Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board - Monday 15 June 2026, 5:00pm

Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board
Monday, 15th June 2026 at 5:00pm

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Good evening and welcome, everyone.

Welcome to the Taheem Let's Health and Wellbeing Board.

My name is Councillor Sabina Akter and I will be chairing

this board. I'm really happy to be back.

Because I do like this board.

So this meeting will be held in person.

Anyone joining online, they will also be participating, but we

do have the key participants here in the room today.

Should there be any technical difficulties, we will try to address it, but we will notify people in the meeting.

No fire alarms, tests, plans, so if there is a fire alarm taking place during the meeting, it's actually everyone.

And please follow the signs for the exit and please do not use the lifts.

Okay, so this meeting will be filmed for the Council website for the public viewing.

Cameras are focused on those participating in the meeting, but anyone in the room may

be caught on the camera in the background too.

I will also remind members at the meeting to only speak through me and to my direction

or clearly into the microphones when you are speaking, for any contributions to be recorded properly.

Thank you. Can we all have our phones switched off?

Yep, I've done mine as well. Okay.

Okay, so the first part of the agenda today will be appointing a vice chair.

As this is the first meeting, I'll tell members if they've got any invitations for any nominees.

Please do say so for the Vice Chair. So members, anyone nominating for the Vice Chair?

Thanks for that, Shafee. Ahmed?

Thank you, Chair. I'd like to nominate Dr Neil Ashman as the Vice Chair.

I believe he's online. Neil?

I do recall Justina telling me he's not feeling too well.

Okay, he may join later, that's fine. Seconder for Neil?

Chair, I formally second, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Said Ahmad. Is there any other nominations for the Vice Chair?

Any board members here?

Okay, so Neil Ashman is duly elected as his only nominee.

He's duly elected for the vice chair.

So congratulations, but maybe he'll be joining later on online.

Justina, do we have to make a formal...

There's no vote on that, no?

That's fine.

Okay, so any board members here?

We have some elected members here.

If you can introduce yourselves and also please mention your DPI's and any interest.

Please mention that as well.

Councillor Feistel, you can go around.

Hi. Afternoon everyone.

I'm Councillor Feistel Ahmed, newly elected Spiritfuls and Bangor town, also lead cabinet member for Truant Services.

Hello, I'm Bridget Cameron, I'm the interim director for commissioning for adult social

care.

Hi, I'm Gemma Lyons, associate director of public health.

Should I start here?

Yes.

Thank you.

Councillor Syed Ahmed, cabinet member for your housing and regeneration.

I was about to say resources.

And nothing to declare.

Hi, I'm Shomgan Ji, Director of Public Health.

Nothing to declare.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Councillor Shafi Ahmad, the Whitechap Award, and I'm the lead cabinet member for Clean Green Borough.

And no DPIs. Thank you, Chair.

Hello, everyone, and Chair. I'm Elia Islam.

I'm the programme lead for the better care fund presenting the paper today.

Nothing to declare.

Thank you.

I'm Vicky Scott.

I'm the CEO of Tower Hamlet CVS working with voluntary community groups in Tower Hamlet.

Hi, Naveed Hamid, Head of Strategy, Policy and Improvement for Health and Adult Social

Care.

Nothing to declare.

Justine Bridgeman, Democratic Services Officer.

I'm sorry, I was just going to say I received some apologies today from Richard Fratchley.

Georgia is on leave at the moment.

So yeah, Georgia, yep, she's on leave.

We can now move on to the minutes from the previous meeting, which I will say and some

of our board members as well.

Can we all approve the minutes from the 10th February 2026 meeting?

So we can now move on to the first item of the evening.

So this board's term of reference, quorum and meeting dates for the multiple year.

I'd like to welcome Justina Bridgeman, Democratic Service Officer, to introduce the report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

This is the annual report of the Tower Hamlets, Health and Well -being, terms of reference,

quorum, meeting dates and meeting start time.

I would be grateful if members can agree the terms of reference in the report and the appendices for this municipal year.

Do members agree their recommendations? I'll start out in the report.

I presume everyone's ready.

Just give me a note if you're there.

Yep.

Okay, so can members please note and approve the report and the appendices.

Thank you.

So now moving on to the item 3 .2, a discussion on our future vision for health and wellbeing.

For some time now, many of my fellow board members and I felt that this body, while it's

been effective doing what it can do to kind of engage the community and the local residents,

we did want it to be more responsive to the immediate and long -term health concerns that

people may have as residents.

So everyday residents are faced with a variety of health challenges, ranging from complex

caring responsibilities to something as basic as scheduling GP appointments.

They deserve the opportunity to not only feed into the health issues that impact them the

most but also to understand the local leaders and the issues that they might have been affected.

So I know as the lead member for health and the mayor and as the elected councillors,

We really don't want our residents to have a long, healthy life.

And we know how health affects us on a daily basis.

But it's also important for the residents to know how we make that choice

and how, as board members, how we can make a change as well.

So it's really important that we felt in this board we can carry on with that vision.

We have an opportunity to fill that vision, to build a healthy and well -being board.

that really matters, that just doesn't just fulfil the statutory duties, but a civic and community duties as well.

So today we'll be working together in groups, so you can see the layout's different, this is not how we have our normal well -being board.

So we'll have a chance to interact and have a discussion and later on take the feedback as well.

So I think as a board, how we can best serve our residents, we can have a kind of planned journey throughout the year

and take what residents feel that we can improve on. And also we want residents to have a more better participation

and I know I spoke to Shoman about that as well, how we can get more of the public interest, people to come in

because we do meet people who do have a lot of concerns so it's really important they come and meet us

and tell us that and having these meetings where it's more,

they can have more participation, I think it will be better.

So we'll be going on to doing this and I'll also ask the director

for public health, Shoma Bonadij, to come in now and say a few words.

Great. Thanks.

I'll come and join you guys.

Brilliant.

So as Councillor Actau was saying, this is a really kind of opportune moment to be thinking

about how as a board we want to really have the impact that we need to.

On one hand obviously this is a new administrative year, new administration.

We've got a new set of manifesto priorities within the Council, but it's also a time of

like significant change in the NHS with the North East London ICB having made quite a

lot of changes over the past year.

So I was going to ask Joe, did you want to just say a little bit about that context,

that North East is doing contact with.

I can do that.

So I'm really glad to be here.

I'm one of the physical manifestations of the change, so to speak, in terms of where

the ICB has gone in the past year.

So there was a blueprint that came out nationally for ICBs to make a change in terms of how

they function, and alongside that there was a requirement for a reduction in running costs,

which has led to the restructure.

But the main change to understand is that the ICP has moved to be a strategic commissioner,

which under that banner it holds responsibilities around population health and strategy and

enablers like health economics and data analytics.

There is then a very specific commissioning function around commissioning all services,

including primary care, medicines, joint commissioning, so that's the creation of

that strategic commissioning function and then there continues to be a sort of

resource planning and finance function. So Northeast London ICB has moved to

that model with the creation of very distinct strategic commissioning teams

around primary care, planned care and proactive care, but at the same time

there is still obviously a national requirement to support places to develop neighbourhoods,

the three shifts within the NHS 10 -year plan and then the National Neighbourhood Framework

really puts that front and centre in terms of direction of travel.

So, North East London created and retained those place delivery functions across the seven places

but aggregated it to an inner and an outer footprint just in terms of management structure.

So Tower Hamlet still has a place -based team, very much focused on neighbourhood delivery,

managed by a deputy director, Celia, who unfortunately isn't able to be here, and then I oversee

the inner London footprint in that space.

So that's the way of working, still very much focused on residents, people, but driving

forward that neighbourhood agenda with you as partners.

Thank you.

Great. Thanks very much.

Is it Matthew who's online?

Sorry, I can't see.

Yes, it's Matthew Adrian.

Matthew Adrian.

Yeah, Matthew Adrian.

Yeah, so just, Matthew, maybe you should introduce yourself.

Maybe you can't hear us.

I'll just say that...

Oh, has he just come off mute?

So Matthew is the lead for Health Watch, Health Watch Tower Hamlets.

And I just want to say to Matthew, appreciate this is mainly sort of in the room,

but we'd really value your comments to some of the group work that we're doing.

So if you want to put it in the chat or just speak at the appropriate moment,

That would be great.

So I'm just gonna go through,

we probably got about an hour just to think through

a little bit about how we want

the Health and Wellbeing Board to work.

