Agenda item

The report sets out the shift in approach to working with care homes across health and social care, in particular the focus on care homes and registered managers as system leaders and partners.  It also sets out frontline practice changes in a summary of key projects and initiatives and progress to date as well as providing evidence of system performance improvements against key metrics of care homes in Brent.

Phil Porter (Strategic Director Community Wellbeing) introduced the report, which set out the shift in approach to working with care homes across health and social care. The report highlighted how commissioners and care homes worked in partnership to deliver improved outcomes for Brent residents, and set out frontline practice changes and progress to date. It was being positioned as part of delivering agreed priorities, and was a new way of working with care homes and managers as system leaders. Mark Bird (Birchwood Grange Care Home Manager) was the Chair of the Care Home Forum group. There had been a shift in the way the department worked and a move away from purchasing individual placements but supporting the whole of the home.

Mark Bird explained that, since Chairing the group, care home managers had their own vision, aims, objectives and regulations as well as contractual obligations with the Council and CCG, which had allowed them to become more integrated with other services, have a voice and commission new services with the CCG. Examples of closer working and bringing in other services to support care home residents include: There were now 500 trained care staff for supervised tooth brushing and administrating fluoride past. He noted the care home matters project and work done on oral care accessibility. NHS mail was now being rolled out across Brent to allow the communication of confidential data. There was an integrated pathway team that would need to be upskilled but was moving forward. There was a plan to look at how quality inspectors were engaging with providers.

Phil Porter also highlighted the measures in the paper, which  focused on issues such as ambulance attendances and CQC ratings as a proxy for improving quality

The Chair thanked Phil Porter and Mark Bird for the update on enhanced care and invited comments from the Board with the following raised:

·         Regarding advocacy for home care residents, Mark Bird confirmed that Healthwatch was looking at the acute sector and should be looking at the community sector as well. Previously residents were allocated a social worker for life but this was no longer available and often social workers were reallocated every ten weeks.

·         Councillor Farah pointed out the success of the home care CQC rating that Mark Bird had achieved, highlighting that strong partnerships can achieve strong outcomes.

·         The Board wanted to know how the forum could help care homes failing or needing improvement, to which Mark explained it was an area being looked at. In 2020-21 there was a plan to work with quality teams and inspectors and standardise audit procedures. It was highlighted that each home differed from the next therefore this needed to be taken into account with inspections, and the value of trust was highlighted. Phil Porter added that the West London Alliance was looking to reduce bureaucratic burdens across care homes in all 8 Boroughs, and felt there was an opportunity to mechanise this for integrated commissioning across the CCG and Council.

·         Mark Bird highlighted that he had been invited to work with NHS England as an adviser for care homes within their transformation team. He was the first manager to be invited to work with the chief nurse.

·         It was highlighted that key stakeholders from local acute trusts were missing from the attendance of the meeting and an action resolved, below.

As no further questions were raised, the Board RESOLVED:

i)             To note the improvement in joint working with care homes in Brent