Agenda and minutes

• Councillor Matin, substituted by Councillor Lorber
• Councillor Ethapemi, substituted by Councillor Long
• Councillor Afzal

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:

Ø  Councillor Ethapemi – spouse employed by NHS

Ø  Councillor Rajan-Seelan – spouse employed by NHS

Ø  Councillor Collymore – Member of ICP Board

Ø  Councillor Tazi Smith – employed by health provider

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

There were no deputations received.

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

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 January 2024 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

The Committee asked whether the issues with access to the Roundwood School experienced by Roundwood Youth Club to the Club been resolved. Chatan Popat (Strategy Lead – Scrutiny, Brent Council) would follow this up with officers and provide an update to the Committee.

To provide an account of substance misuse treatment and recovery services in Brent, including local needs assessments, national policy, funding and commissioning arrangements, and the involvement of service users in the design and delivery of services.

Councillor Neil Nerva (Cabinet Member for Public Health and Adult Social Care) introduced the report, which outlined the work of the substance misuse treatment and recovery service in Brent. The report highlighted the local needs assessment which had been undertaken and the national policy challenge within which this work was undertaken, including details of funding and commissioning arrangements. He highlighted the work of B3, a recovery service ran by service users, as a fundamental part of Brent’s approach to substance misuse.

In continuing to introduce the report, Andy Brown (Head of  Substance Misuse, Brent Council) highlighted the following points:

• The importance of viewing the drug and alcohol misuse service in a wider context was highlighted, as the service contributed to a wide agenda for the Council including the borough plan priority ‘healthier Brent’, with success defined by increasing numbers of local residents engaged with services, and the borough plan priority ‘safe and secure borough’, as problematic drug and alcohol use was associated with crime and anti-social behaviour with an effective treatment offer contributing to the reduction of that. As part of that, it was important for the service to work closely with the police and criminal justice system.
• The national drug and alcohol strategy, ‘From Harm to Hope’, was developed in 2021 in response to Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs and treatment. The strategy focused local activity on 3 key areas; breaking supply chains; delivering a world class treatment and recovery system; and achieving a generational shift in demand for drugs. The report presented to the Committee focused on the second key area, developing a world class treatment and recovery system.
• Brent required its service provider, VIA New Beginnings, to provide a large amount of data to the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), and through that, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) provided anonymous reports which enabled the Council to monitor and benchmark performance and review insights into local patterns. The report outlined the estimated figures for Brent in terms of number of users of different substances. The most recent NDTMS data showed that there were 1,369 local residents in Brent engaged in structured treatment services, so although the penetration rate appeared low, the services that Brent commissioned were working to full capacity.
• There were no waiting times to access treatment services in Brent and there was a 24-hour helpline available to anyone worried about their or someone else’s substance use. The services also continually reached out to registered clinicians and partners to encourage referrals. Referrals into the service were running at over 100 per month, with an average of 50 new residents coming onto the treatment caseload of VIA New Beginnings per month.
• There were many barriers to treatment, notably an individual’s willingness to recognise they have a problem and need help, and part of the role of the service was to minimise those barriers.
• A needs assessment had been undertaken in 2023, showing that the prevalence of alcohol misuse was lower in Brent,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To describe the process of community engagement which shaped the current Health and Wellbeing Strategy and its five themes and provide an update on the progress against the commitments of the strategy. The report describes the approach the Health and Wellbeing Board will be taking to update the Strategy for 2024-25.

Dr Melanie Smith (Director of Public Health, Brent Council) introduced the report, which provided an update on the Brent Health and Wellbeing Strategy. In introducing the report, she highlighted that the Health and Wellbeing Strategy belonged to the Health and Wellbeing Board which brought together the Council with the NHS and Healthwatch. It was a requirement to have a Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and Brent’s earlier strategies were very focused on health and care, but the current strategy reflected a far greater process of community engagement resulting in a much broader strategy not just covering the work of the Council and NHS but a much wider perspective of action. There were 5 themes within the strategy, and the report updated against those. Brent Health and Wellbeing Board had recently reaffirmed their endorsement of the 5 themes and were now engaged in the process of refreshing the commitments.

