges, where they have made pro-gress, some areas of good practice, and confirms the care, commitment and compassion of staff. Crucially, it highlights where they need to im-prove. Progress has already been made, as the CQC acknowledged by removing the three warning notices issued at Whipps Cross University Hospital last year. Many other im-provements, including the swift re-placement of broken equipment have been made, and the Trust is redoubling their efforts to address the compliance requirements and other improvements set out in the reports. Barts Health is fully com-

mitted to working with staff, part-ners and patients to deliver im-proved quality care and patient ex-perience across the organisation. Read the CQC reports in full here.

Joined up winter care: Barts Health began working in September with local authorities, GP commissioners and other partners to put in place a comprehensive winter care plan to help meet the extra demand our hospitals face during winter, and to make sure our patients, especially the frail elderly, get the best possi-ble care. In addition to the support which will be provided to health ser-vices and the emergency depart-ments. The Trust is also supporting a cross-borough awareness campaign throughout the winter months about the importance of only using A&E in an emergency and what ser-vices to use for different healthcare needs.

Barts Health gets seal of approval As part of Aca-

demic Health Science Centre: In No-vember last year, the Department of Health announced that it is extend-ing centre of excellence status for the next five years to UCLPartners – a partnership between Barts Health and seven other leading health and education organisations. As one of only six academic health science centres in England, UCLPartners’ aim is to improve patient care and healthcare delivery and bring scien-tific discoveries from the lab to the ward, operating theatre and general practice, to enable patients to bene-fit from innovative new treatments.

For more information on the Trust, please visit www.bartshealth.nhs.uk or contact Jo Carter.

TOWER HAMLETS CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUP

The partnership of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham forest CCGs has been selected as one of only 14 initiatives across England to secure a Pioneer Award for our Integrated Care programme. The programme aims to put the patient in control of their health so they can live well by leading more socially active and in-dependent lives, resulting in a re-duction in admissions to hospital, and enabling access to treatment more quickly. Find out more here.

Figures released by NICE show that GPs in Tower Hamlets are out-performing the UK in a range of im-portant areas. Data from the Quali-ty and Outcomes Framework Report

(QOF) shows that GPs in Tower Hamlets are: the top performers in England for the management of blood pressure and cholesterol in people with diabetes and coronary heart disease;

in the top 10 in England for chronic kidney disease and hypertension;

first in London for blood pressure control in chronic kidney disease.

For further information go to www.nice.org.uk

The CCG held a 2013 Health Conver-sation open on the 19 October at the Idea Store in Whitechapel to in-form the 2014-15 planning pro-cess. The day was well received with an estimated 200 local resi-dents attending. A full report that analyses the feedback received at the event is available from Nicola

Weaver.

The CCG continues to work with Barts Health to address some of the quality and performance issues it has been experiencing and will con-tinue to support Barts Health in im-plementing the recommendations arising from the recent CQC inspec-tion report. The Tower Hamlets CCG has produced a Guide to your Local Clinical Commission Group, a hand-book style publication which pro-vides a high level overview of what the CCG does, what are commission-ing plans are and how much money we spend on commissioning healthcare. Its available in hard copy and is also on our website www.towerhamletsccg.nhs.uk For more information please contact Ellie Hobart