The Adults and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee were scheduled to discuss a range of topics, including an update from the North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) on general practice, quality accounts from several NHS trusts and the North London Hospice, the implementation of the Carers' Action Plan, forward plans for the committee and related boards, an update on Task and Finish Groups, and the Cabinet Forward Plan.

NCL Integrated Care Board Report

The committee was scheduled to receive an update from the NCL ICB, including information on:

• GP registrations in Barnet
• Allied Health Professionals in Primary Care
• NCL Primary Care Access Recovery Plan

The report pack included a presentation from the NCL ICB, which described the role of the ICB and other organisations working with general practice in North Central London, how the ICB manages and monitors quality and performance in general practice, the national and local context for general practice, and the work being done to improve patient experience of access.

The presentation noted that patient-reported satisfaction with access to General Practice continues to receive attention nationally, even though practices are providing more appointments than ever before. The NCL ICB Primary Care team is structured around four pillars:

• Strategy and Change
• Planning, Operations and Improvement
• Primary Care Contracting
• Primary Care Business Unit

The presentation also included information on integrated care neighbourhoods in Barnet, the general practice landscape, growth in primary care demand, provision of appointments, extended access, the Barnet Bridging Service, the primary care workforce, the National Primary Care Access Recovery Plan, the Your Local Health Team campaign, digital inclusion, GP Patient Survey results, long term conditions management, and estates developments.

The presentation stated that the NCL ICB has been selected by NHS England to work with them to test interventions to increase the sustainability of general practice and therefore inform future contract arrangements.

NHS Quality Accounts

The committee was scheduled to comment on draft Quality Accounts from the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, North London Hospice, and Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

A Quality Account is an annual report about the quality of services offered by a healthcare provider.

Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust

The report from the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH) included information about:

• The trust's vision, mission and values
• The trust's quality priorities for 2025–2026, which are: a positive patient experience, preventing harm, smart effective care, modelling the way and population health.
• Statements of assurance from the board, including a review of services, secondary use services, data security protection, clinical coding error rate, clinical audits, research, freedom to speak up, commissioning for quality and innovation, Care Quality Commission (CQC) findings, data quality, learning from deaths, and incident reporting.
• Quality performance and progress against the trust's quality priorities for 2024–2025.

The CLCH report included a statement on quality from the Chief Executive, James Benson, who said:

I am delighted to report the tremendous work by our staff over the previous year has led to the successful delivery of many of our quality key performance indicators (KPIs). Detailed quality performance information can be found in this Quality Account.

North London Hospice

The report from the North London Hospice included information about:

• The hospice's vision, purpose, values and strategic ambition
• The hospice's patient services
• The hospice's priorities for improvement for 2025-26, which are: improving cultural awareness, learning from deaths, and improving medicines safety.
• Quality performance and improvement, including activity data and governance, patient safety data, participation in clinical audit and quality improvement projects, research, Patient Led Assessment of Care Environment (PLACE), and executive walk rounds.
• Experience and collaboration, including service user experience, compassionate neighbours, community engagement and partnership working, equality, diversity and inclusion, and staff and volunteer experience.
• What others say about the hospice, including the Care Quality Commission and statements from commissioners.

The North London Hospice report included a patient story, about a 44-year-old mother of two who was diagnosed with a stage four brain tumour. The story described the care and support that the hospice provided to the patient and her family.

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The report from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust included information about:

• The trust's governing objectives, which are: innovative healthcare and positive results for our patients, ensuring staff are cared for and valued, and achieving our sustainability goals.
• The trust's priorities for improvement for 2025-26, which are focused on patient experience, clinical effectiveness, and patient safety.
• Statements of assurance from the board, including a review of services, participation in clinical audits and national confidential enquiries, data quality, learning from deaths, and incident reporting.
• Performance against nationally selected indicators, including summary hospital-level mortality indicator (SHMI), patient reported outcome measures scores (PROMs), emergency readmissions within 30 days, responsiveness to the personal needs of our patients, staff recommendation to friends and family, venous thromboembolism (VTE), C. difficile, and patient safety incidents.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust report included a statement on quality from the Group Chief Executive, Peter Landstrom, who said:

I confirm to the best of my knowledge the information provided in this Quality Account is accurate and reflects the quality of care delivered by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Implementation of Carers' Action Plan

The committee was scheduled to discuss the implementation of the Carers' Action Plan.

Committee Forward Plans

The committee was scheduled to discuss its forward plan, and the forward plan for the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Task and Finish Groups Update

The committee was scheduled to note the progress of Task and Finish Groups.

The report pack included a table outlining the scope, agreed by committee date, evidence gathering date, report drafting date, report approval date, report to committee date, referred to cabinet date and response from cabinet date for Task and Finish Groups in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The report pack also included a narrative describing the scope of each of the Task and Finish Groups.

Cabinet Forward Plan

The committee was scheduled to consider the Cabinet Forward Plan and identify any items the committee may wish to request for pre-decision scrutiny during 2025-26.

The report pack included a table outlining the subject, summary of decision, cabinet member, public/part exempt status, key decision status and additional documents/consultations for items on the Cabinet Forward Plan.