Agenda item

To receive a report and presentation from Dr M Sanomi.

The Chairman welcomed Dr M. Sanomi, Clinical Director and Chairman of the Dementia Partnership Board who gave a presentation on the Havering Dementia strategy. The Board were asked to note the accompanying report including the draft document on the Joint Dementia Strategy for Havering 2014-2017 and the Dementia Strategy Toolkit.

Dementia remains a high national and local priority. Since the launch of the Government’s National Dementia Strategy in 2009 (Living Well with Dementia: a National Dementia Strategy), numerous additional national policy guidelines and initiatives have followed, which included:

·      Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia

·      The Mandate

·      Joint Commissioning Framework: National Dementia Strategy

·      Outcomes Frameworks for Public Health, Adult Social Care, and Health, all with specific reference to dementia

·      Establishment of National Dementia Action Alliance

·      The Care Bill

·      Dementia: A state of the nation report on dementia care and support in England

Dementia and dementia care, therefore, is a key issue at a national level and would remain so, given the overall changing and ageing population.  Within the National Dementia Strategy (DH, 2009), there is a requirement for all local areas to have a joint commissioning strategy for dementia. Despite the fact that the National Strategy ends in 2014, it is felt both important and timely to produce a joint strategy for Havering.  It is vital that the public, stakeholders, commissioners and providers develop a shared vision of aspirations for the future with regard to dementia care and services.

Havering has one of the highest proportions of older people in London and it is estimated that 3,275 people aged over 65 years have dementia.  This figure is predicted to rise to 3,794 by 2020.  Further work is required to fully understand the local level of need for people with early onset dementia (before the age of 65).  Dementia in Primary Care aims to identify specific groups of people at higher risk of developing dementia including those with a learning disability, at an early stage.

Both key commissioning organisations, that is, Havering CCG and LBH, are committed to working together, with dementia identified as a key shared priority area by the Health and Wellbeing Board. New and emerging structures within both organisations will provide an added impetus and focus for co-ordinated commissioning in the future.

The local Dementia Partnership Board meets on a bi-monthly basis and is accountable to Havering’s Health and Wellbeing Board. The Dementia Partnership Board brings together key commissioners across the health and social care economy. The Board will oversee and monitor the delivery of this strategy and implementation plan.  The key highlights being:

·                Setting out the vision and principles of dementia care

·                Describing the current position, mapped against the locally agreed pathway

·                Developing an integrated community based service model for Memory Services

·                Work being undertaken with BHRUT to improve services within the hospital for people with dementia

·                Mapping of total resource for dementia across the system, amounting to £14,673,914

·                Supporting the Implementation Plan to be overseen and monitored by Dementia Partnership Board

·                Prototype of Dementia Dashboard in development

Thus far, a number of actions had been completed included the development of the local Dementia Action Alliance (DAA) and the multi-agency Steering Group was in place and reporting to the Dementia Partnership Board. A review of the Dementia Advisory Service had also been completed with agreement to commission the service for a further three years and there was a revised service specification in place for the Memory Service. The Board were also asked to note that there had been an improvement in local dementia diagnosis rate from 39% to 46%.

A number of outstanding priorities remain and there is still much to be done

in achieving the vision for dementia care and support in Havering such as:

·                Further awareness raising across the community, via the vehicle of sign up to the Dementia Action Alliance, which is the favoured model for the development of ‘dementia friendly’ communities and is effective in reducing stigma.

·                Developing a cohesive and whole system approach to the commissioning of dementia services via partnership working with health, public health and social care.

·                Commissioning and providing a range of high quality services which are accessible, integrated and in line with local levels of need, both now and in the future. This will need to take full account of the predicted increases in levels of need and demand on services.

·                Developing robust data and reporting systems for services across the dementia pathway, in order to fully understand the impact of the predicted increase in demand and its impact on services.

·                Ensuring that the workforce is trained to develop and acquire appropriate competencies and skills in dementia care and end of life care.

·                Providing access to high quality services in the community, including advice, information, housing support and leisure activities which enable people with dementia and their carers to live well.

·                Ensuring that people have access to early intervention support and advice, as well as timely access to assessment and diagnosis, in line with the Government’s aspiration for achieving a diagnosis rate of at least 66% for each local area by 2015.

·                Co-production of service specifications and delivery with providers/ commissioners / service users.

The Board noted the contents of the presentation and accompanying reports. It was confirmed that hospital staff received training in dementia care, however, the Board wanted reassurance with regards to patients with dementia who were receiving specialised end of life care and what provisions were made for them and for staff training. It was therefore agreed that the Clinical Commission Group would provide an update on this particular aspect.

The Chairman thanked Dr Sanomi for his presentation and requested that a more detailed plan and update be provided at a later meeting.