Received a presentation on Tower Hamlets Together which is all about health and social care organisations working closer together to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Tower Hamlets.  The Board provides a more coordinated approach to providing services, reducing duplication, and improving the overall experience and outcomes for the patients who need these services. A summary of the points raised is set out below:

The Committee:

v  Noted that the partnership includes the Council, the major NHS organisations in Tower Hamlets and the Council for voluntary service.  Through them the Board reaches out to a number of voluntary sector organizations in the Borough and is a compassionate and collaborative body that celebrates innovation in Tower Hamlets and learning from the real-life experiences of service users, carers, and stakeholders to ensure a robust focus on high quality and good values services designed around people's needs.

v  Noted that service users, carers are active and equal partners participating at the heart of all the Boards decisions and focusing on engagement, participation in coproduction (e.g., hearing directly from people on the ground about the issues and their experiences).

v  Noted that the North East London Health and Care Partnership is responsible for planning and buying health services across north east London to meet the local population’s needs, to make sure all parts of the local health system work effectively together.  The Partnership is a formal alliance of partners that sets the overall strategy that will guide the collective work, hold the wider health, and care system to account for how services are delivered in a more joined up way.

v  Noted that many factors influence the health outcomes of a population. From local environment, i.e., the conditions in which people live, to socio-economic factors like education, income and employment, and lifestyle factors such as what they eat and drink or whether they smoke, all of these affect population health. Tower Hamlets has some of the highest levels of deprivation and so a number of initiatives have been created to improve the health equity of local residents.

v  Noted that the aim of the Tower Hamlets Together children’s services programme is: “To ensure that all children and their families have access to high quality, ‘joined up’ services and opportunities in order to optimise physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development, improve life-long health and wellbeing and reduce the effects of socio-economic deprivation.”

v  Noted that neither demand nor supply factors alone explain the extent of the pressures facing the NHS. The explanation is more complicated and has to do with the flow of patients through the health care system, and the ability of the system to ensure supply meets demand when it is under pressure and care is disrupted (e.g., the pressure on social care and general practice has led to more demand for hospital services).

v  Noted that the priorities that the Board are working on this year, include children's mental health, the living well program, access to health services by disabled people.