So I wanna spend a little bit of time

as a contractor was saying,

thinking about actually what is the purpose of this board?

Why do we come here every second month?

What do we wanna do?

What do we want to achieve?

then also what do we need to be in place for this board to really be effective.

And then we also want to understand what every, what members bring,

and what people need to kind of really take forward their roles.

And then we want some practical next steps, and so the next board,

we want to reflect back the discussion we're having today,

and also just consolidate some of the ideas that might emerge.

So that's kind of what I'd like us to do today.

Hopefully that makes sense to people.

So the first thing I'm going to do is just quite simple,

which is going, actually, what is the Health and Wellbeing Board for?

There's lots of webinars and there's loads of stuff that, you know,

consultants kind of put out, but really I'm just trying to boil it down here and I want to just get a little bit

I want to get people's thoughts on it. So

So the Health and Wellbeing Board core purpose to improve health in Tower Hamlets and address inequalities

The purpose of the board is to bring the right people together

Who can influence change you have believers for change?

Also, the Health and Wellbeing Board looks at the whole picture, so it looks at all of the things that impact on health,

which can be housing, employment, poverty, all of those sorts of things, as well as just the health and care services as well,

so it looks at the whole picture. And its core question is what do people in Tamahandlids need to be healthy, to stay healthy and be healthier.

And based on that insight, it's about building a strategy, a plan around shared priorities that we have as a board.

And we in this room have collective power and how do we use that in an impactful way?

And how do we hold ourselves accountable for the change?

And the next two bullets really reflect what Councillor Actare was saying,

was that the discussions that we have need to be grounded in reality.

And sometimes with all the sort of things that go on, we sometimes can lose sight of the resident,

in which case we're not really having the right conversations.

And actually how do we give residents and communities the right voice,

not just a voice but the right voice in the right way.

So that's a kind of take on what I think the Health and Wellbeing Board is about.

But I wanted to, I mean I think it's really important that we all share a view on what

we think this board is about.

So I don't want to spend a lot of time on this but I just wanted a five minute conversation

around the tables in which people go,

well, yeah, that broadly feels right.

Is there anything missing?

Is there anything that's really important to people?

Because I think what we want to do is we want to articulate,

for the next meeting, we actually just want to articulate

that purpose and say that is our collective purpose.

So hopefully it's captured most of the things,

but just a quick five minute discussion

about does this feel right?

And is this what people thought the health and wellbeing board was about?

Recognising that there is also health scrutiny, which is about actually more of a scrutiny

around the health and care system.

So on your tables you've got Gemma who's going to facilitate that table and Naveed on this

table.

So I won't take long, just five minutes, just to get people's thoughts.

Is that all right?

Yeah, real.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Yes, Joe that Terry, we may need to just clarify that this board does have some statutory responsibility

so we must make sure that those statutory responsibilities serve our residents, and

not just kind of fulfilling our responsibilities, whatever our accountabilities are.

Great, thanks.

David?

Thanks, it's really interesting because we have some different things actually.

So we started off by emphasising the need to be able to measure the impact of what we

do.

So there's obviously the public health outcomes framework which is quite a wide range of individual

metrics.

and I think the point was made about narrowing down that to what matters to us and importantly what matters to our residents.

And I think that was kind of a key theme to emerge.

We spoke about how the governance arrangements work, so how does this board, appreciating that it's not a decision making board as the Councillor said,

how does this board work with cabinet and the other governance arrangements that we've got across the system more broadly.

There was a point made around the importance of community voice, and so there's a specific community voice function that sits within Tabu Hamlet's together.

I think the point was made about how do we broaden that, because we really want to be able to capture the voice of our community in its kind of broadest sense and kind of feed that in.

And so how do we kind of utilise what works elsewhere but possibly build on it as well.

There was a comment made about how collaborative this board is.

So it kind of sits in quite a unique space in so far as it has contributions from elected

councillors, but also from our health partners, the council itself, the voluntary and community

sector.

And so there is, as a point of principle I suppose, the need to be collaborative as possible

in that space.

Holding each other to account, so there's obviously lots of business that gets discussed here

but that partners need to then take back into their individual areas

and how do we ensure that we are holding each other to account

and that's a function that we need to make sure works well within the Health and Wellbeing Board.

And then there was a point around making participation as accessible and inclusive as possible.

So officers might fall into that trap of using acronyms or talking in ways which we all understand

as stakeholders but why their partners don't understand and that kind of inhibits participation

and we need to kind of overcome that to make sure that the board is as inclusive as it

can be.

Thanks very much, there's a lot here at that blank.

Matthew wanted to come in, Matthew?

Thank you.

So, we started off talking about working in silos, so kind of partners not understanding

or appreciating what others are doing, not knowledgeable, but about what others are doing

and kind of almost coming to this from a very sort of, from the sort of self -centric sort of perspective.

We spoke about timeliness being poor and the point that this was in relation to was the BCF.

So in order for us to fulfil or discharge our responsibilities to sort of scrutinise papers,

we need to have the time and space to be able to know what the papers are saying,

understand what the papers are saying and that's not always okay so yes okay so

so if we if we if everything is hurried and everything is not considered in its

in the right way or a lack of understanding in terms of context that

would be a bad health and well -being board and we a board which has either to

junior membership so people who can't make decisions, irregular attendance so

the people either there's too many substitutes that are being that kind of

turn up to each meeting or different people that turn up to each meeting and

a membership which is not reflective of the kind of sectors or our communities I

think that would be a bad house and well -being board. A board that doesn't

know the impact that it's making so just picking up on an earlier point around

kind of understanding how and the work that we do is impacting our residents out there.

So if we didn't know what that was that would be a bad happen while being bored.

Partners not pulling in the same direction and this is kind of like where organisations kind of

instead of working collaboratively are not working collaboratively, sort of almost kind of butting

heads and that's not a great place to be. A board that doesn't understand the needs of the

and that includes the changing needs of the borough as well, appreciating that the Taliban is always evolving.

Partners who don't spend enough time developing relationships and that kind of rapport that comes with an effective health and wellbeing board

and then fundamentally, and I think this is a really important one, is actually not knowing what we are here for.

If partners walk up to a meeting and don't know the purpose of it, it's kind of self -defeating.

Thanks for the good ideas.

Thank you.

And what we'll do with that is we'll kind of take all of that and then we'll obviously

reverse it so we get a sense that we'll come back and go, yeah, we agreed that this would

would be what a good meeting would look like.

So thanks very much for that.

And Matthew, I don't know, have we solved any of the problems?

I can't do it online.

Oh.

Yeah, I'll have to take him off.

Oh, okay.

Matthew, can you hear us?

Did you want to give input?

Sorry, we did say if you do have technical difficulties.

Sure, that's fine.

You can send an email to us later.

Okay, what's... Yeah, if you could just...

So, Matthew said,

one, how can we share the impact of the Health and Wellbeing Board's work

to the community in simple, plain English and or other languages?

Two, community voice focus in THT meetings is really

beneficial and insightful. How do we bring those elements to the Health and Wellbeing Board

without causing unnecessary duplication?

Three, how can the Health and Wellbeing Board effectively share the impact of their work

to underserved and seldom heard groups?

Do Health and Wellbeing Board members need to start doing visits to community and voluntary

sector organisations to see the work being done on the ground first hand?

And four, other sectors that should be invited on occasion to Health and Wellbeing Board

meetings such as police, housing, leisure services and faith leaders?

Great, brilliant.

Thanks Matthew.

That was really young.

Great, so that was that. Thanks so much for that.

I'm just going to move us on a little bit.

This is a bit, I'm not, I'm a bit worried about whether it's going to work or not, but maybe just bear with me.

So really what we want to do is we want to talk, you know, in terms of actually what, as board members, each with equal voice, what do we bring to the table.

So the exercise is just a little bit about pairing up with someone from a different organisational background or someone that you don't know.

Just sharing an experience that shows you why health and wellbeing in town is matters to you.

And one thing, because I think we all bring something different, one thing you feel you can offer the board that others might not.

So something about your experience that would be of value to the board.

And the only thing we want you to write down is just that one thing I can offer.

We've got just a few post -its for that.

Just give it maybe 5 -10 minutes.

Does that work for people?

So what I need is for people just to circulate.

Do you think it would be better if you pair it up because we're kind of limited on what we don't know.

Some of us have been here a little bit longer.

Just go 1 -2, 1 -2.

Okay, I'll just try to...

You guys know each other.

I can do that. I'll put Joe. I'll put you with Councillor Kibbe. That would be good.

