Agenda and draft minutes

For Members of the Board to note any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

·       Kim Wright (Chief Executive, Brent Council)

·       Robyn Doran (Director of Transformation, CNWL, and Brent ICP Director)

·       Councillor Donnelly-Jackson

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

Personal interests were declared as follows:

·       Councillor Nerva – Councillor Member of the North West London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB)

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 29 January 2026, be approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

None.

To provide an update on the development of Age-Friendly Brent, a borough-wide, resident-led initiative aimed at improving the quality of life for older people.

The Board received a presentation from Rita Nath-Dongre (Elders Voice), Fay Austin (Elders Voice) and Tony Burch (Age-Friendly Champion) which provided an update on the development of Age-Friendly Brent, a borough-wide, resident-led initiative aimed at improving the quality of life of older people. In presenting the update, the following key points were raised:

·       To date, Age-Friendly Brent had undertaken engagement with older residents and allies through conversations and focus groups, and joined the UK Network of Age-Friendly Communities. A Part-time Age-Friendly Project Co-ordinator had been recruited in July 2025 to help drive the agenda forward, and supported the launch of an Age-Friendly Survey which was circulated in September 2025. Age-Friendly Brent had then successfully officially launched in November 2025 and recruited Age-Friendly Ambassadors made up of local residents championing the voice of older people. An Age-Friendly Brent Newsletter had been developed to keep key stakeholders informed of the movement, and the Action Strategy and Action Plan for 2026-2028 had been drafted and included in the agenda papers alongside the report.

·       Some of the remaining challenges Age-Friendly Brent hoped to address were; accessible and reliable transport; GP, Care and support service access; digital exclusion and; outdoor safety including uneven pavements and lack of public toilets and resting spots on high streets.

·       The Strategy focused on creating more opportunities for older people to take part in cultural activities, physical activities, lifelong learning and community life in order to support both mental and physical wellbeing and enable older adults to stay active, connected and independent as they aged.

·       The project was guided by principles of co-design with older people, equity and inclusion, accessibility, prevention and independence and partnership delivery. Priorities were around accessible transport, outdoor spaces and buildings, community support and health services, social participation and housing. Underpinning all activity would be digital inclusion and communication.

·       Some of the actions due to be undertaken to achieve those priorities by March 2027 included; digital skills sessions delivered across the borough; pavement walkabout audits completed and reported; rest and toilet community pilot scheme launched; campaign launched for the removal of restrictions affecting travel concessions; audit of bus stopping and boarding practice piloted; Age-Friendly features in local publications and events; and an Age-Friendly councillor representative identified.

·       The Board was asked to support the strategy implementation and ensure support across Council departments and partners for an Age-Friendly approach in Brent, identify an Ageing Well Champion within the Council to work with the Cabinet, Chief Executive, Leader and other councillors on Age-Friendly initiatives, and consider ways to embed this approach into business as usual for all relevant partners going forward.

The Chair thanked colleagues for their presentation and invited contributions from those present. The following points were made:

·       The Chair expressed that he was pleased by the nature of the priorities identified by Age-Friendly Brent, which he described as viable, practical and representative of the voice of older residents in Brent. He recognised that many priorities were not unexpected, and there would now be a real expectation for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To provide an update on the newly designed and commissioned emotional wellbeing and mental health support offer for children and young people in Brent.

Sarah Nyandoro (Head of Place, Mental Health & Wellbeing (All Age), Brent ICP) introduced the report, which provided an update on specialist CAMHS arrangements, and plans for a neurodiversity profiling tool, a children and young people’s crisis safe hub, and a newly designed and commissioned emotional wellbeing and mental health support offer for Brent’s children and young people known as the Local Young People Resources and Advice Service (LYRA). In presenting the update, she highlighted the following key points:

·       She asked the Board to note the increase in demand for mental health services in Brent and the work being done to reduce the neurodiversity assessment waiting list as well as the work to develop a neurodiversity profiling tool. She highlighted the new crisis safe hub being developed in Brent and the pilot for children and young people focused on early intervention and prevention.

