The Health and Wellbeing Board Information Briefing was scheduled to discuss the performance update for the Better Care Fund for the third quarter of the 2025-26 financial year and the action plan for the Bromley Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2025-27. The meeting was intended to provide information rather than make decisions, with any debate requiring a member to request it in advance.

Better Care Fund Performance Update - Q3 2025-26

The meeting was scheduled to receive an update on the progress of the Better Care Fund (BCF) for the third quarter of the 2025-26 financial year. The BCF is a statutory requirement in England, established through the Care Act 2014 and the NHS Act 2006, aiming to integrate health and social care services to reduce hospital delays and support independent living. The report was expected to detail the financial, operating, and performance metrics for the quarter. A recommendation was made for the Health and Wellbeing Board to note the progress made.

The report indicated that the total BCF plan for 2025-26 was £44,862k, with a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) of £3,031k. Key metrics monitored included emergency admissions for those aged 65+, the proportion of adult patients discharged from acute hospital on their discharge ready date, the average number of days from discharge ready date to actual discharge for those not discharged on time, and residential admissions for older people. For Q3 2025-26, emergency admissions for those aged 65+ were 8.5% higher than the target. Data for patient discharges was pending for November and December 2025, but October figures showed 85% of adult patients were discharged on their discharge ready date, 8% below target. The average time from discharge ready date to actual discharge for those not discharged on time was 6 days in October. Residential admissions for older people were on track to meet the target. The report also detailed the financial implications, with no variances forecast to the budget at quarter three.

Bromley Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy - Action Plan

The meeting was also scheduled to review the action plan for the Bromley Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (2025-27). This strategy, agreed by the Bromley Local Care Partnership and the London Borough of Bromley Executive in June and July 2025 respectively, outlines objectives for improving mental health and wellbeing across the borough. The Health and Wellbeing Board has an oversight role in the delivery of this strategy.

The strategy's vision encompasses Living well with mental health challenges, Resilient communities, Joined-up care, education, health and housing services, and Best use of community and public resources. The action plan details specific priorities for 2025-27, including:

• Priority 1: More targeted community prevention and early intervention services. This includes establishing neighbourhood teams with a mental health offer, reducing stigma, providing tailored support to high-risk groups (including LGBTQ+ and BAME communities), delivering the Bromley All-Age Autism Strategy, developing the digital mental health offer, providing early help to schools, enhancing the integrated single point of access (ISPA) for children and young people, ensuring short waits for Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) diagnoses, providing tailored mental health support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), updating dynamic support registers, and focusing on sustaining meaningful employment.
• Priority 2: Helping children and young people with mental health and emotional wellbeing challenges to thrive. This involves embedding the NHS Thrive framework, providing specialist CAMHS support for children in children's homes and for Children Looked After (CLA) and care leavers, developing step-down support from mental health services, refreshing the health offer for the Youth Justice Service, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions for young people with learning disabilities and autism, and preventing homelessness for young people with mental health challenges.
• Priority 3: Joined-up, safe transitions from children's to adult's mental health and wellbeing services. Actions include comprehensive support for preparing for adulthood, multi-disciplinary planning for transitions, seamless transitional support for SEND young people, tailored and tapered support during transitions, and an enhanced mental health offer for CLA and care leavers.
• Priority 4: Better recovery outcomes for people with long-term mental health challenges. This priority focuses on providing tailored support for carers, ensuring access to personal health and care budgets, upholding dignity and independence in community services, reducing hospital stays, increasing the number of people living in their own homes, preventing homelessness, and ensuring access to continuing healthcare.
• Priority 5: Improved outcomes for older people with mental health challenges and dementia. This includes tackling loneliness, delivering early and accurate dementia diagnosis, providing dementia community support, offering dementia support in care homes, planning for mental health in older age, and developing tailored housing and extra care housing services.

The strategy is underpinned by a commitment to co-design of services, partnership working, and joined-up commissioning, with residents' voices at the forefront of service development. The total expenditure on all-age mental health and wellbeing services in Bromley for 2024/25 was £76.5m, with the majority allocated to specialist hospital and residential services. The action plan for 2025-27 outlines specific actions, leads, and timescales for delivering these priorities.