The 6 March 2025 Lambeth Together Care Partnership meeting was set to cover updates from across the partnership on its key work programmes as it approached the third year of its five-year plan, ‘Our Health, Our Lambeth 2023-2028’, against a challenging financial backdrop and evolving national health and care policy. The meeting was scheduled to include deep-dive presentations into two of the Partnership’s priorities: its Learning Disabilities and Autism (LDA) Programme and its Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs).

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs)

A key theme for the meeting was to be the progress being made on developing INTs to provide more joined-up, proactive care in communities. The report pack says this builds on Lambeth’s strong history of integrated working, and draws on national policy around moving from hospital to community-based services, analogue to digital services, and a treatment to prevention model of care. The Partnership is considering a model with five neighbourhoods across Lambeth, informed by feedback from residents and the geographical footprints of existing partnerships, services, and Primary Care Networks (PCNs). The NWDA was set to recommend that it become the ‘integrator’ for INTs, with support from other partners. To illustrate the benefits of this approach, the NWDA planned to present the positive findings from its 18-month Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) pilot, which used an INT approach in three PCNs (Herne Hill and Dulwich, North Lambeth, and Clapham) to improve early detection of CKD and prevent its worsening.

Learning Disabilities and Autism (LDA) Programme

The meeting was also scheduled to include a presentation on the Partnership’s LDA programme, highlighting three key areas of focus. First, it was due to present an update on progress being made to reduce the use of restrictive hospital settings for people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people. The Programme was set to report on progress made through one-system planning, which has seen the number of people in hospital settings decrease from 16 in 2022/23 to 14 as of February 2025. The report pack highlights that the number of people from Black backgrounds in restrictive hospital settings has decreased by 50% in the last three years. Second, it planned to give an update on the uptake of the Annual Health Check for adults on GP Learning Disabilities registers. The Programme reports that GP practices in Lambeth are on track to exceed the national target of 75%. The LDA Programme plans to report back on its work to encourage people to attend their Health Checks, especially those from historically marginalised communities, after identifying that 10% of people on the register had not attended for a health check in the three years to 2023/24. Third, it was due to report on the progress made since the launch of the Lambeth All Age Autism Strategy in 2024.

Place Executive Lead update

The Partnership planned to receive an update from its Place Executive Lead, Andrew Eyres, Corporate Director for Integrated Health and Care at Lambeth Council, about key issues and achievements from across the Partnership since its previous meeting on 9 January 2025. Mr Eyres’ update states that “as we approach the third year of ‘Our Health, Our Lambeth 2023-2028’, we are reflecting on our progress and undertaking our second annual review.” The update draws attention to Lambeth’s increasingly challenging financial landscape, and Mr Eyres states that the Partnership must be “even more focused on how we plan and deliver health and care services in Lambeth.” The update covers a wide range of developments across the Partnership’s three Delivery Alliances, as well as key public health campaigns, recent events, and initiatives in Lambeth.

Other Updates

The Partnership was also scheduled to receive updates from its Primary Care Commissioning Committee (PCCC) and Assurance Sub-Group, and on business planning. The PCCC update confirms that it will recommend to the Partnership Board the approval of proposals to undertake a feasibility study about AT Medics at the Streatham Primary Care Centre, after Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust vacated the Centre. The Assurance Sub-Group’s update was due to focus on how Lambeth is addressing three outcomes from ‘Our Health, Our Lambeth’:

G: People who have developed long-term health conditions have help to manage their condition and prevent complications

J: People know where to go to get the right help, and are treated at the right time, in the right place, for their needs

K: Older adults are provided with the right health and care support at the right time, live healthy and active later lives, and are supported to age well

The Assurance Sub-Group was also set to review the Partnership’s Integrated Assurance Report, which covers delivery against the Partnership’s Health and Care Plan, as well as quality, risk, and finance. Finally, the meeting was scheduled to include an update on business planning for 2025/26, building on the discussion held at the Partnership’s seminar on 6 February 2025. The update sought feedback on the development of the plan, which focused on six themes that emerged from earlier discussions: prioritisation within financial constraints, emphasising prevention and demand reduction, the context of acute trust efficiency measures, assessing progress over two years, accelerating prevention efforts, and making a coherent case for change.

It is important to remember that these documents are only a record of what was scheduled to be discussed in the meeting, not what was actually discussed. We cannot know from these documents what decisions, if any, were made at the meeting.