Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received as follows:

• Councillor Colwill, substituted by Councillor Kansagra
• Councillor Aden
• Co-opted member Mr Simon Goulden

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 Sheth – Lead Governor of Central and NWL NHS Foundation Trust
• Councillor Shahzad – spouse employed by the NHS
• Councillor Ethapemi – spouse employed by the NHS

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.

·         4a. 21 September 2021 (pages 1 - 10)

·         4b. 7 October 2021 (pages 11 - 17)

The minutes of the meeting on 21 September 2021 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting on 7 October 2021 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

There were no matters arising.

To receive and consider the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report covering the period April 2020 to April 2021.

Professor Michael Preston-Shoot (Independent Chair of the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board) introduced the item, which provided the annual report for the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) for 2020-21. He highlighted the challenges faced by services involved in safeguarding during the pandemic, noting the Board had focused on obtaining assurances that agencies continued to work effectively together to ensure all adult safeguarding needs were met and continued to be managed effectively. On behalf of the Board, he was assured that partner agencies had responded to the safeguarding needs of adults. The Board had continued as far as possible to implement the SAB Strategic Plan which had previously been presented to the Scrutiny Committee. He concluded by advising that he would be stepping down as Independent Chair and an advertisement for the role had been posted.

The Chair thanked Professor Preston-Shoot for his introduction and invited the Committee to raise comments and questions, with the following issues raised:

The Committee advised the SAB that it would be helpful to understand in plain English some of the terms referred to within the annual report, for example, what Section 42, Section 44 and legal literacy were. Michael Preston-Shoot acknowledged the need to ensure the literature available was accessible to anyone who read it and agreed to take the feedback on board for future iterations of the annual report. A priority of the Board was to increase the awareness amongst different communities in Brent of what adult safeguarding was, but due to the impact of the pandemic and various changes in Brent, such as the change in Healthwatch provider, there had been a reduction in the number of citizen engagement events. The Board were now working to pursue that priority again. In terms of the query, Michael Preston-Shoot explained that a Section 42 enquiry was a duty of the local authority to enquire into an adult safeguarding referral that met the relevant criteria of; the person had care and support needs; the person may be at risk of or experiencing abuse; the adult may be unable to protect themselves. For members of the public making referrals, ordinary understandings of the definitions of care and support needs and abuse were fine. He confirmed that, through assurance reports the SAB received from Adult Social Care, those criteria were understood. Section 44 referred to the duty of the Chair to commission a Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) if a person with care and support needs died or was seriously injured and there were concerns about how the multi-agency worked together. There was also a discretionary option for review if the Chair felt there were lessons to be learned. Legal literacy referred to ensuring everyone, including members of the public, social workers, GPs, district nurses, housing officers and the voluntary and third sector, were aware of legal rules, powers and duties that needed to be considered to protect a person from abuse or neglect. For example, the management of someone’s finances if that person did not have the capacity to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive an interim report to update the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on the progress of the GP Access Scrutiny Task Group.

As Chair of the GP Access Scrutiny Task Group, Councillor Mary Daly introduced the report. She advised that the report detailed the evidence collected thus far through resident engagement. The Task Group were continuing work on access and interviewing residents, with 70 face to face interviews conducted, to gain a clear picture of the experiences of residents’ access to GPs. The information collated would guide the recommendations of the Task Group, which would fall under two categories; immediate changes for improvement and longer term vision for Primary Care Networks (PCNs).

The Chair thanked Councillor Daly for the introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following issues raised:

Judith Davey (CEO, Brent Healthwatch) found the paper helpful and was delighted to be working with the Council to promote the roll out of the survey. Healthwatch were conducting their own piece of research into GP access which would take around 4-6 months, and were co-producing the areas of focus with residents. The engagement would involve a mix of surveys, online engagement, in person engagement and focus groups. Healthwatch wanted to focus on the specific access needs of homeless individuals and asylum seekers.

The Committee queried the role of PCNs specifically in Brent. Robyn Doran (Chief Operating Officer, CNWL and Director of the Integrated Care Partnership) advised that the configuration of PCNs in Brent was unusual and was an issue for the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) to look in to, to ensure it was the right configuration for Brent neighbourhoods. The difficulty was around the levers the Integrated Care System (ICS) had to change the configuration, considering GPs were privately contracted to NHS England, meaning movements required approval. The desire from the ICP was for PCNs to support neighbourhoods to have wrap around services. Dr MC Patel advised the May 2019 NHS England Guidance advised PCNs could be any size between 30-50k and did not expect many would exceed 50k. He advised that patients could register anywhere in the country, meaning there were some very large practices with patients from outside of the neighbourhood the practice was based in.

In terms of the involvement of the ICP with the Brent Health and Wellbeing Board, Robyn Doran advised that the ICP met every 6-8 weeks with the Chief Executive and portfolio holders of the Health and Wellbeing Board. The ICP saw itself as accountable to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Chair invited representatives from Brent Youth Parliament to contribute. In relation to children and young people, Brent Youth Parliament highlighted that the report did not mention the specific issues faced by children and young people in relation to GP access. Councillor Daly advised that the Task Group were still collecting information at the moment, and had interviewed parents of infants and young people, with plans to contact Brent Youth Parliament for involvement. Robyn Doran advised that any concerns around access for children would be picked up via the Brent Children’s Trust, which she was a member of.

Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To enable the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee to set up a members’ scrutiny task group to review transitional safeguarding arrangements in Brent.

The Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee advised the Committee that they were asked to agree the scope and Terms of Reference for the implementation of a Transitional Safeguarding Scrutiny Task Group. He invited Councillor Mili Patel, as Lead Member for Children’s Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care to comment. Councillor Patel advised that the Council had been looking at transitional safeguarding, in terms of how someone could be safeguarded as they moved into adulthood, since 2019. At the moment, when someone reached their 18^th birthday they experienced an abrupt end to services. She felt the Task Group was timely and would help design a system to meet safeguarding needs while preparing for adult life. She emphasised the importance of input from an adult safeguarding perspective, as the work was about individuals becoming adults.

In response to why the scope did not involve schools, Brian Grady (Operational Director Safeguarding, Partnerships and Strategy, Brent Council) advised that it would be out of the scope of the particular piece of work because it was focused on those over the age of 18, who would have left school. For those young adults who continued in education, the work would ensure appropriate engagement with education professionals. It was important the scope of the work included emphasis on care leavers also. In response to a query from Brent Youth Parliament, it was confirmed that the Task Group would also ensure young people with caring responsibilities were a focus.

The Chair thanked colleagues for their input, and drew the item to a close. The Committee RESOLVED:

i)              To agree the contents of the report and scoping paper.

ii)             To agree to set up a scrutiny task group with the terms of reference and membership as proposed in the scoping paper.

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

None.