Agenda item

·         7i. NWL Additional Health Inequalities Funding

To receive a summary of additional health inequalities funding

·         7ii. Brent Health Matters Update

To receive an update on the Brent Health Matters Programme

7i. NWL Additional Health Inequalities Funding

Nipa Shah (Programme Director, Brent Health Matters) introduced the report, which provided a summary of additional health inequalities funding. She informed the Board that additional funding had been released nationally in October 2022 to fund health inequalities work, and NWL had been allocated £7m from that fund. Out of that, a decision was taken to give 60% of that funding to borough-based partnerships, with Brent’s allocation being £783k. Officers had prepared a business case which split that fund, with around £300k earmarked for community organisation grants and £483k going towards implementing Community Co-ordinators, dedicated GP time, and business analyst support to work more closely with the 5 Brent Connect areas. There was also a pot of money for additional schemes, and Brent had asked for £300k from that pot of money to continue supporting Brent Carers Centre who were providing a Health Educator Service. Brent Health Matters were now awaiting a final decision on the business case before implementation.

RESOLVED: To note the report.

7ii. Brent Health Matters Update

Nipa Shah (Programme Director, Brent Health Matters) introduced the report, which provided an update on the Brent Health Matters Programme. In considering the report, the following points were raised:

• The Board commended the work done so far, and were encouraged to hear about the UCL funding to use community assets to improve Health and Wellbeing. They felt that learning from the programme could be used for other mainstream services.
• Noting that some of the health events that had been held had identified some people who were acutely unwell, the Board asked whether there was any learning around types of conditions, demographics or where they were living. Nipa Shah informed the Board that the presentations had been varied, from people who had not seen their GP to people who were well versed in looking after themselves but had not felt it was important. Dr Haidar added that some of the conditions being identified were cases of high blood pressure, and those patients had now been educated and help allocated accordingly. The more events that BHM did, the more themes officers could pick up on. Data collection was in the process of being improved, with BHM working with the performance team to take cuts of data on the people they saw, including ethnicity, age range, and the last time they had seen a GP. When the new BHM dashboard was developed, officers would be able to start recording these engagements, which could then be quantified and included within reports.
• The Board asked what the dashboard intended to capture and who was intended to use it. Nipa Shah advised that the intention was for officers to be able to use the dashboard to record data and pull reports, and this could be shared with councillors. Tom Shakespeare (Managing Director, Brent ICP) informed the Board that there was ongoing work around the development of population health dashboards, and the intention was for them to be available at practice level, neighbourhood level and community level, to help focus on each area to see if there were any pockets of communities not accessing particular services.

The Board RESOLVED to note the report.