Agenda item - The Chair's Communications

The Chair of the Board will start the meeting with a short update on recent developments on health and wellbeing.

30.1    The Chair, Councillor Moonan, stated that she had short updates which were linked to the “Four Wells”.

Living Well

30.2    “Carers Rights Day” would take place on 21 November. There would be a series of events across in the city including information, activities, and tea and cakes at the Brighthelm Centre between 2-4pm that day. A large number of agencies would be present and the day was aimed at helping unpaid carers in the city.

Ageing Well

30.3    Part of the Aging Well Strategy was to seek to ensure that choices were available about how and where people wished to live as they aged. Within Brighton & Hove there was a varied and vibrant Care Home sector. Care Home providers were supported in many ways one of which was through the Care Home Forum. The Care Home Forum met three times year, bringing together Care Home Owners and Managers with representatives from Health and Adult Social Care to share best practice. The latest forum held on 15^th October had been the most successful to date, with almost 80 people in attendance. Andy Witham (Head of Commissioning) had kicked off proceedings with an update on the Council’s Brexit planning, alongside a summary of recent consultation work with Care Home and Home Care providers about ‘Planning for Winter’. Attendees had then received presentations from both health and social care colleagues covering a wide range of issues, including; NHS & Council collaboration with Care Homes, Medicines Management in Care Homes, the Care Home & Equipment Working Group, the ‘Stop, Look, Care’ booklet, Working With Resident with Complex Needs, representatives from East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and others. There had been group discussions on Improving Discharge Pathways from Hospital, resulting in important actions about how to improve the experience of individuals leaving hospital. Councillor Appich had played an active role at the forum, and Adult Social Care colleagues would be arranging visits for Councillor Appich and the Chair herself to a number of residential and nursing homes across the city in the coming months. If other members of the Board wished to visit some of our providers they needed to contact, The Health and Wellbeing Board Business Manager, Barbara Deacon in order for her to liaise with the relevant staff.

            Dying Well

30.4    The Brighton & Hove Health & Wellbeing Board Strategy included a new priority area; “Dying Well”. The first step in delivering this priority would be a workshop bringing together key stakeholders across the city who could provide support in developing a city wide approach to improve health and wellbeing at the end of life and to help communities develop their own approaches to death, dying loss and caring. The first “Dying Well” workshop would take place in November and would cover:

·         Ideas about what a citywide approach to dying well could look like and discussions about how a coalition of support could be built across Brighton and Hove;

·         Raising awareness of public health approaches to dying well including the “Compassionate Cities Charter”;

·         Sharing information on what is already happening in our city and considering examples of good practice;

·         To agree the next steps.

30.5    RESOLVED – That the content of the Chair’s Communications be received and noted.