Shafi, Bridget maybe?

Cancer, Saeed?

Let's think.

Who would you like? Have you got anyone obvious?

Steve.

I don't know what he's up to.

Then is cancer, is it Faisal?

Faisal.

Maybe with Vicky?

Yeah, that would be good.

Who else have we got?

We've got...

Oh, sorry, I didn't catch your name.

Othley.

Councillor Othley, I'm happy to meet with you.

And we've got cancer Sabina with...

I don't know, maybe Navid?

Or did you have any preferences?

Yeah, yeah, that would be good. And who have I missed out?

Oh, Gemma? Maybe speak to Bridget. Not Bridget, Justina. Sorry, Justina Bridgeman.

Has everyone got a partner? And so, if we could just...

We did have some post -its somewhere. So the only thing we want you to write is one thing you feel you can offer.

and then the feedback people will introduce each other.

So that would be... Is that alright?

Steve, you're coming to me?

You're kind.

So that's for you, your offer.

Got the best partner in the room.

So, the question is...

One personal experience, a moment that shows why health and wellbeing in terms of matters to you,

one thing you feel you can offer to the poor, that might be that other item.

Okay, I'm going to get this one.

Okay.

Yeah, it's just, it's a moment you get it, right?

Yes, that was the big question.

What's that like?

Without picking on anyone in the room?

Yeah.

Below your expectations?

No, you know what?

It's picked up.

Yeah, yeah.

But stop it.

You would need care serving.

We know that we have a lot of questions.

Why it matters to me is knowing that the Council is putting money into this service.

Number one, we're putting money into the service.

Number two, I know this is a high pressure area for all the public.

The reason why this really matters is to make sure that we can balance that.

Balance the fact that we put money into it, balance the fact that we're facing pressure,

and the service level that we want.

We've put a lot of money into it and we're going to have a contest in seven.

At the same time we're going to manage that kind of pressure.

So from a resident point of view, from a service user point of view, we can make sure that we can manage that.

The service level stays good and we continue to manage that for all the pressure that we're facing.

So there's something about making sure that your family members are being shared,

and making sure that you're sitting on this wall,

and that the whole system works together is the main thing.

So, also recognising your background and making sure that you're actually doing this.

One thing I can offer is that service user view, the lens from someone receiving care, what is the problem for doing a bad course, you know, is the biggest problem.

So I think that's a real good thing.

I think my first experience of the past three and a half years was I think the speaking to young people.

I have to be careful I say this because sometimes the kind of people they do get, they are a bit over obsessed with some of the people.

So for me, we make sure that everything is well.

I think mental health is a big part of it.

It can support all your physical and mental health issues.

It can help with the development of the car.

It's really good.

And it is a security and social security problem.

The fact is that I'm not a real researcher, but I'm a bit more of a researcher, and I'm responsible for it.

I'm not a real man, but I just thought of myself as there in the first place to be.

The more coming is the right place to be.

It's a bit like that, I was really put in the pair of things, but I stopped breaking it.

Yeah, definitely.

I don't think the thing I bring to the stage earlier is a collaboration.

I see what you're saying.

She's still trying.

I don't.

My dad wants to say I'm more than happy.

I think that's still right.

I'm not saying that.

I don't think so.

I'm not saying that.

To help someone else, to help you get to the source.

I can have some people in my school, so I guess it's a bit tricky that whole balance

of ages and population. If they spend all our money on other people, it's a bit hard

to get there.

Actually, health and wellbeing is all horizontal, from babies all the way up to people receiving elderly care.

So I think what we can bring is to make, we need to see from a resident point of view, from children's way of view,

So what, all the policies that we're doing here,

what is it making people blind?

How is it helping the relationship?

I don't think it's a board like yours.

We all want to get there.

The director of power, he knows the power.

We all have something to do.

It's about what it's about.

Yeah, no honestly, especially when it comes to choosing services, you know, that's what

ticked my mind how important it is to have all the problems, especially for those of

them at a young age, we can tackle a lot of problems with them, as you know, if they get

the right services and get them the better life, they'll have better chances, isn't it?

How do you get your own house in the big time?

Yeah, housing is a big factor.

You might have someone living in a situation where they develop housing publications for a small business

and they stuck with that forever.

You know, somebody who used to be, because of the housing condition, they'd given up skin, teeth or other

or rice or whatever, and they stuck with that forever.

We would never know whether it was the housing that got the genetic or whether it was the living condition.

It could have been out of that and now they start to be forever.

That's really important.

That's the people who are there, who are writing to you.

You have that on the board, you have that on the table.

The lifestyle, the experience, the financial world.

But having the opportunity to have it beforehand, we give them that.

We can eliminate the fact that it wasn't this because we were in front of it.

Why didn't those services...

But then we can, because we greatly allow free store, we allow free uniform and all of that stuff.

How do you then quantify this?

Is there a major risk that it could put in place?

We've been doing this for the last x many years and can we put that benefit?

That will be very important.

People were talking last week about the offices and your administration is going to be fresh

at the deep end right now.

This is also trying to help.

But they don't need that help as well.

So I'm here and I'm one of the parents and I'm actually going to stay with my dad.

He's a little kid, so I ended up having to go to school.

I ended up, as I were, thinking I was going to get a new job, ending up,

travelling to the United States, coming to the U .S. for a year,

and loving it.

Each week, I'm spending a couple of weeks over that way,

working around the world, trying to hold a head on the situation.

It's an unpounding issue, isn't it?

They had terrible GCSEs. They didn't experience life in many factors.

and they can never do that.

That's one generation, isn't it?

No, I guess your point is very, very important. You can come with the school's lens, the children's lens.

That lens is very important for the women being shapen and the women being bought.

And going back to your own personal experience, it's just about the amount of care that's bought, the amount of change you offer.

We can change the technology.

Change the technology.

Do something new.

And I think I might have a bad idea of the new Scrumpshaper.

Which is that I want you to use a little tablet.

Oh, okay.

We can do that.

That's fine.

I want this for real.

Sorry, do you mean we should listen to each other?

That was a great answer.

Yeah, that's it.

She's asking if you mind me worrying about what's going on.

Oh sorry, I could probably shout to where you are.

Do you want to be understood?

Yeah, if you could present Councillor Chappie says and then Council Chappie.

Yeah, so I've been absolutely fascinated by just hearing your background.

So, yeah, yes.

So I think you bring two things.

We cheated, we've already broken the rules, right?

So we're only supposed to bring one,

but I think you bring two things.

I think you bring experience from your portfolio

around that healthy environment and the green space,

which is phenomenal to hold us to that healthy environment

for people to live in and grow up in and age in.

And to me that's wonderful,

but the bit that really, you'll see why,

he's been a governor for 12 years

in different schools and different experiences,

so we did have a bit of a chat.

But I think that you bring that understanding

of the challenges that schools face,

but also that understanding of the potential

and the opportunity to change and holding us to account on getting the best for our children and young people in those settings.

So I found that fascinating getting to know you, so thank you.

Thank you. Bridget also, a vast wealth of experience, I think, you talked about 26 posts plus and counting.

I've worked with 26 local authorities.

Local authorities.

I'm only 18.

Which always, I think, coming onto this board, that experience is so important for us as well.

How different localities and local authorities and different councils have been spearheading the healthy lifestyle,

the healthy work, healthy being stuff.

So I think having, and having a previous head teacher in a school,

this gives us from what our motto is in terms of the council going forward is,

from a child being born to someone who's becoming old and valuable to the community,

we have that little understanding that what we deliver, not just for adult health and wellbeing,

but it also starts from a very young age and I think having that experience is so important.

Thank you.

Let me go first then, just to sort of compliment what my colleagues have just mentioned.

I've got Steve upstanding ready.

He says it all.

He comes with the lens of all our children's services, our schools,

and sort of thinking about well -being like you said about children as well and

how we can sort of give children the life chances earlier earlier in their

life so before they get to adulthood and sort of tackle inequalities in health at

that stage. A lot more, sorry Steve I didn't do justice at all. The outstanding inspection was two years ago but I'm still living up to the glory of that inspection.

Councillor Said, we were talking about his personal experience and his mum's service

user of care and his experience of that process but also because he was the lead cabinet member

for resources, he's got a view on how we make the best use of resources because we know

they're limited so that was a really important point. I think as a councillor because of

your experience listening to communities as a counsellor and as a cabinet member you can

bring the service user perspective to the health and well being board because like all

our counsellors every day of the week you'll get that feedback about the council and other

health services so yeah that's an important thing.

