This meeting of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will cover a range of health related topics, including the performance of local mental health and acute hospital trusts, a verbal update on a supported housing project, an update on the Council's work in Balham, the Council's approach to tackling antisocial behaviour, and financial monitoring. The reports provided to the Committee set out what is scheduled to be discussed but it is not known for certain whether the topics in the reports were discussed or any decisions actually made.

Mental Health Specific Place Programmes Planning and Delivery

The South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust will provide a report to the Committee on mental health programmes in Wandsworth.

The report states that Dr Tom Coffey, a GP Mental Health Clinical Lead and the London Mayor's advisor for health, will be leading the strategic discussions on mental health.

The report highlights the work being undertaken at a system level by the South West London Integrated Care Board to improve the waiting times for children and young people needing a diagnosis for autism and Social and Communication Disorders. The report pack notes that:

It has become clear that the waiting time in this pathway has crept up significantly in the last five years, since the pathway was redesigned.

The report pack also details the progress of the Ethnicity and Mental Health Improvement Project (EMHIP), which aims to reduce inequalities in mental health outcomes.

It includes a summary of the Trust's plans for spending a portion of its £275m annual budget on community projects as part of the Trust's new group strategy 'Better Communities', highlighting the new Springfield Village at Springfield Hospital, the redevelopment of Tolworth Hospital in Kingston and new facilities at Barnes Hospital in Richmond.

Finally, the report provides a summary of the 'Better Care' programme to transform adult community mental health services, including the introduction of Integrated Recovery Hubs and partnership work with five Voluntary Community Social Enterprises (VCSEs) to provide welfare advice and peer support.

Performance of St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will provide a report on its performance.

The report notes the Trust is operating with severe pressures on ED and other services and details the ongoing challenges faced by the Trust, which include a continuing shortage of staff, pressures on A&E and long waiting times for some elective treatments. Despite those challenges, the Trust has highlighted some areas of progress, including:

• Reduced waiting times for non-urgent treatments, with a continued focus on reducing the number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks.
• Improved performance in diagnostic services with 99% of patients receiving tests within six weeks.
• Strong overall performance against the four-hour A&E waiting time target.

The report also provides a financial update, highlighting the Trust's plans for tackling its budget deficit, including a 5% reduction in spending.

The report also provides an update on the Trust's maternity services, which were rated as 'inadequate' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in August 2023. The report highlights several improvements that have been made since the CQC inspection, including an increase in the number of midwives and a focus on improving governance systems.

The Trust will also provide an update on the review of children's cancer services in London and the South East. The review, led by NHS England, is considering whether to move services from St George’s Hospital to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. A decision was made in March 2024 to move the service, but this will not happen before October 2026.

Response to the Balham Petitions

The Committee will receive a report detailing the Council's response to four petitions received from residents in Balham.

The residents of Nightingale Square, Calbourne Road, Fernside Road and Endlesham Road raised concerns about antisocial behaviour, vehicle crime and violence, requesting increased police presence and support from the Council.

The report states that data from February 2023 to January 2024 shows that Balham did have higher than average reports of burglary, antisocial behaviour and crime. It goes on to detail how the Council's Community Safety Service, in partnership with the Police, responded to those concerns, which included:

• A police operation, called Operation Broadsword, to tackle burglary.
• A police operation, called Operation Grackle, to tackle vehicle crime.
• The provision of 300 shed alarms to residents who have been the victim of burglary.
• Working with rough sleepers outreach services to reduce rough sleeping in the area.

The report also details the multi-agency task and finish group set up in March 2023 to keep a focus on the crime and antisocial behaviour issues in Balham, and includes a list of future interventions planned. These include:

• Tackling violence against women and girls.
• Raising awareness in the community of how to report crime and antisocial behaviour, including how to prevent crime.
• Rolling out a Business Against Crime scheme to businesses in the ward.

Review on the Council’s Approach to Implementing the Community Trigger

The Committee will receive a report on a review of the Council's approach to implementing the Community Trigger.