The Chair thanked Dr Melanie Smith for her introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following issues raised:

The Committee felt the report was missing information about outreach work in schools which they saw as central to the strategy. An example was given in Kilburn, where Camden’s air quality initiative was being introduced in school. Dr Melanie Smith agreed that the approach would fit well with Brent Council’s existing air quality strategy and was something that could be explored with the air quality team. She explained that any particular aspect that was felt to be missing could be addressed when officers engaged Brent Children’s Trust to reaffirm their commitments and strengthen the input from CYP.

The Committee highlighted that the report gave a raw figure for rates of smoking in the borough and asked whether there was any further breakdown by community, so that the Council could target communities with heavier smokers. Dr Melanie Smith explained that there was not robust data in relation to smoking communities but there was a qualitative understanding of which communities were smoking, with a higher prevalence of smoking in Eastern European communities and Latin American communities as well as mental health service users and B3. In response to that organisational knowledge, engagement was happening with those communities.

The Committee also asked what the strategy would do to support residents chewing tobacco to stop. They were advised that there was a stop chewing service as well as a stop smoking service which had been publicised and officers had tried to education people in conjunction with an oral surgeon about the dangers of chewing tobacco. Unfortunately, the uptake of the stop chewing service had been disappointing, and members were asked to let officers know of any support they could offer to encourage people to stop chewing. 

The Committee was pleased to see the efforts to improve access to toilet provision in the borough and asked what more could be done to improve that. Dr Melanie Smith expressed disappointment that this was a part of the strategy that had not been able to progress due to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To provide an update one year on from the report of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee Task Group on Social Prescribing in Brent and the Cabinet and Brent Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) response to those recommendations.

Dr Melanie Smith (Director of Public Health, Brent Council) introduced the report, which was an update on progress on the recommendations made by the Committee a year ago in the Social Prescribing Task Group report. She highlighted that the report was themed around governance arrangements, where she felt a lot of progress had been made, access to social prescribing, where she felt some progress had been made, and the social prescribing offer, where she felt least progress had been made.

The Chair thanked Dr Melanie Smith for her introduction and invited comments and questions from those present. The following points were raised:

The Committee highlighted examples of patients waiting a long time, sometimes between 8 weeks to 3 months, before they were contacted by a social prescriber, and asked how that issue could be progressed. Dr Melanie Smith advised members that the existing Primary Care Network of Social Prescribers was delivered and directed through the Primary Care Network, and Public Health felt there was the potential for the system to work more efficiently in that space. Social Prescribers within primary care had been largely set up in response to pressures on GPs to alleviate demand, meaning social prescribers were now being asked to do things they had not necessarily set up to do, so Social Prescribers may not necessarily have all of the context and skills needed in order to do that. In response to that, a community of practice was being developed to share good practice, and Public Health was seeking to work across the system to increase efficiency and ensure there were better links between different parts of the system.

In relation to the information in the report, the Committee asked how that was obtained. They were advised that officers were getting data directly from GP staff after approaching Primary Care Networks (PCNs) for the data.

The Committee asked where the main challenges were in progressing social prescribing and how that was being mitigated, as well as how Brent Council was facilitating the process to make better health outcomes. Dr Melanie Smith advised that the current provision of social prescribing was an NHS service, and the task group report had recommended that the social prescribing service should be more widely available. The Council had no direct jurisdiction over PCNs but was seeking to work with them and influence them to improve social prescribing in the borough, particularly around how social prescribers related to Council services. For example, there had been a lot of work done to improve referral routes between social prescribers and Adult Social Care and social prescribers and housing which social prescribers had recognised as beneficial.  The Council was also piloting social prescribing principles within Adult Social Care using holistic assessments, signposting and directing to other services. The Council was quite advanced with its implementation of social prescribing principles in Adult Social Care and had an agreed role that was currently going through the HR recruitment process. There were prospects for significant progress in this area  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To present the latest scrutiny recommendations tracker.

The Committee noted the recommendations tracker.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Head of Chief Executive and Member Services or her representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

The Committee heard that this would be Janet Latinwo’s final meeting as the Statutory Scrutiny Officer. The Committee thanked her for the work on the Committee and wished her well for the future.