Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16 May 2023 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 May 2023 were agreed as an accurate record, subject to the correction that the Shadow Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Social Care had attended the meeting remotely.

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and other registrable and non-registrable interests they may have in relation to any item(s) of business on today’s agenda.

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business for the consideration of the Sub-Committee.

The Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is presented with a report on the Discharge Integration Frontrunner programme, which aims to bring together transformation efforts from across Croydon to develop an effective, integrated system across hospital, social and community care.

The Sub-Committee is recommended to:

1.            Note the strategic direction on the Integrated Discharge Frontrunner programme.

2.            Comment on the highlighted risks and challenges from the presentation; identifying topics the Committee wish future reports to focus on.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 13 to 40 of the agenda which provided an overview of the Discharge Integration Frontrunner programme. The aim of the programme was to transform the delivery of the hospital discharge process by bringing together partners from across Croydon to deliver an effective, integrated system across hospital, social and community care. The report had been included on the agenda to update the Sub-Committee on the strategic direction of the programme and to provide the opportunity to comment on the potential risks and challenges.

The Chief Executive of the Croydon Health Service NHS Trust (CHS) and Croydon’s Place Based Leader for Health, Matthew Kershaw, the Council’s Corporate Director for Adult Social Care & Health, Annette McPartland, Rachel Flowers, Director of Public Health and the Programme Manager for One Croydon, Laura Jenner attended the meeting for this item, to introduce the report and answer questions arising.

During the introduction, it was noted that Croydon had been selected as one of only six pilot sites across the UK for the Integrated Discharge Frontrunner programme. Participating in the pilot programme provided the opportunity for health and social care partners to build upon the existing integration in the borough delivered through the One Croydon Alliance. The pilot would allow different options to be tested across the system, with the aim of improving the discharge process.

The starting point for the process was a deep dive across services to gather as much data as possible on the whole system, in order to identify the key pressure points. The data confirmed that the delays within the hospital discharge process had increased since the pandemic and although there was existing integration between teams, this could be improved. For instance, several areas of duplication had been identified, which through smarter working would deliver a better, more efficient service.

After the data gathering and analysis process, a series of workshops were arranged, with over 200 participants from across the health, social care and voluntary sectors to shape the plan going forward. It was highlighted that the voluntary sector would be a key partner in the delivery of the programme to improve hospital discharge. Healthwatch Croydon had been engaged to gather feedback from residents on their experience of the hospital discharge process, which would also be used to inform the delivery of the programme.

Following the introduction of the report, the Sub-Committee had the opportunity to ask questions on the information provided. The first question highlighted the importance of staff being able to access a patient’s medical history and questioned whether the current system was able to provide sufficient access to data sharing. It was acknowledged that the system was not as good as it should be and part of the programme would be looking at the integration of IT systems to ensure there was an improved flow of data. This workstream would also look to reduce the amount of manual data entry required and the number of times patients were asked the same  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22/22

This item is an opportunity for the Health and Social Care Sub-Committee to consider areas it wishes to schedule for scrutiny in the year ahead.

The Sub-Committee is recommended:

1     Note the draft version of its Work Programme, as presented in the report.

2     Consider whether there are any other items that should be added to the work programme for scoping as a result of the discussions held during the meeting.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 41 to 46 of the agenda which set out provisional version of its work programme to allow the opportunity for further topics to be put forward for consideration, prior to the work programme being submitted to the next meeting of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee on 25 July 2023 for sign off.

To inform the work programme of the Sub-Committee, Gordon Kay, the Healthwatch Croydon co-optee, provided an update on his organisation’s latest publications. There had been two recently completed reviews, firstly on the experience of patients using the London Ambulance Service, the report for which can be viewed here. The second review was on the MyCare online patient access system offered by Croydon Health Service NHS Trust. This report can be viewed here. The Sub-Committee thanked Mr Kay for all the work undertaken by Healthwatch Croydon on behalf of patients.

The Sub-Committee discussed potential areas to be reviewed as part of its work programme for the year ahead. These included dental provision in the borough, the forthcoming Dementia Strategy, access to mental health services for young people, the impact of health inequalities, the availability of menopausal health services, the impact of the Integrated Care System on services in the borough and the preparation for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of Adult Social Care.

It was agreed that the Chair and Vice Chair would review these items to establish whether they should be included in the work programme for 2023-23.

Resolved: That the draft work programme for the Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is noted.

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This motion was not required.