The Community Trigger gives victims of persistent antisocial behaviour the right to request a case review of their complaints to determine what action, if any, should be taken.

The report sets out the detail of how the Community Trigger works and how it has been implemented by the Council. It also includes details of a review conducted in 2023 of the local procedures and protocols for implementing the Trigger. The review concluded that a number of amendments were required to the existing protocol, including:

• Involving all Registered Social Landlords in the borough.
• Revising the threshold for triggering a case review.
• Extending the timescales for acknowledging and assessing applications.

The report provides a full list of the proposed amendments to the protocol.

Contain Outbreak Management Fund

The Committee will receive a report on the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF), which was a grant awarded by the government to local authorities to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to mitigate against the wider social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

The report states that Wandsworth Council received £10,220,001 in COMF funding and a further £2,541,671 in Test and Trace Support Grant, which was later renamed as COMF funding. The report focuses on how the £2,632,838 balance of this funding was used in 2022/23 and 2023/24 on 15 projects to mitigate against the wider health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic, which include:

• A Diabetes Decathlon programme.
• A service to support the mental health of rough sleepers.
• Support for foodbank users.
• Mental health and domestic abuse projects.
• A health bus.

The report also details the governance and approval processes in place to manage the grant and highlights the recommendations of the COVID-19 Inquiry in relation to safeguarding public funds and the management of financial risk.

Annual Report of Healthwatch Wandsworth

Healthwatch Wandsworth will provide a report to the Committee, which sets out how it has met its statutory duties and a summary of its activities from 2023/24.

The report notes Healthwatch is an independent organisation that helps people get the health and social care services they need, highlighting some of its key achievements in 2023/24 which include:

• Over 1,600 people involved in sharing their experiences of health and social care services.
• The publication of nine reports on improvements that people would like to see in services.
• 1,229 hours of volunteer time contributed to improving care.

The report also details Healthwatch's priorities for 2024/25, including access to primary care, autism and mental health for children and young people, the impact of changes to Community Mental Health Teams, and stroke services at St George’s Hospital.

Supported Housing Aquisition for People at Risk – Springfield Site

The Committee will receive a verbal update from the Director of Commissioning on the Supported Housing Acquisition for People at Risk – Springfield Site.

This scheme was previously considered by the Committee at its meeting on 17th July 2024.

2024/25 Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring

The Committee will receive a report on the first quarter budget monitoring for 2024/25. The report details that the Committee's budget is forecasting an overspend of £2.238m. The majority of the overspend relates to Adult Social Care, which is forecasting an overspend of £2.367m. The report states that Adult Social Care is facing a number of pressures, including:

• An increase in the number of people needing care and support.
• An increase in the complexity of care needs.
• Increased costs of care services, driven in part by inflation.

The report also highlights several actions being taken to mitigate the risk of an overspend. These include:

• Implementing the 'Reablement First' approach to increase the number of referrals for reablement.
• Increasing the use of technology as an alternative to long-term care.
• Streamlining referral processes at the Front Door by introducing new technology.
• Working with health colleagues to develop a physical and/or virtual coordination hub for patients discharged from hospital.

Richmond and Wandsworth Safeguarding Adults Board’s Annual Report 2023/24

The Committee will receive the annual report of the Richmond and Wandsworth Safeguarding Adults Board for 2023/24.

The report states that the Board is a multi-agency partnership that works to ensure safeguarding arrangements are effective in preventing abuse and neglect of adults with care and support needs.

The report details that the Board achieved a number of successes in 2023/24, including:

• The creation of videos to raise awareness of self-neglect and hate crime.
• Work with professionals to raise awareness of tech abuse, modern slavery, controlling and coercive behaviour.
• Quality assurance work on the quality of services for rough sleepers and homeless people.

The report also sets out the Board's strategic priorities for 2024/29, which include:

• Prevention and early intervention.
• Making safeguarding personal.
• Quality assurance and embedding learning.
• Cross-sector working.