Appendix 3

Dementia Notice of Motion – Briefing from David Brindley, Public Health Programme Manager – Ageing Well, 19/05/22

Brighton & Hove City Council Public Health are coordinating a broad programme of work with partner organisations across the city to support the Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy ambition for Brighton & Hove to be both an Age and Dementia Friendly City.

This work is led by the ‘Public Health Programme Manager – Ageing Well’ and ‘Public Health Specialist – Age & Dementia Friendly’. The latter is a two-year fixed term post funded by the Better care Fund and due to end March 2023.

This programme of work includes:

• Leading and coordinating the cities Dementia Action Alliance – this a forum which brings together organisations working with people living with dementia to improve service delivery in the city, exchange and share knowledge and ideas, roll-out Dementia Friends awareness sessions and coordinate the annual Dementia Action week celebrations  Dementia Action Week - city events 16 to 22 May (brighton-hove.gov.uk) There are over 60 member organisations
• Leading the Age and Dementia Friendly planning group – this is a strategic group with members from BHCC planning, housing, ASC, and parks, as well as B & H buses, Freedom Leisure, the CCG, and other key partners. The group is developing a measurable action plan for the city based around World Health Organisation and Alzheimer’s Society guidance on Age and Dementia Friendly communities.

We are working with the Alzheimer’s Society and AWS to recruit to two service user groups so we can include the voice of older people and people living with Dementia in our programme.

Current actions underway include:

· New local Dementia Care Pathway– Public health and the CCG are working with University Hospitals Sussex, Adult Social Care, the Memory Assessment service, and Ageing Well Service to develop a new care pathway for people diagnosed with Dementia which will be accessible to members of the public and which will clearly outline the customer journey from concern to diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing support

· Age & Dementia Friendly Businesses – Public Health are piloting an Age & Dementia Friendly business checklist with local CVS organisations – when complete the checklist will be freely available for all local businesses to self-assess with some support and guidance from Public Health

· Age & Dementia Friendly café - Public Health are working with BHCC parks, the Alzheimer’s Society and East Brighton Park café to audit the café on its age and dementia friendliness, make recommendations for any changes, and initiate the changes. The audit and recommendations are complete, and changes are expected to be made by early summer. Once complete this model will be rolled out to other city park cafes starting with  St Ann’s Well Gardens East Brighton Cafe supports ageing well city ambitions (brighton-hove.gov.uk)

• Psychosocial activities to support people living with Dementia, including peer support groups, gardening, cookery, and music group sessions are now offered and provided by the cities Ageing Well Service (AWS). These activities were previously grant funded to several organisations by the CCG but have now been varied into the AWS contract. This brings the benefit of access being via the AWS single point of contact (SPOC) and includes a new Dementia Coordinator post who provides specialist support to access activities to people calling the SPOC -  https://ageingwellbh.org/dementia-support/

The following two recommendations in the Dementia Notice of Motion will require further discussion amongst officers and political groups before they can be progressed:

• Extending the dementia friendly awareness sessions by making them mandatory for customer-facing roles
• Appointment of Dementia Champions from each directorate senior team and among councillors

Our next steps will be to have these discussions and bring a further report back in September.