Thank you so much.

Nice things.

Absolutely. Introducing Councillor Akhtar.

I think we discussed the uniqueness in Councillor Akhtar being a Bangladeshi woman

and bringing her insight from that angle to the board, but also knowledge about the community

and being a lead member for the stepping ward as well,

because each of the wards have their own unique challenges and their unique needs.

So yeah, that's what we said.

For Ila, every single time we meet, she gives us the update for Better Care Fund.

And going back to my TCCs, maths figures, it's like, you know, I want to stay with her,

but every time I meet her and she's giving the update, it's really clean, concise, and

I can really understand the updates that we're getting, and it's really important that I

understand that aspect of the better funding and the update. So in terms of a professional,

how she understands the knowledge that she can give, it's really valuable to the board,

to myself and it's something that I can really relate back to the board as well.

So having that knowledge is really important.

So yeah, when she does explain to me it's really concise, really to the point and she's clear.

So yeah, her delivery in that aspect is really good. So I'm really grateful.

Hi, so this is Councillor Faisal and he brings a lot of experience, lived experience of health

inequalities in Tower Hamlets and we had a really great conversation about grassroots,

voluntary and community groups and what they can bring and he is a footballer and we, well

Well, that's what I heard.

And that how important physical activity was to addressing

health inequalities.

And we talked a lot about the kind of age gap

and how the younger generation, how things are changing for them

and how their needs are changing.

And about the social media ban.

So we have fun.

Vicky is the CEO of Taghamlet CVS, so she brings a vast worth of experience and knowledge,

insight into health and wellbeing in the borough.

One moment she kind of highlighted, which I've kind

of found very powerful, was in one of her meetings.

I'm sorry if I'm getting it wrong.

One of her very first meetings with the local,

I'm not going to mention her, but she's a very kind

of well -known local figure, public figure,

and local Bangladeshi lady.

And she said, you're going to live longer than me.

And it's down to obviously we discussed the challenges that people face and especially

women in this borough.

We know the life expectancy is lower than men.

I thought that was really powerful.

Sorry, was that it?

I think I've got most of it.

But we shared a thing about voluntary community groups, didn't we?

Yeah, yeah, so I think we discussed at length about the importance that the voluntary third sector plays in all of this.

And we agree that anything we do, any kind of initiatives such as this, needs to be grass -led.

Like it needs to be bottom -up, not top -down.

Yeah, which I'm very passionate about.

So, we had a great conversation with Kabir and much as everyone has talked about the

passion for local and localism, but I think what we settled on in terms of what you bring

is that ability to ask questions, to test everything and to ask the difficult questions

that sometimes don't get asked to bring out, to get us to the point where we do the best and the right thing for our residents.

So...

Yeah.

Show them on space that during budget reviews.

Steve's definitely faced that during budget reviews.

Why? Why?

That's all.

So, Jo.

Jo's come over to join us relatively recently.

She was managing Newham and a number of other boroughs,

but Tower Hamlets is now also included in that,

Integrated Commissioning Board, NHS.

And I think what Jo brings,

she identified what she brings is desire for delivery

to make tangible differences at the local level.

But what I sensed was there was a lot of passion

in doing that, and I think that's really important

because that passion is the driver to deliver.

and without the passion, you know, we can sort of sing till the cows come home, but that delivery won't be there.

So yeah, that's what I read.

I think there's a lot of passion in the ICP.

You do need quite a lot of passion, yes.

We've...

So I was talking to Justyna, who is a member,

who works in Democratic Services,

and first started telling me that she just lost the minutes

and that's what she brings.

But actually, after discussing it in more detail,

I found out that Justina brings years of experience, experience in Tower Hamlets as well as elsewhere,

and has worked in various parts of the council since she's been here, and has come back to Tower Hamlets twice because she loves it so much.

So she's got a lot of passion for the borough, so she definitely doesn't just take the minutes but brings a huge amount of experience to the board.

Thank you Gemma. OK Gemma's told me that, and I like this, that you work in different

local authorities and you bring parts that you know from one local authority to another

local authority just to help and ensure the health of adults at a particular age is looked

after and you know just I just like the fact that you said you went from one

place and you came here and you thought you know what this basically somebody

we're not gonna talk about who it was but somebody had an idea which was

already done in the previous local authority and Gemma was like it's not gonna work

because we tried it before and it doesn't work and I like the fact that your

experience in one place can be transferred to another and can make a

difference to a different borough so that's what I, that's what we learnt.

Yeah, great. So I had a lovely conversation with Dr. Schoman and I'm sure he doesn't need

any introduction but it's the first time we've talked so he has a very extensive medical

background which obviously is great for a board like this as well as his job as the

director of public health. So with that he can bring a lot of data inside which obviously

is so important for us to have a general overview of what's going on in the whole of Tower Hamlets.

because I think a lot of us will understand our wards and maybe our sections, but having

that data insight I think really shows where the key points are that we need to put pressure

on.

And also we talked about the importance of trust in our communities, so he's done a lot

of work in building those kind of pathways into different communities that maybe don't

understand public health or need a little bit more guidance on how the system works,

and building that reciprocal trust to make sure that we don't just go in and

balls our way in and say we're doing this and actually work with the community,

get feedback and they understand what we're doing as much as we understand what they need from the community.

Great, thanks so much. So this is Councillor Lottie, is that right?

Yes.

And what's really interesting is that Councillor Lottie, her background is actually in cancer research

and like a really strong background around that, coupled with a real interest in health

inequalities and actually what was really interesting is that she was saying that one

of the core things that she does is being able to help patients understand what's going

on and really think about the language, it's like what we've been talking about all through

today which is about how do you convey issues that really matter to patients in a way that

really lands for them. So that was a real, that was really powerful and I think basically

there's a common interest here around health literacy and kind of really understanding

that actually not everyone in this borough speaks English as a first language, necessarily

you know, writes in English, so there's just a lot of those things and that's a reality

and actually sometimes I cover adult social care and it really comes home to me that you're

with someone who is really struggling because they're just, they're not understanding, they're

the conditions aren't right for them to understand the system.

And then we also said there is never an excuse to say that something is too complicated.

If you feel it's too complicated, the problem is with you rather than the person you're talking to.

So it's really interesting to have that discussion.

Great. Brilliant.

Well, thanks so much for that.

If we could just hand the things, just the post -its about what we bring.

Just hand them to Gemma.

That would probably be the easiest way.

I'll do it.

Okay.

I left my phone in.

So, I think, you know, what are we going to do with the same sector, and what would enable you to just have an opportunity to speak out, what relationships you need.

But also, for the discipline, like when we're meeting, when we're doing the time of meetings, and having accessibility issues, just, we'll give you a word from the panel on time.

But just give me two, three minutes, and then if people can just quickly ask off.

Thank you.

So I've got a few things. Meetings after 6pm, some of us have day jobs that we need to...

That's good, to have meetings, but mind you, probably from July I'll be here earlier, so

I'll be in on a Monday. So the understanding restrictions of the board, so we can wish

for the world but there are limitations, so if you understand that and operate within

those parameters. An action tracker, so that if we decide on things as a board, somebody

needs to take ownership of it and we need a tracker in relation to if we're working

towards that, if we're achieving that and how we've delivered or delivering that. We

need an annual list of achievements that will give us empowerment as a body so that we can

and evidence that we have achieved ABCD in a partnership framework?

And lastly, how do we measure success for us to have a unified understanding of what good looks like

and how we get to what we can consider success?

So what do I need?

I think part of it is to get to know you all a bit better and for you to get to know me.

I think there's something about how I can support agendas, items and make sure that

I'm bringing relevant input in from the ICB and I know they're not here so I'm pretty

sure they would say that some members of the NHS may struggle just with Mondays, GPs in

particular, it's a difficult day and it might also be a difficult day for the acute, you

know, because Mondays after the weekend is notoriously difficult.

Most days, isn't it?

Yes.

So yeah.

Yeah, papers on time and really clear in plain English, residents voice direct into the meeting

dashboard data and analysis to track outcomes, maybe board members doing

back -to -the -floor visits. I'd like to do that not in the council teams, I can do

that anyway, but maybe in partners. And think about location of the meeting if

you wanted to move it to other places in the borough to engage more with different

bits of the borough.