·       In relation to specialist CAMHS, she confirmed that services continued to see an increase in the number of children being referred for support and treatment. The CAMHS caseloads in Brent had increased by 22% in only the last 12 months, making up 1/3 of the overall CAMHS caseload of the 5 CNWL boroughs. Around 13 referrals a day were being received and, in the last 4 months, 1,096 new referrals to specialist CAMHS had been received, with a projected continued increase in caseload in the coming years.

·       In addressing the CAMHS demand, there had been some non-recurrent funding allocated in 2025-26 to Brent CAMHS to support in clearing the backlog of children and young people waiting, but she highlighted the challenge in receiving funding at the end of March that was required to be used by the end of March. As a result, it was unlikely that the non-recurrent uplift would decrease demand to an equal level with other CNWL boroughs, as the demand within Brent for specialist CAMHS was unsustainable.

·       She had previously signalled to the Board that there were also backlogs in the neurodiversity assessment waiting list. NWL ICB had provided non-recurrent funding to support clearing the assessment waiting list, in terms of numbers and length of wait time. This had helped reduce the assessment waiting list from 900 in December 2025 to 199 in March 2026, and reduced the waiting times from 34 months in December 2025 to 12 months in March 2026. She highlighted that 12 months was still a long time to wait for children and young people, and she had not been advised of any plans at an ICB level to provide additional resources to manage that level of demand for neurodiversity assessments.

·       In Brent, a neurodiversity profiling tool was being designed which would be a needs-based tool that could be used whilst children and young people waited for a diagnosis. This did not remove the need for a diagnosis for children and young people but helped identify need at an early stage prior to assessment, allowing schools and health providers to make adjustments and put in place care and education packages  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6a

To provide an update on the Brent Children’s Trust (BCT) work programme covering the period November 2025 to April 2026.

Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council) thanked Wendy Marchese (Strategic Partnerships Manager, Brent Council) for drafting the Brent Children’s Trust (BCT) update report and outlined the key headlines as follows:

• Neighbourhood working was a key priority for the BCT which was looking at how to bring together all neighbourhood initiatives across Brent Health Matters (BHM), Family Wellbeing Centres (FWCs) and Radical Place Leadership (RPL) into one ‘working in neighbourhoods’ approach.
• Early work in Harlesden on a neighbourhood approach had focused on reaching underserved families and reducing inequalities.
• The report made reference to Early Years and the approach partners were taking to support the new Early Years Strategy which had been published in March 2026, focused on a Best Start in Life approach.
• Mental health was a top concern discussed by BCT, and some useful workshops with partners had taken place in February 2026 to consider the system response to mental health, with a follow up scheduled in March 2026 which had set and agreed priority themes for the next two years.
• Agreed priorities for the next two years were; children’s mental health and wellbeing; health inequalities and neighbourhood working; Best Start in Life and; inclusion support and pathways. Based on these priorities, an action plan would be developed, and he emphasised the energy and enthusiasm amongst BCT members to take forward those areas in a thematic, cross-cutting way.

As no further issues were raised, the Chair drew the discussion to a close, thanking officers for a detailed report.

To present the first draft of a new Food Strategy for Brent, fulfilling commitment 1.1 of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Shadi Ambrosini (Public Health Strategist, Brent Council), Aisling Rogers (Health Improvement Delivery Specialist, Brent Council) and Alex Colas (Co-Chair of the Food Partnership Steering Group), presented the first draft of a new Food Strategy for Brent, which was commitment 1.1 of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Board Strategy. The report and presentation provided an update on the development of the Food Strategy and its related Food Action Plan and highlighted core themes, with a proposed plan for implementation. In presenting the strategy, they highlighted the following key points:

