Agenda item

AGING WELL STRATEGY

Minutes:

Report ACH19004

 

The Ageing Well in Bromley Strategy was a joint LBB and Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group endeavour, and a joint commitment to Bromley residents.  The aim of the Ageing Well in Bromley Strategy was to set out how partners would work together (LBB, Bromley CCG and the third sector) to ensure that older people retained their independence for as long as possible with the assistance of family, friends, faith and community groups, the voluntary sector and, where necessary, the Council and Health services.  In order to deliver this vision four key outcomes had been coproduced which signified the community priorities: Outcome 1:I socialise, participate and make my own choices; Outcome 2: I feel healthy and can get the health and care service I need when I need; Outcome 3: My home meets my aspirations and needs; and Outcome 4: I am safe and I feel safe and I trust people around me.  The strategy illustrated the actions that were already being taken to deliver on the outcomes and their corresponding Priorities.  The Strategy also provided an insight into the future actions that would be initiated in order to deliver the overriding aims.

 

Opening the discussion, the Chairman commended Officers on an excellently written Ageing Well in Bromley Strategy.

 

During discussion Members noted that one thing that was missing from the Strategy was any form of sign-posting as to how readers may be able to access services.  A Member suggested that the Strategy needed to be a user friendly web-based document that contained hyperlinks to further information and the Assistant Director for Strategy, Performance and Engagement  agreed to take away the challenge of publishing a dynamic strategy on the website.  The Committee, recognising that not everyone had internet access, noted that a Care Services Directory had also been developed and would signpost to services.

 

Members noted that once the Strategy had been endorsed by the Executive an action plan, which was currently in the development stage, would be published.  A Member suggested that the Action Plan needed to provide the link concerning the services available in the Borough.

 

A Member suggested that it may be helpful to have a more long-term, visionary strategy setting out where the Council was going and how it planned to get there.  In response, the Assistant Director for Strategy, Performance and Engagement highlighted that the purpose of the Strategy was to enable the Local Authority to plan for the next 5 years by setting out high level strategic priorities.  The Action Plan that was being developed would serve a different purpose and would be refreshed every year.  In developing the 4 key outcome priorities Officers had engaged with residents in order to identify and respond to their priorities.  It was right and proper that the Strategy before Members celebrated much of the good work that was already in place and being implemented and benchmarking against other local authorities had demonstrated that Bromley was not unique in adopting this approach.

 

A Co-opted Member suggested that the Strategy should not give the impression by omission that all services would be free.  There needed to be a growing acceptance around what the public purse should realistically be expected to provide and further work needed to be done around changing the perception of what individuals should be funding for themselves.

 

A Member expressed concern at the wording of the third aim under Priority One:

 

“Enable the voluntary and community sector to compete to offer people high quality services, promoting independence and self-management.” 

 

Officers explained that the words “to compete” was a reference to the fact that Bromley was a commissioning authority.  It was intended to be an acknowledgement that the Local Authority wanted to engage with the local voluntary sector.  Voluntary sector organisations were actively encouraged to participate in the competitive tendering process.  Following a discussion it was agreed that the words “to compete” could be removed from this particular aim and as such a recommendation should be made to the Executive.

 

Noting a couple of minor typing errors, Members suggested that the Strategy should be proof read prior to publication.

 

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to endorse the Ageing Well in Bromley Strategy subject to the deletion of the words “to compete” as outlined above.

 

Supporting documents: