Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Spencer Flower, Jan Britton, Patricia Miller and Chief Supt. Richard Bell.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2023.

Proposed by Sam Crowe, seconded by Jonathan Price.

Decision:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2023 be confirmed and signed.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made at the meeting.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via Microsoft Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  For further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to george.dare@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Friday, 15 March 2024.

When submitting your question or statement please note that: 

·         You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

·         a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

·         It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

·         Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

·         when submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder) 

·         Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting. 

·         questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda. 

·         all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.   

There was no public participation.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

The submissions must be emailed in full to george.dare@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Friday, 15 March 2024. 

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13 

There were no questions from councillors.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To consider the report by the Head of Service for Older People and Prevention Commissioning.

The Head of Service for Older People and Prevention Commissioning introduced the Better Care Fund quarterly reporting template and case study. A presentation, which is attached to these minutes, highlighted the performance against the Better Care Fund metrics, the spend and Activity, and the case study on the Homes First Accelerator.

The Board discussed the report and members made the following points:

·         There were voluntary sector initiatives for helping with discharge from hospital.

·         There was a start to looking at carers as part of the Better Care Fund, however there also needed to be conversations about young people and care leavers. 

·         There needed to be a piece of work that looked more widely at the Better Care Fund, rather than just the parts relevant to the Board.

·         Further working at place and neighbourhood levels would improve working with community initiatives.

·         Senior leaders needed to have an understanding of the Better Care Fund and where the resources were going.

·         Healthwatch were planning to create patient diaries on the integration of care.

·         The Better Care Fund was a 2-year plan however there were opportunities to change the 2^nd year.

·         The Better Care Fund was a pooled fund, so it would be possible to include budgets from Children’s Services and Housing in it. 

Proposed by Sam Crowe, seconded by Jonathan Price.

Decision:

That the Better Care Fund Quarter 3 2023/24 Quarterly Reporting Template and supporting Case Study, be retrospectively approved.

To consider the report by the Team Leader – Intelligence.

The Director of Public Health introduced the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Narrative Update. It represented insight from service users and front-line staff, as well as data which is normally included. The JSNA was a high-level strategic summary and a statutory responsibility. It was framed against the priorities in the Integrated Care Strategy and needed to be taken into account when developing the Integrated Neighbourhood Teams. The Director thanked everyone who had taken part in preparing the JSNA.

Members discussed the report and raised the following points:

·         There was an improvement in the number of young people in treatment for drugs and alcohol.

·         Isolation was an issue for people living in rural areas. People needed to be empowered to bring people together in communities.

·         There was alignment between this report and the Better Care Fund and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams reports. Thought needed to be given to how pooled budgets could be used, like the Better Care Fund, to improve health in individual neighbourhoods.

·         Ensuring that mental health and inequality in suicide was not being overlooked.

Proposed by Simon Wraw, seconded by Jonathan Price.

Decision:

1.    That the updated Dorset Joint Strategic Needs Assessment be noted.

2.    That the publication of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment be approved.

To consider the report by the Deputy Director of Place – NHS Dorset.

The Deputy Director of Place, NHS Dorset, introduced the report on the development of Place and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams.

Board members discussed the report and raised the following points:

·         There were services that overlap with services being provided by GPs. It was important to see what was right for local populations.

·         Co-production in Portland was important and a good example of partnership working.

·         With regard to who would be leading and resourcing Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, consideration is being given to this so there were options depending on the direction of the new administration following the local elections.

·         It would not be necessary or right to have some specialist services in a local place. There needed to be honest conversations about this.

·         There would need to be evidence to ensure that integrated neighbourhood teams were wrapping around communities.

·         That Healthwatch was involved with the leadership group, and that the Dorset Parent Carer Council should be part of the group to ensure that youth voice was involved.

Proposed by Jonathan Price, seconded by Cllr Somper.

Decision:

That the Board endorse and agree the approach to implementing integrated neighbourhood teams, based on the “Portland Together” approach.

To consider the report by the Programme Manager (Families First for Children Pathfinder) and the Independent Chair of the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership.

The Executive Director of People – Children introduced the report and gave a presentation. The Families First for Children Pathfinder included four key reform strands which were Family Help, Child Protection, Family Networks and Safeguarding Partners; each of these strands were summarised. The locality model for Children’s Services had been enhanced through around 60 new roles which were part of the Pathfinder reform.

The Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Annual Report was in partnership with BCP Council. The key areas of the report were highlighted and the priorities for 2023-25 were outlined. Although there were shared priorities between both councils, different approaches were taken depending on the needs of the local area.

The Chairman congratulated the Executive Director on the work completed on the Pathfinder and the successful recruitment to posts. She raised a concern around the risk of funding not being continued for the pathfinder. The Executive Director responded that the Department for Education has provided some additional funding and there have been indications of a new funding arrangement for councils. The new posts had been recruited on a permanent basis.

To consider the Health and Wellbeing Board’s Work Programme.

Members suggested items for the work programme which included:

·         Continued oversight of integrated neighbourhood development.

·         The Physical Activity Strategy

·         Suicide prevention through the Mental Health Delivery Board

·         Tobacco control work in hospitals.

·         Switching to vaping: Swap to Stop

Due to the importance of housing on health and wellbeing, it was suggested that a representative of the Housing Directorate be invited to join the membership of the board. This had full agreement from board members and options to update the Terms of Reference for this change to take place would be explored with the Monitoring Officer.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer would write to NHS England to consider whether they would like to appoint to their vacancy on the Board.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.  

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.  

There was no exempt business.