I put open and understanding environment to discuss things in brackets

non -judgmental. Just time to read the brief impacts because they are quite big, so just

enough time to get through them. A list of acronyms and organisation names, because sometimes

you don't actually know what an organisation does. And then clear instructions on what

we'll be discussing at the next meeting so we can come prepared and what the outcomes

of that meeting needs to be, so we're not kind of flailing.

I personally need to get more familiar with the local issues, so that's a little bit more

reading up and things for me. And with the borough, I am geographically useless, so I

am that person that turned into the field when Tom Tom told me to, if those often have

to remember Tom Tom. And I was thinking it can't be here, well of course it wasn't, right,

So I do need to get familiar with it.

So I've been here many times as a tourist,

but I need to understand the footprint

for what it would be like to live as a local.

And I haven't realised half the places I visited

were in town of Hamlet's, I just put it that way.

So when I say geography, I really do mean it.

I've gone the other way.

I've said by putting meetings in the evenings,

I think you make the day very long for everyone.

And I think that I speak up for officers,

But I would say for all of us, we do a full day, and actually to do it in the evenings.

A lot of authorities, many most, do it during the day now.

It's a rarity to have them in the evening.

But I haven't done many in London, so I don't know whether that's a different situation here.

And I just say that I think it's, I suppose it's going back to what I can bring,

But if we find we need other things, then I've got contacts in other authorities that

we can possibly tap into as well.

Just building on from that point, for me, meetings earlier in the day would actually

be better.

It would be easier to attend.

and also building on what Steve said, having the papers in advance,

knowing from my director of public health if I'm asked to attend,

and to know what the priorities are of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

So I've got a few points.

Mainly it's about personally how I can improve and develop.

So I've got the same kind of point about papers,

maybe undertake more time out to read my papers and understand them so I can make positive contributions.

What would help to make me feel more able to speak out? I think that would come with experience as well, knowledge and confidence.

Kind of also working closer with colleagues and other members.

give me valuable insight which I can then contribute in the meetings.

And also, I think it's been covered.

Thank you.

I think I concur with colleagues in terms of probably timings of the meetings.

Many of us are parents and just from an officer perspective it can be a point of anxiety

to kind of make that room and do the full day and then attend the meeting very late into the evening.

And the second point for me was it would be really helpful, I know we published kind of who attends the meeting,

what the core membership is, but I'm not always clear on everyone's roles.

So we've got the roles as in within the meeting itself, who's the chair, who's the vice chair,

who were kind of like stakeholders, but in terms of actual roles, because that would help me in developing my papers or putting meaningful context into it.

An example being one of the first meetings I presented at the Hilton Wellbeing Board, I didn't know who Vicky was.

And Vicky asked a really important question, and had I anticipated that we had this representation, I probably would have been able to answer that question better and more fully.

So just understanding what departments or what organizations...

So people coming to the board...

Yeah, who present...

...know who...

So I agree with quite a lot of what other people have said,

but in addition, I think I like what Lottie said about knowing

what we're discussing at the next meeting,

and the ability to feed into what kinds of themes we might have.

So we can't always dictate that,

because it's what's happening in the council

or what's happening in the health system,

but it would be really useful,

specifically thinking about voluntary community sector

engagement around that,

even if we get the papers a week beforehand,

it doesn't give me very much time

to go and consult and talk to people.

So that would be really useful.

And also maybe the opportunity to ask

or any clarifying questions beforehand.

So if the papers come round and you think,

Oh, I have a question about that.

Can we ask somebody?

Thank you.

To be honest, this is actually helping me understand because I'll be honest with you,

this is not a normal meeting to me. This is not something that I'm used to doing. I don't

speak at the meetings, I take minutes. So hearing all of this, and can I just say a

couple of things about the times? I would love to have daytime meetings, I would love

But these meetings have been, we started doing the meetings, I want to say December, getting

everything ready because obviously there were more than just this meeting, there were at

least 20 odd different meetings that Dem Services do.

So if you want to move things, it can, it's easier to get the meetings in the day, but

it will still be difficult, if that makes sense.

So we can do it, but it would be difficult.

A lot of the things you talked about I was thinking myself, because like I said, this is a different meeting.

I've never been to a meeting like this, to be honest, where I'm participating.

So I think this helps me make the meeting run better, knowing exactly what you want.

In terms of the agenda, a couple of people said that the agenda, the time it takes for you to read it, are you saying that it's not long enough?

Because we have to send the agendas out five working days before the meeting.

Really it's seven days because it doesn't include the day you send and it doesn't include the meeting time.

Are you saying you would prefer the agendas sent two weeks before?

I think that's the discussion.

People think I'm working out of time too.

Right, okay.

Right, so that's basically...

Thanks, I think not to repeat what everyone said, but I think one of the things that I found that I think we can do a lot better is having a group discussion like this when you have a specific item that we know on an agenda that's going to need a lot of decision, is actually talk it through rather than sort of just asking to people.

asking people to speak out if they wish to speak.

So group discussions are very important.

Another one I was gonna suggest is within the agenda,

if we can have time allocated for papers.

We normally have just pages.

The system might.

Well, let me do that.

Oh, okay, all right.

The system doesn't allow it.

You have to find it.

All right, okay, okay.

Just because if we have time allocated,

we could, I think, know exactly how quick

and what decisions we need to make,

because I'm mindful of the time today.

and I think we've still got two more agenda items.

Just one.

No, it's just one.

Oh, just one more, is it?

Okay, all right.

So yeah, that's that.

I've got two more.

I think.

And finally, I was on a request,

if the packs ain't too big,

whether we can have it emailed as a PDF,

or rather than just going into the link,

sometimes that link plays up.

When I press send, as in send the agenda on the system,

that's what it does, it just sends it out.

Okay, we'll have a look at that.

I'm not going to take up time. The only thing I'd say is I'd like to get more about people's

perspectives, so whether it's schools or whatever it is, just maybe a little bit more, or your

life as councillors and those sorts of things.

Thank you. Just one, I want to make me speak out of something appreciative of what the

board brings in terms of the papers and the reports, but also be critical as well.

Be appreciative and be critical on things that as a board or as an individual we are

not happy about, but make sure that being critical is also part of becoming a board.

Brilliant, thank you.

Great, so thanks so much for that.

That was really, really good session, really, really helpful.

I put in the actions. I'll send this pack around so people can know and hold ourselves to account.

We will come back at the next meeting and talk through actually what's come out of this really good discussion.

Brilliant. Thanks so much.

And against everything we said about a good meeting, I'm now going to pass on to Bridget and Elia to talk about the Better Care Fund.

So what I was going to say really, because we couldn't do a full touch on it, is we are

due to catch up, being the better fit, and the more than the University Council sits within

part of the commissioning work, though I know that you have gaps, so if you'd like to go

back.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Thank you.

So as it sits as part of the commissioning workstream typically, so I'm going to talk

to Chanel when she's back, but in Chanel's absence.

Just to say that this is one of our returns.

But I was struck just by the brevity of it this time.

And I keep thinking each time, we used to give tomes and tomes,

and you'd spend ages going through it, didn't you,

and reproducing it and everything.

But just some feedback.

I thought, probably not for here, but I think it is for here.

It's a well -written report.

And you can tell you know what you're doing.

And for me, I'm just going to hand over to you, but for the actual document, this needs

to be the place where these are signed off.

And the timing of this is never, when we need to have the quarterly reports signed off,

never times with when the meeting is due to happen.

So you're often having to make a decision outside the board meetings and have them ratified

here, which is what we're doing today.

Thank you, Bridget. I just want to apologise. I came here to present this paper and I gatecrushed your entire workshop.

Apologies for that. Thank you, Bridget. Yes, we haven't had a chance to catch up yet. It's just been a bit crazy.

but today I'm presenting the Better Care Fund 26 -27 plan.

The quarterly reporting is generally something that is taken through to the lead member meetings

and signed up there on behalf of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

But today is really presenting the plan to the board which is in your pack

and seeking confirmation from the board of agreement

that the submitted plan which we submitted on the 16th of May, it's a national requirement

that the Health and Wellbeing Board ratify it. So this is really done in retrospect and

if the Board are happy with the ambitions that have been set for their national metrics,

including the TAL hundreds together, EXEC agreed 2 % improvement to the non -elective

What is the Better Care Fund? It's a national policy programme that requires the Council and the ICB to jointly agree how we deliver integrated preventative care for residents.

So it brings together the NHS and local authority funding streams and you'll be aware in the paper that includes the NHS minimum contribution,

the Better Care grant which comes into the local authority, the Disabled Facilities Grant

Fund which comes into the local authority and then we have additional ICB and local

authority contributions into a single jointly agreed plan.

