Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no declarations of interests made by Members.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2024 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2024, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To receive any public questions received.

Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received.  There will be a time limit of 15 minutes for the asking and answering of public questions.

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, <DATE>.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk

No person may submit more than one question].

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions, petitions or deputations had been received.

Report of the Executive Director of Strategy and Population Health, North West London Integrated Care Board.

The Board received the NHS North West London Joint Forward Plan 2025/26 to 2029/30 Report.

The Executive Director of Strategy and Population Health at the North West London Integrated Care Board, Toby Lambert, presented the Report, which set out the NHS’ Joint Forward Plan for 2025/26 to 2029/30.

The report was based on both the Health and Care Strategy, agreed by North West London’s Integrated Care Partnership (ICB) in November 2023, and the NHS Joint Forward Plan for 2024/25 to 2028/29.

The ICB and its partner NHS trusts were required to publish a Joint Forward Plan before the beginning of each financial year, that being 31 March.  It was explained that “joint” in the legislation explicitly referred to the partnership between the ICB and trusts, and not the NHS and local authorities.

In 2025, the development of the Joint Forward Plan had been driven, in part, by two key factors: the organisational restructure of the Integrated Care Board; and the imminent arrival of the NHS’ 10-year Plan.

For the Joint Forward Plan 2025/26 to 2029/30, the following had been prioritised:

a)              greater focus on initiatives based on their expected impact and the relative effort required to unlock that impact;

b)              de-prioritising initiatives that were deemed to be low impact; and

c)              linking priorities to the North West London Shared Needs Assessment (which was published in September 2024).

In the discussion that ensued, Members made comments and asked questions, which were responded to.

The Board was concerned that, given the historic and chronic underfunding of Harrow, and the deficit for the Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) rising from £7m to £85m, the INTs may not be adequately resourced.  Members were informed that, whilst it was acknowledged that the deficit existed, given the budget of around £2bn for the Plan, it was envisaged that the INTs would be adequately supported.  Furthermore, data was being collated to inform the allocation of resources to more deprived areas.

The Board also expressed concern that some GP practices did not collect data on ethnicity, which should be utilised to target particular demographics in the allocation of resources.  Members were informed that data collection had improved over the past years, and this was being used to identify target groups.  Moreover, local intelligence was equally important, and community engagement was vital in that regard.

In response to a question as to whether mental health accessibility would be levelled up, Members were informed that it would.  From April 2025, ten services would be operational, and an additional 13 would be rolled out within the year.

Citing page 21 of the report, the Board raised queries about priorities, and were advised that these were published, as a matter of course, as the requirement was to make them relevant every five years.

The Board lauded the Plan with its ambitious targets, and emphasised the need to take into account the changes in demographics in the borough over the past years.  This was particularly relevant to ethnic and cultural changes with an increasing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 119.

The Chair led the Board in expressing their profound gratitude to Carole Furlong, the Director of Public Health, for her professionalism and dedication to duty, and particularly noted her invaluable guidance to the borough during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.  This would be her last meeting before her retirement.

Separately, the Chair also led the Board in thanking Lisa Henschen, the Managing Director of the Harrow Based Partnership, for her expertise and collaborative efforts in ensuring that the partnership worked in tandem.  This would be her last meeting before ascending to another role.