The Chair Councillor Gulam Kibria Choudhury – Cabinet Member for Adults, Health, and Wellbeing welcomed everybody to the meeting.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board held on. Also to consider matters arising.

The Chair of the Board moved and it was: - RESOLVED

The unrestricted minutes of the last meeting were confirmed as a correct record and the Chair of the Board was authorised to sign them accordingly.

To note any declarations of interest made by members of the Board. (See attached note of Monitoring Officer).

No declarations were received at the meeting.

The Board:

v  Noted that LBTH continues to work with colleagues across the partnership in terms of the cost-of-living crisis and that one of the most significant measures of support that the Council has been initiated with the Councils benefits service being responsible for administering claims for free school meals on behalf of the council’s education department and is available to children attending schools within Tower Hamlets.

v  Noted that 19,000 vouchers had gone out just before the Yuletide Festivities to those children eligible for free school meals, and 76% of those as of today have been cashed.

v  Noted details of the Healthy Start Scheme a national programme helping children of low-income families to be healthy who may be eligible for a free Healthy Start Card with money to spend on milk and healthy food and the value could be over £1,000 per child over their lifetime, if claimed from pregnancy to the child’s 4th birthday.

v  Noted that all the healthy start vouchers went out prior to the for all have all gone out just before the Yuletide Festivities and is a really significant measure to help struggling families.

v  Noted that that Barts Health is under such extreme pressure due to a multitude of complex factors across the whole health and care system. In many areas the Borough is seeing the highest levels of demand ever, combined with restricted capacity, increasing patient needs and high public expectation, culminating in the greatest pressure on the NHS in a generation.

v  Noted that the demand for places for younger pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is increasing. The number of pupils with Statements or Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs), requiring specialist provision to meet their needs, has risen in LBTH and the complexity of these needs is increasing which is putting considerable strain on the education system.

v  Noted that the pandemic has impacted on children’s literacy and mathematical skills, communication and language, physical development, and personal.

v  Noted separate report summarising research on the impact of the pandemic on learning finds attainment gap between socially disadvantaged pupils and their classmates has grown.

v  Noted there is some evidence that in primary schools, younger year groups have been the most significantly affected.

v  Noted that whilst the impact of coronavirus on the NHS has been unprecedented, the NHS now faces another unique challenge - restoring planned care to previous levels.  The staff responded incredibly well to each Covid-19 peak, and the NHS has learned lessons from the experience and is therefore better prepared to meet the next challenge.

v  Noted that three key themes have emerged that enables effective discharge planning: Improved communication, improved co-ordination of services and improved collaboration.

v  Noted that commissioner and provider organisations examine the local processes they have in place for discharge planning, ensuring that transfer of care between services is planned around the needs of patients, families, and carers at all times.

v  Noted that at a practitioner level, there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.4

The Board received an update from Amy Gibbs Chair of Tower Hamlets Together which may be summarised as follows:

The Board

v  Noted the work to transition into taking on the Integrated Care Board functions between the north east London’s (NEL) place partnerships and NHS North East London including contributing to the new NEL accountability framework.

v  Noted that the North East London’s place partnerships are uniquely placed to drive the integration between health and care that will improve residents’ wellbeing, through co-produced approaches that build on community assets.

v  Noted as partnerships, they understand their communities and the inequalities that residents face. Reshaping north east London’s health and care system so that it is equitable, delivers improved wellbeing for everyone, and is financially sustainable, will happen only if we work together to deliver at neighbourhood, place, collaborative, and system.

v  Noted that each element of the system needs to be accountable for its part of the improvement journey and to work together alongside residents and communities to effect change sustainably.

v  Noted that THT had welcomed new Board members such as Healthwatch Tower Hamlets, THT’s new Clinical and Care Director, Roberto Tamsanguan, and Primary Care Development Lead, Khyati Bakhai.

v  Noted that the THT are recruiting new clinical leads across multiple professional disciplines. In addition, Members also received an update on THT work to maintain and strengthen community voice and inclusion within the Board and across THT, including ongoing user voice slots, the local investment in the new Community Voice Lead, and their £100,000 tender for anti-racism education across the partnership, that is now live.

In conclusion, the Chair thanked the Chair of Tower Hamlets Together for a very helpful and informative update.

The Board will received a presentation on culturally competent healthcare and the lessons from Covid.

The Board noted that the Health communication and engagement strategy had been reviewed by Tower Hamlet residents towards ensuring guidance and important health messages are ‘culturally appropriate’, ‘available in different languages’ and ‘uses different approaches’ to ensure messages reach different audiences.  A summary of the discussions is set out below:

The Board noted:

v  Adopting a two phased approach which comprised of a desk top review and semi-structured interviews with 22 Tower Hamlets residents, the project reinforced the importance of community involvement as crucial to the ethos of cultural appropriate health communication and highlights the need for ensuring health messages are co-designed, and accessibility issues considered congruent to the provision of health messaging which is culturally appropriate.

v  To implant the approach of culturally appropriate health communication and engagement, a tool was developed to embed this ethos across the London borough of Tower Hamlets.

v  That the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Commission highlighted the poorer health outcomes associated with ethnicity, linkages to structural racism and the impact of COVID-19 in bringing these inequalities into focus. In response, the Tower Hamlets Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Inequalities Commission Action Plan set out recommendations aimed at addressing these health outcomes.

v  That health messages do not unwittingly disadvantage target communities as the checklist mandates for messages to be co-designed by working with communities and resources focused on addressing those who are most in need. This will ensure that communities are treated equally, respectfully and without discrimination whilst providing assurance that health and wellbeing information and advice are clear, simple, and produced with those who will benefit from them.

v  Health and wellbeing information needs to be clear, simple and co-designed towards ensuring that communities feel connected and included in the design, delivery, and engagement with health messages.

In conclusion the Chair expressed his thanks to everybody who had contributed this evening and advised the Board that the next meeting would be on 20^th March 2023 at the New Town Hall, 160 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BJ.