Submitting a compliant plan as I said is part of the national condition for receiving the

funding and what we've done this year is we've produced both components of the plan, that's

the narrative and the numerical templates that fully align with national guidelines.

The plan has been co -developed across the system, so we have had input from finance,

commissioning, adult social care, community health, data and analytics and service leads

into the planning. It has been reviewed by our direct tech level team, our tablets together

board and both the chief execs of the ICB and the local authority who have reviewed

the plan and have agreed for the submission in May. We've also had the NHS England regional

team review our plan and give us early indicative assurance as to its strengths, so the governance

has agreed the submission to assure the board. We've also in addition to this, and I know

the Health and Wellbeing Board are particularly interested in this, have completed phase one

of our deep dive review of BCF funded schemes to strengthen value for money and prepare

for the shift to neighbourhood aligned BCF model from 2027 -28. So we have a task and

finish group that's led by Chanel, our Director of Adult Social Services and we are going

to regroup to agree the findings from the report that are produced and this will be

brought back through governance and the findings to the Health and Wellbeing Board too.

And then we will shortly be starting phase two of the deep dive which will include looking

at our intermediate care pathways and schemes and the rest of the schemes in the BCF before

next year's planning round.

So what's new or important this year?

In 26 -27 national partners have announced, as you'll be aware, that it's a transition

year with a one year planning cycle ahead of expected national reform. We've improved

transparency in our plan so we've got clearer scheme categorisation, a more detailed breakdown

of our Better Care grant and a clearer separation of our ICB funded discharge schemes. We have

added one new adult social care scheme in collaboration with our THT board and our lead

SRO, CHANEL, and that's the Intensive One -to -One Home Care for Complex Discharge Cases, and

that was redirected from a previous ICB scheme that we've had and we reviewed, and we're

going to also strengthen our Townlets Connect service based on evidence from the Bar -wide

review that's been undertaken.

Just to quickly take you through the narrative template then, which is in the meeting pack,

There are five CLOES, the key lines of enquiries in the narrative plan, and our submission addresses each one clearly and fully.

We set out how Tower Hamlets is using our funding to deliver integrated preventative care through our neighbourhood health,

reablement, our intermediate care and discharge pathways.

We've also explained our ambitions for the national metrics including, as I've said, the exec agreed 2 % improvement for our non -elective admissions.

How we will strengthen our discharge ready data performance and manage rising demand in our reablement and residential care services.

The plan does reflect our joint working across the Council, the ICB and Community Health Finance and Data Teams.

And as I've said has had early assurance from NHSE regionally.

That's all of it in a nutshell.

If there are any questions I'm happy to take them.

Otherwise we are asking the board to ratify the plan that has been submitted.

So members, any questions for Councillor?

Thank you, chair.

I have a question.

I have seen the appendix and there is a long list of where this 68 million is being distributed.

If we ratify what was suggested in the paper today, are we sort of agreeing to this allocation

or are we just agreeing to the high level funding from DFG, NHS, local authority and

the NHS contribution?

Are we just ratifying the 68 million or are we also ratifying the checklist as well?

All of it, so the checklist, the breakdown of the schemes is what we're ratifying.

The contributions, the high -level contributions, are just set, particularly the NHS minimum,

the Better Care grant and then the Disabled Facilities grant funding.

Those are nationally set.

That's not something that we have control over.

It's more the way that we've broken down our spend, which you will probably recognise,

Councillor, from previous plans.

It's essentially the same.

Okay.

My follow -up is if the local authorities, if the council now reviews this and says that

actually we have pressures in certain areas when it comes to adult social care, serious

pressures, and if we think that actually some of this funding, the way it's been allocated,

It would help us if we allocated it differently to help relieve pressures in certain areas.

What's the process of going about and releasing that money, since it is substitution in the

fund?

Thank you.

Good question.

Did you want to come in now?

I can answer that.

I'm happy to answer that.

So I think fundamentally, again, it's really about the knowledge and understanding of the

BCF.

It's a policy framework.

The funding is based budgets.

So this is something that comes in if we're asking to move money around, it will require

decommissioning of existing services.

These are kind of active conversations that we have with the THT exec board and the urgent

care working group as well.

And part of what we're doing with the deep dive is really looking at whether what the

schemes that we have badged in our BCF, so it's a badging in our BCF, is achieving value

for money and is achieving the objectives and outcomes of the BSEF which is really about

integration and keeping people independent and at home as for as long as possible. So

we are acutely aware that there are pressures in adult social care. Chanel has really been

actively involved in this year's planning and therefore we've addressed that as I've

sort of very briefly mentioned about the new scheme that we've added in terms of that

one -to -one intensive home care packages, that's new and that is to address the financial pressures

and also the kind of social care pressures that we see. So these are sort of the process,

in answer to your question, the process on can we move around funding, it really depends,

is the short answer. Some of the funding contributions are ring fenced, they're grant with conditions,

You can't move the DFG around, for example, that's capital funding and that sits with

the capital team.

The NHS minimum also has a criteria for where you can and can't move.

The Better Care Grant, which is around 16 million within our plan, that's all adult

social care.

We can't move that to another part of the council.

So yes, it really is, you know, the devil's in the detail.

But these are base budgets that exist within each of the organisations and it's not so

clear cut to move it because it will entail decommissioning and it may not be, so for

example it might be an ICP budget that we can't then necessarily move into the council

and vice versa.

Last question, just a comment really.

It wasn't about shifting money anywhere else, it was just to support adult social services, that's all it is.

Just to make sure that where there's pressures, I don't know, where they carry in certain sector within adult social,

it's just to support that. But I guess you've gone through this, I know you've got Chanel, you've got Abdul Khan on the list,

and you've got Charlotte, I guess it's going to be something that we can speak separately.

I think even just to... Sorry, I think Bridget wanted to come in.

I think it depends how it's set up, exactly what you've just said.

But if, often it pays for teams and it pays for work that is part of our core business.

In some authorities you have the better care fund that's, you almost don't need to do anything

other than go yes at a health and wellbeing board because what they've done is that

that partnership arrangement has been used to underpin, if I use it that way,

placement costs, offset placement costs, but recognising typically bed -based

placement costs or a pressure. What we've got here is in my view,

I'll be interested in others, but in my view is how it should be used.

You've got a mixture of innovative with some core work as well.

You've got a little bit of flexibility to bring it in to try and do something slightly different.

So the difficulty is that to stop anything and to decommission something,

if it was urgent, you can always do something urgently, but typically this isn't urgent.

And to decommission, you have to give six months notice and have your evidence base to do it.

So you're talking 12, 24 months sort of build up to do something differently if you wanted to.

And if you were to stop something, and that was part of our core work in the, let's say,

discharge from hospital for people going home, you can literally think you're doing good

and end up doing worse.

So it's those connected dots.

But I think the way we've got it, and I'm only learning at the moment, feels that we've

got a better balance here than I've seen in some authorities.

Thank you.

I think, Laura, is it?

Is it Lovett?

Your name?

Lottie.

Lottie, sorry.

Mine's a bit of a broad question,

so forgive me if it's not the right place to ask it.

But it's about the narrative

around the preventative care measures.

So we know that in Tower Hamlets,

there's a higher chance of having asthma

and other respiratory diseases.

And there wasn't any mention of kind of some of the tree,

the key triggers.

So we know things like air pollution and mould in houses and things like that can really

trigger asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Is that something, that kind of cross department, working with housing and working with highways

and all those kind of things, is that something that's going to be considered in the preventative

care measures as well?

Thank you for the question.

I think the BCF really in real terms just provides part of a picture of the borough.

It doesn't provide everything that we do that's preventative or integrated or supports things

like discharge even.

So the condition that you mentioned, we don't have a specific scheme that we've listed within

our BCF and that's also something possibly into the challenge has been each year of the

BCF we've had like one year single policy rounds and to do that level of planning and

get agreement to bring and shift other schemes into the BCF that speaks to things like asthma

and the prevalence of that has been tricky. What we are hoping will happen next year is

that reform with the BCF where it becomes a financial enabler for the neighbourhood

health model and within that there will be various kind of work streams and health outcomes

that we as a borrower want to kind of reflect in that plan.

So, yeah, I hope that sort of answers your question.

So the money allocated to preventative will be spread out

and you just haven't gone into the detail of where it will be spread.

