The Board received a presentation that outlined how residents accessing the Tower Hamlets Connect service are be supported online, on the phone, and in person. Noted that the Service has been commissioned to be the front door for adult social care and to support residents as far as possible in the community. The main points of the discussion and questions raised have been summarised as follows.

The Board:

v  Noted that access to adult social care is underpinned by a digital portal developed by Tower Hamlets together partners with a key focus of the services to reduce duplication.

v  Noted that the main objectives of the project are to make sure that residents are getting the help that they need when they need it in the way that they need it and to ensure that agencies are coordinating their resources.

v  Noted that the priority for Tower Hamlets Connect in 2022 is to establish these pathways; understand the available wider support services; collaborating with partners to identify where there are gaps and capacity issues; and really understanding accessibility.

v  Understood that Tower Hamlets Connect are providing people with the support and information they need to access and to keep the help that they need and to retain their independence, and if possible before they need intervention from adult social services.

v  Was informed that residents can access the service by visiting the portal; the helpline; email enquiry@towerhamletsconnect.org or by texting information and advice service.

v  Noted that the Partnership includes a number of agencies such as the Council, the NHS, Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Service, Queen Mary University, Tower Hamlets College, East London Business Alliance, Tower Hamlets Housing Forum, Canary Wharf Group. However, it was important to note the longer-term ambition is to strengthen relationships across the entire system with the wider voluntary sector, community health and emergency services.

v  Agreed that (i) those who could benefit from social prescribing schemes include people with mild or long-term mental health problems, vulnerable groups, people who are socially isolated, and those who frequently attend either primary or secondary health care; and (ii) the core principles of social prescribing are to promote health and wellbeing and to reduce health inequalities in a community setting, using non-clinical methods addresses barriers to engagement and enable people to play an active part in their care.

v  Noted that social prescribing is a move away from the drug description method which is fundamentally only 20% of what people need, it is about accessing a whole raft of services within the Borough and not necessarily from the partner agencies. Therefore, this method aims to deliver such a service in an integrated fashion that means that there must be a spreading of the load within the system.

v  Recognised that some people are more able to be signposted than others and the agencies need to be proactive in taking the lead on identifying what  residents accessing the Tower Hamlets Connect service need and the providers need to make sure that they follow up and see that the service identified is being taken up e.g. just because somebody says they will access a service for themselves does not mean that they will or that they are able to.

v  Agreed that there is a need to provide the reassurance to any resident wants to receive assistance and to establish an accurate picture of the needs of an individual or their carer, regardless of whatever method of assessment is used – i.e., supported self-assessment, face-to-face assessment, or phone.

v  Indicated that it is important to consider any issues related to language barriers e.g., residents who do not speak the local language are disadvantaged in terms of access to healthcare services and have shown that residents who face language barriers have poorer health outcomes compared with patients who speak the local language.

v  Noted that whilst Tower Hamlets Connectare accessing translation services and are working to increase accessibility there is more work to be done improve access to healthcare services.

Accordingly, the Board agreed that the presentation had been extremely helpful and gave a real sense of what service integration will look like.