Agenda item

The BCT provides the Brent Health and Wellbeing Board with an update paper every six months, with the previous report having been presented at the March 2017 meeting. This paper provides a broad summary of the BCT work programme and actions of the JCG from April 2017 to September 2017.

Gail Tolley (Strategic Director of Children and Young People, Brent Council) outlined that it would be beneficial for the Board to discuss both the Brent Children’s Trust (BCT) Update and approval of the draft written statement of action at the same time. She outlined that this was in part because much of the work of the BCT had been to assist with preparations for the inspection by the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) joint inspection team.

She firstly highlighted some of the other key BCT specific updates from the period between April 2017 and September 2017, as detailed within paragraph 3.4 of the report. These included: the substantive work undertaken on CAMHS transformation; establishing a better connection between the Troubled Families Programme and Working with Families Brent Partnership work; and facilitating meetings between midwives at Imperial, the Royal Free and Northwick Park to improve the links between midwives and health visitors.

Gail Tolley moved onto the local area joint Ofsted and CQC inspection of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services in Brent which took place between 15 May and 19 May 2017. She gave an overview of the inspection itself and outlined that Ofsted/CQC had identified a number of strengths in Brent’s local service provisions. She outlined that partnership between the Council and schools had been identified as being extremely strong in particular. However, the Board heard that, regrettably, the local area had been asked to write a written statement of action due to a number of concerns which were identified as part of the inspection process (detailed in paragraph 3.2 of the report). She explained that the NHSE Region Lead for SEND and Department of Education SEND Advisor for Brent had reviewed the initial written statement of action on 26 September, and that their suggestions had been incorporated into the statement presented before the Board. Gail Tolley concluded that the final written statement submission would be made to the CQC/Ofsted by 23 October 2017, with the Health and Wellbeing Board’s approval being required beforehand. She also mentioned that Brent would be subject to quarterly monitoring visits, and it was therefore essential that the actions contained within the written statement were put in practice at pace and that this would require substantial strategic leadership. 

Members raised that there were ongoing problems with vacancies in Occupational Therapy (OT) Posts at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust which had contributed to some of the problems in this service area. It was noted that the Trust had been assessing different recruitment strategies in order to address this. Ralph Elias (Head of Planning and Programme Management Office, London North West NHS Trust) added that he couldn’t answer specific questions on the timeline for completion of recruitment as this would depend on the market. However he outlined that OT vacancies were a problem nationally and that there were suggestions that the Trust should use its capabilities as a training organisation to address the issue in the long term. Duncan Ambrose added that recruitment problems affected waiting times and that the CCG were working alongside the Trust through weekly teleconferences and management meetings in order to find adequate solutions. Members noted that the recruitment problems on OT needed to be escalated to NHSE as it was a national issue and it be highlighted that Brent was not alone in the problems it faced.

There were final discussions on what the review of the terms of reference of the Brent Children’s Trust would entail and whether the current membership should be expanded. 

It was RESOLVED that:

(i)         The work of the Brent Children’s Trust for the period April 2017 to September 2017 be noted;

(ii)        Subject to the inclusion of a specific recommendation that a senior representative from London North West Healthcare NHS Trust be included as part of the membership of the Brent Children’s Trust, the written statement of action for submission to Ofsted and the CQC be approved; and

(iii)       The Health and Wellbeing Board be frequently updated on the progress of the five key actions outlined within the Written Statement of Action.