It's not, I don't think...

Can I... Do you want to...

The BCF isn't the totality of spend in tail habits,

so it doesn't... So it's the totality of adult social care spend,

because that's the way it's been designed, but from an NHS perspective it's not the

totality of our spend in terms of services and town habits. But there's

opportunities to put more in if we want to in terms of how that works and

exactly as Alire said, as we move forward to it becoming the enabler for

neighbourhood health there's really a big scope to look at some of those more

and how are we funding those and do we want to put those in the BCS?

Okay, Bridget, you want to come in? You can turn the mic off.

But isn't that a brilliant question for the Health and Wellbeing Board?

Because that is how here could ask that question and then all the partners

and all the funding and all the ideas that contribute to improving that outcome,

this is where we could be held accountable.

Because it won't be one pot of money or one service, it will be how do we improve the health and wellbeing for air pollution.

And we were talking about that over there as well. So I think that's the type of question, if we're looking at our priorities, is the question to ask here, or one of the questions to ask.

And also in health scrutiny, is there a conversation and questions that you can bring up there?

Councillor Kibirahma.

Yes, sorry, yes is the short answer. So any of the spend that sits within the council from the BCF plan has been through Star Chambers.

It's the way it's written. So NHS minimum contribution is something that NHS is

England allocates to each ICB and then within that there's an allocation that comes into

social care which is the minimum amount which is what we are all meeting the national conditions

for that.

So that I think is in the region of about 12 million that comes into adult social care

from the NHS minimum.

No, that's…

Well, I understand.

You can't change the NHS contribution to social care, but just as I said you could change the amount

what the NHS contributes, so if we wanted to put other schemes in

we could look at whether the NHS could put more money in, but you can't change the allocation to social care.

So with our BCF, I haven't done the BCF or LED on it since its inception, but most of

These are legacy schemes and it varies from borough to borough or health and well being

brought to health and well being brought in terms of what you put in and what you put

out.

Essentially it's one policy framework that gives a storey of what is happening in our

borough and how we're delivering integrated care.

So you have some boroughs like Camden who put in absolutely minimum and then you've

got boroughs like Newham who put everything in as well as the kitchen sink.

they make sure they've got everything that they do within their adult social care reflected in their plan.

Essentially it is a plan, so it's really about the appetite that the Health and Wellbeing Board have

to include more in or take out and keep it to a minimum.

The contributions that Jo mentioned that we can put in is going to be from existing budgets,

it's not going to be any new money that comes in.

So really it's about how do we want to portray our storey in Tower Hamlets for integration and meet the policy requirements for the BCA.

Okay, thank you. If board members can just let me know if you guys want to ask any more further questions.

Any more members wanted to ask any further? Because I had a few.

I'll just say this is an example of what I've been talking about.

I think there's clearly a lot more to say and think about how we use this.

And so we need to reflect on how we make sure that everyone is kind of engaged in the discussion,

understands it, and what the options are and what decisions there are.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

So I'll just...

Okay, Jo.

Yes, sorry.

Just really quickly because of the time.

Yeah, just conscious, yeah, I just, because it's, what's really important is what was

said and it's easy to miss is that this is a transition year for the BCF, so it was a

one year transition where we start to move towards the neighbourhood health plans and

how the BCF then supports the neighbourhood health plans, so there are opportunities and

the ICB is very keen to take those opportunities during the year to work with places to look

the BCF going forward. So what gets signed off today is a transition that moves us to

a new place when we start working on neighbourhood health plans.

Okay, so thank you, Leah, and thank you, Bridget, I understand.

Did you have one more question? Okay.

I'm not sure how much of a difference it is to technology, which I support technology, but Shoman, this is more probably for you and sort of Georgia, how are we going to ensure that we get delivery without failure of service around the technology elements?

So now we've not hit our targets on what we wanted to do in terms of upgrading and stuff like that,

and we're putting quite amounts of money in there for that.

How will we ensure? Because we're not as far as we were expecting to be in terms of the technological evolution

this council was supposed to go through.

I mean, we have the internet still go out in this building.

So how can we ensure that?

I think, I mean, Bridget, you might want to come in, because this is a programme within

integrated commissioning, which is about the telecare, telehealth stuff, which, as you

know, is not as far as Vance is hoping for, but Georgia has, it really wants us to be

at the forefront of innovation, which is why she held back the previous commission.

We are part of the North East London Commissioning Network and Tower Hamlets is down to lead

the tech enabled care element of it. We haven't yet started on that. There's been a number

of starts but the same people who do that have also had to suddenly put in the service,

bring into the council the service for the community equipment. So it's not that

they're not focused, it's just we've had a bit more of a blip than other areas.

For me I get to see different levels of technologically aware councils and it

has to go alongside your digital approach, it has to go alongside all of

the AI and our view of AI.

And there's a big piece of that.

I think we are good to do that work

with the Northeast London partners,

piggyback on some of their quick wins,

rather than trying to invent everything from scratch.

So it's probably a good item for a future agenda,

to be honest.

I'm a little bit concerned that as a board we need to ratify this.

I'm definitely welcome to 60 million.

But it's just the fact that ratifying the allocation, how it is, although it's ongoing

and I respect everything as a sort of, you know, as we come in new from this point onwards,

to sort of accept how it's laid out and we don't have a say in the process.

If we sort of had a chance to review it in a workshop or sort of, I don't know, have

officers sort of explain how this allocation was set out by the council, that would have

given me a little bit more assurance.

Yeah, because, yeah, so actually I was going to ask one of the questions, like if we could have a detailed timeline of the various phases of the BCF and also kind of a deep dive into the review, if we can get, I know we're going to get the report back, but the sooner we have these reports we can have that kind of input and to have that improvement journey as well. So yeah, so I was going to ask for that as well, kind of the timeline of the deep dive of the BCF report.

So the report for phase one has been completed.

I think it's just we've had a change in the single responsible officer

who is now our director of our social services, Chanel.

We've had a few changes with the ICB as Shoman has touched on today

and those things have impacted the timeline for reporting back

to the Health and Wellbeing Board but the report is completed in that tranche.

So we looked at the discharge pathway schemes

and looked at the value for money within that.

I think really there may be some merit in having a separate meeting in taking any councillors

through these allocations because they're not really us sitting in a room making a decision

about where the money goes. These are base budgets, they're funding teams, they're core,

we can't move that money around in that way. These are budgets that we've just put into

this plan to demonstrate the aims and objectives of the BCF.

There's very little within it that's actually discretionary, which is something that we've

been looking at as well.

But yes, happy to have a separate sort of meeting to take councillors who are interested

through how it works and what the funding is actually doing, what can and can't be moved.

Just really quickly, I think the thing is that this all comes at the end of a very long conversation involving a lot of partners and processes.

Chanel who's come in is going to be reviewing the process and thinking about what this might look like next year.

We appreciate that not all the discussions have gone through the Health and Wellbeing Board as much as we would have liked.

But I think these are things that we need to take forward, but we also recognise that we need to think about, you know, the board needs to be part of the journey about how we use this funding going forward.

So I think that's where we're at at the moment.

Yeah, I think that would be useful. Yeah, definitely.

And I was going to ask about if we can get more information on the plan, additional investment

on the one -to -one support for complex discharge patients.

Again, we can have more information there, but it's something I wanted to ask.

And also the repurvision of the upwards of the 2050K to support to our Hamlets Connect.

So these both are investments which will have a very potential and credible impact.

So it would be nice to have more description and more detailed narrative perhaps as well.

Also, did you want to come in Bridget?

I was just thinking it might be helpful or not, but some authorities do a session just

on the BCF and go through the schemes for those who are interested in that level of

detail, just this is the title, this is what it means and this has been going on for X

number of years, so it's a little bit, which is exactly what you've said. I think that

might be where you might get some of the answers. I think the worry for me is answering the

questions when you haven't been in the detail, which is what you were just saying a lot of

people are, where actually if we don't ratify today, if I put it that way, then we have

to report back up the ladder to say it isn't ratified today pending, presumably some session

or something, and that can get some scrutiny from above, because we would be out of kilter

with other authorities. So it's not, I'm not downplaying your questions. I think that

would be useful to bring to a future meeting. But I do wonder if you feel, as you say, it's

legacy. A lot of these we've been doing it this way, we're in the process of moving into

a new world and that would be the point to really shape and design what we want to use

at a place based. But at the moment today we're in this position asking for ratification

of how we've used it probably hysterically over the years.

I do apologise.