• The Food Strategy presented a long-term plan bringing together statutory organisations, voluntary and community sector partners, the private sector and residents to improve the way food was produced, accessed, consumed and disposed of, setting out key priorities and actions around health, sustainability and equity.
• The Strategy was based on shared values around food such as equity, dignity, partnership and community. 
• In terms of why Brent needed a food strategy, it was highlighted that Brent faced significant challenges with rising food insecurity, diet-related ill-health and environmental pressures. Poor diet contributed to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease which placed strain on services and reduced residents’ quality of life. Additionally, the cost-of-living crisis and unequal access to healthy food deepened health inequalities. As such, it was seen that a co-ordinated approach was essential to address these issues and create a food system that worked for all.
• Figures were provided to demonstrate those points; the prevalence of type 2 diabetes amongst Brent residents was at 8.1% for 2024-25 compared to the London average of 7.2%; the hypertension rate in Brent for 2026 was at 13.3% compared to the London average of 10.6% and; in 2024-25, 38.1% of year six pupils had been diagnosed as obese/overweight compared to a London average of 24.8%. This correlated to other measures of inequality, for example, 33% of people in Brent lived in poverty, with 1,855 visits to Brent Hubs for food related supported between 2025-2026, 21.8% of pupils receiving Free School Meals in 2025, 57% of eligible families receiving cash support through the Healthy Start scheme to support the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables in 2025, and around 17% of Brent residents in receipt of Universal Credit.
• Brent’s Food Strategy was built around six Food Missions seeking to address the most pressing food-related challenges and highlighted a deeply interconnected food system with shared values. Each of the six missions had three core objectives with three distinct solutions. Those missions were; to improve access to healthy and affordable food and tackle diet-related health inequalities; to help reduce insecurity and ensure everyone could access affordable and healthy food with dignity; to support the development of food literacy and skills in schools and communities; to promote good food jobs, skills, training and opportunities within the local food economy; to encourage growing food in the community and at home and support access to resources and; to empower residents and institutions to reduce food waste, cut carbon emissions and support more sustainable food choices.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To propose amendments to the Brent Health and Wellbeing Board Terms of Reference to allow relevant Council Directors to be included as voting members.

Wendy Marchese (Strategic Partnerships Manager, Brent Council) introduced the report, which set out an initial proposal to amend the Brent Health and Wellbeing Board Terms of Reference to allow relevant Council Directors to be included as voting members. In outlining the rationale behind this proposal, she advised that the proposal was to ensure that all members could participate in the Board in equal partnership and ensure governance arrangements reflected current legislation and evolving system expectations, bringing Brent more in line with practice across other local Health and Wellbeing Boards. In concluding her introduction, she advised that the report was intended as an initial step to ensure the Board’s arrangements were up to date and ready for inclusion in the refreshed Constitution. A wider review of the Terms of Reference was expected as the system evolved and the Integrated Care Board became a 13 borough North and West London ICB. As such, the Board was requested to agree in principle to the initial change to voting membership and agree for amendments to the Terms of Reference to reflect that change to be brought forward through the appropriate governance processes.

The Chair thanked Wendy Marchese for her introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following points raised:

• Councillor Board members felt that the report did not detail the advantages on a practical level of expanding voting rights to senior officers of the Council, expressing that they felt it would reduce their own democratic voice on the Board, and confuse the operations of the Board when officers who presented reports were also voting members.
• In response to a query in relation to section 3.1.2 of the report detailing a number of local authorities whose membership arrangements included senior officers as voting members, Wendy Marchese advised that the list detailed examples of where this was done and not the entirety of local authorities who had those arrangements in place.
• Councillor Nerva provided further context behind the proposal, referencing the Health and Wellbeing Act 2012 which specified who the relevant members should be on a Health and Wellbeing Board, which he described as a unique body in the public sector bringing together partners on an equal basis from the local authority, various parts of the NHS, HealthWatch, and other organisations the Board wished to invite, such as the care sector representatives Brent’s Board currently included. There had been an assumption within the 2012 legislation that local authority statutory officers, in this case the Director of Adult Social Care, Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Community Development, and Director of Public Health, were members of Health and Wellbeing Board in their own right. Rachel Crossley (Corporate Director Service Reform and Strategy, Brent Council) further added that the Health and Wellbeing Board was not a traditional Council Committee but a partnership Board focused on the wider health and wellbeing system rather than on executive decisions.
• The Board were not minded to agree to the recommendations of the report at this stage, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To discuss and agree any future agenda items for the Health and

Wellbeing Board.

The Chair gave members the opportunity to highlight any items they would like to see the Health and Wellbeing Board consider in the future, adding that this would be the final meeting of the current Council administration.

In terms of future items, it was proposed that a SEND update would be brought to the Board once the Council had submitted its SEND plans to the DfE. The Neighbourhood Plan would also be brought forward with proposals on governance for that going forward.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director – Democratic and Corporate Governance or their representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.