But historically, and to be honest, there is,

most authorities are in the same place.

So it's this next year that's going to be the exciting bit

where we can look at what we do differently.

A lot of key kind of decisions.

Yeah, Sherman?

I think we do kind of need to make a decision here.

So I appreciate that this is quite uncomfortable, but are we as a board okay to ratify this,

but also with the proviso that we will have, probably when Chanel comes back, put aside

a good chunk of time, probably outside the health and wellbeing board, to really explain

actually historically what the BCF is and what the opportunities are for the next iteration

and if there's a neighbourhood's guidance and things.

We don't have to do much today other than...

So without the...

Yes, there is.

So without the Health and Wellbeing Board agreeing to the plan,

we don't get national assurance.

It's a requirement of receiving the funding

that we get national assurance.

So today we have to know and improve the report.

There is definitely scope. Yes, there is definitely scope.

So what happens after we receive national assurances,

we start to develop a section 75 variation,

which pulls the agreement together into something that's signed, a legal document if you like.

But within that, if we make changes within this year, then we simply do a variation and that comes back to Health and Wellbeing Board and is agreed what that change is.

And we do a variation against that. But realistically, I mean, we're coming into Quarter 2 now and to make changes in this transition year.

realistically the likeliness is quite small, particularly since we are doing a deep dive against all the schemes

and we'll be coming back in phases to health and wellbeing board with the findings and recommendations from that

and to answer your question as well, Councillor, the list of schemes there have also been under scrutiny from the THT exec board

and they're asking exactly the same questions and it's something that we're actively looking at within our BCF deep dive too.

I think we have a question.

If you want to speak,

please notify me first.

Thank you.

So internally within that,

we are looking for efficiencies

and if there are

underspends,

where do these

underspends get located to?

Or do they get channelled elsewhere

to cover overspends?

It really depends.

it's very complex. So we've got teams being commissioned within our plan, we've got projects,

we've got like the community equipment service and so on. So it really is dependent on the

specific circumstance. In terms of underspends, I think again the way that the council sort

of and the ICB, they process underspends is just the standard in that we'll look at what

needs to be offset where the pressures are.

But yeah, we do have a duty to spend the NHS minimum

against what we've said we've spent it on.

So any movement of money kind of needs

to come back to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Sorry, Jo.

Jo, I just wanted to, because it's important you understand.

So this isn't, it isn't.

The full amount is.

No, but it isn't Tama Hamlet's local authorities' money.

It's a pooled fund that is NHS money and local authority

money.

So it's a joint decision which is why it comes to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

I would want to reassure the board that the risk of not ratifying is probably more than the risk of ratifying.

So as you know it's clear we're in quarter two, the schemes are in place, they're funding things which are making a difference to residents.

It absolutely needs a review which is happening, it absolutely needs to be looked at for the next year.

and we've got the opportunity to do that and we can make sure that the board is fully involved with that.

But I would just reassure you that the ICB is really happy with the plan, it's a good plan.

So the risks are low in terms of, you know, come back if you agree and ratify the BCF today.

Okay, so is there any members, any questions?

Did you?

I would like that clarification, if that is the case that we have this option to review

as we go, if that is it, then I'm okay with it.

But without that, I understand the implications, I have reservations.

Okay, so we as board members, we can note and approve the report if only we are given

the opportunity to come back, have a further discussion to have that input and a separate

meeting.

So we're happy to approve as I think most of the members have shared that, but as long

because we have more explanation, more review and a separate meeting perhaps.

The question you were answering, Councillor, was what Elia was saying about the ability to vary in year.

Is that available to us? And it is.

So I think, yeah, I just want to be clear whether we can, at this meeting, we can kind

of ratify the plan, given what Joe has talked about.

We also recognise that there's, you know, we are able to change, you know, we are able

to vary that through the year.

When we do vary that through the year, we need to come back to the board and talk through

those changes.

but I do feel just today, in order to get back to the ICP, we do need to kind of make a decision

of whether you ratified it now, subject to all those other discussions that we've had.

I think that's the...

Yeah, along the verification...

Yeah, so Justyna, just for the minutes, if you just kind of really clearly mentioned that.

So is that okay to all the members here?

Yeah, we have that agreement so we approve as soon as we have that subject.

Okay, thank you. So thank you, Ilia, and thank you, Bridget.

I know it's been your sixth week, Hongli, so thank you for all that work that you're doing

and, you know, giving us the opportunity to kind of give the improvement journey.

Okay, just on the time, yeah, really quickly.

The last agenda item is an update on the P &A which will be resubmitted at our September meeting for sign -off.

I believe it's Gemma Lyons who will be speaking on this.

So please, if you could introduce the update. Thank you.

Because you weren't expecting to be here.

Okay, sure man.

But essentially, we are required to do

a pharmaceutical needs assessment,

a statutory requirement.

When new pharmacies come in,

we need to have a pharmaceutical needs assessment

to assess whether it makes sense for them to come in or not.

So that is going to come to the September board.

All we were doing here was highlighting

that it's going to go out to consultation in July, I think.

and so board members are aware and can contribute to that.

It may be that if people are interested, we'll do a presentation

on the draught pharmaceutical needs assessment

before it goes out to consultation.

That was all we wanted to...

Gemma, did you want to come in?

And then I'll get...

Thanks, Shaiman.

Yeah, so just to add, if anyone does want to find out more

about the pharmaceutical needs assessment

and have a chance to see some of the interim findings before the formal consultation report goes out.

Please do get in touch, there's an email address in the brief provided and we can organise that in the next month or so.

So that would be really helpful. Before we go, I believe it's in July, it's a 90 days kind of public consultation, so it would be good.

Any members or councillors?

So my question was around, so Newham recently have got huge issues, particularly around substitute prescribing and dispensing of controlled medication.

And I think the pharmacists went on strike.

Havering, we're getting a bit of heat coming our way.

Where are we in Tower Hamlets in relation to cooperation with pharmacists?

I know you're going out for consultation, but what's the feeling like at the moment?

Around dispensing.

Well, around dispensing.

Because a lot of pharmacists don't feel it's worth their while,

considering they can run various different other things,

such as weight loss jabs, things like that, which are in the hundreds.

and them having substance misuse who may shoplift, who may cause harm,

who may distract more affluent patients coming and accessing their services.

I don't know if you've had any kind of feedback around that.

I'm not aware of that.

At the moment, lots of our pharmacies in the borough are delivering various services that

we commission them to deliver and we've not been hearing that kind of feedback from the

pharmacists.

But obviously, this is a really important process.

It happens only once every three years.

So this is our opportunity to find out from residents

their perspectives of pharmacy services,

but also from the pharmacists.

So this consultation process will enable us to get that feedback directly.

And then we'll be sharing that at the meeting in September.

And just to clarify, PNA stands for Pharmacological Needs Assessment.

Just wanted to clarify for those who didn't know.

So that would be good for us to have that intervention before it goes out to public.

And you're going to send us the email, Gemma.

Yes, there's an email address, it should be in the paper.

Please get in touch via email if you'd like to come to that session next month to find out more.

Okay, and also we will have a report back after the conversation.

Sorry, Steve said something.

Okay, and obviously after our consultation we'll have a feedback to September's meeting. Okay, that's fine. Okay good

Thank you for the report guys

Did anyone ask questions?

That's it for this agenda then and we just have to

Have this report noted and does any members have any of our questions that they want to ask any of our business

No, we've had a really good

discussion and interactive meeting I believe and it was good to have that kind of feedback.

And like you said, we don't usually have a well -employed meeting like that, but it would be good to have more

meetings like this where people are more open. And that's it for me, myself. I do have more questions, but in terms of time

it's better I can ask this question next time. It's just about GP access and maybe we can have an agenda on that

So a lot of people are telling us about getting GP appointments and having the accessibility

in terms of consultations. Not everyone wants to go online and do a consultation.

So I wanted a discussion on that.

I know we're really over time. One of the things I'm going to send after this meeting

is a kind of mentimeter thing in which people can put ideas about things that they want to talk about.

So GP access or, you know, so we can develop a forward plan that everyone is able to contribute to.

So I'm happy as chair to take any kind of comments or if you want any kind of agenda to be on the agenda, please do get in touch.

If that's it, thank you for everyone's input and I believe we can conclude the meeting. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board - Monday 15 June 2026, 5:00pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing BoardMonday, 15th June 2026 at 5:00pm

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Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board
Monday, 15th June 2026 at 5:00pm