Minutes:
1. The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, Miss Diane Morton provided an update for Committee Members. Some of the key highlights were as follows:
a) Congratulations were extended to Mr Dixon on his new appointment as Chair of the Committee.
b) Tribute was paid to Mr Richard Smith, KCC’s previous Corporate Director of Adult Social Care, who had joined Nottingham City Council. Sincere thanks were expressed in relation to all his work and achievements. A warm welcome was extended to Sarah Hammond, the Interim Corporate Director of Adult Social Care.
c) Miss Morton and the two Deputy Cabinet Members for Adult Social Care, Mr Mark Mulvihill and Ms Georgia Foster, had visited several organisations and services across Kent, including Spadeworks, the Blackthorn Trust and Kenwood House.
d) Miss Morton recently attended the Registered Managers Conference, alongside a variety of committed care professionals and providers.
e) Kent Wellbeing Award took place recently in Ashford. Miss Morton was in attendance and presented the Kent Champion Award to Justin Blackman from North Kent Mind.
f) It was confirmed that close work had continued with partners in health and the voluntary sector, with Miss Morton recently meeting with the new Integrated Care Board Chief, Mr Doyle.
g) The first Kent Health and Wellbeing Board had taken place which involved District Councils and system partners, the primary focus being prevention and integration. Miss Morton confirmed that she had requested both voluntary and community sectors be represented on the board, given their vital insight and connection to residents’ everyday lives.
h) The new integration brokerage service was fully in place across hospital transferer care hubs. Sincere thanks were expressed to the Interim Director of Adults and Integrated Commissioning, Helen Gillivan, and her team for their hard work in the project.
i) The Baton of Hope passed through Kent recently as part of a national tour. The event was well attended and successful.
2. Director of Public Health, Dr Anjan Ghosh provided a verbal update to the Committee. Some of the key points included the following:
a) A heavy Influenza season was coming, with high levels in children and young adults. The Emergency Department attendance for Influenza had increased. Kent was supporting the NHS and UK Health Security Agency by promoting vaccines for high-risk groups.
b) Experts had indicated that it was not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ the next pandemic would occur and in recognition of this, a national exercise called Exercise Pegasus had been completed in three phases, across all 4 nations. KCC was developing a framework from Exercise Pegasus that would be flexible enough to fit into any possible future pandemic.
c) Dr Ghosh confirmed that the Council was 1 year into an initial 2 year phase of the Marmot Coastal Region works and reminded Members that the programme focused on getting people back into work and the pathways into employment, particularly among high-risk groups.
d) The East Kent Neighbourhood Health Programme was part of the Marmot region and used Marmot principles to improve the building blocks of health.
e) The pharmaceutical needs assessment was published in September. Dr Ghosh confirmed that this was a statutory requirement of the Council under the Health and Wellbeing Board. The assessment laid out the current picture of community pharmacies and highlighted where there was need.
f) The Kent Annual Conference was scheduled for the 27 November 2025 at the Detling Showground. Dr Ghosh and Mr Mulvihill would be speaking at the conference, in connection to the Batton of Hope.
g) Progress had been made in relation to the improvement of pathways for opiate and crack substance misuse. Work had been carried out in association with prisons and Probation Services to secure additional funding for the medication Buvidal, for the treatment of addiction. Pathways for treating people with Ketamine addiction were also being reviewed and work has been carried out with Health Care Professionals (HCPs) to create better care for hospital to community pathway.
h) A new health needs assessment had been completed for young peoples’ drug and alcohol needs.
i) An annual conference on trauma informed care and healing centred care was scheduled for the 14 November 2025.
j) A post incident guide had been developed with Adult Social Care and a healing centred practitioner toolkit had been created for trauma informed care networks.
k) A Mental Health Needs assessment had just been published which underpinned the work the directorate carried out.
l) Dartford was due to start becoming a Health Alliance; it was confirmed that 11 out of the 12 District Boroughs were a Health Alliance and each had a £30,000 innovation fund administered through social enterprise.
m) A new smoking cessation pilot was being carried out in hospital
A&E settings, with a view to expanding this to other health and
Wellbeing Services operating from A & E departments.
3. The interim Director of Adult Social Care, Sarah Hammond, provided
the following update for Members:
a) Ms Hammond had agreed to offer her leadership to the directorate during the process of recruitment of a new Director of Adult Social Services.
b) Ms Hammond confirmed that she had been involved in several extended senior leadership meetings across the county and met with key partners such as the Chair of the Adult Safeguarding Board and colleagues from the Mental Health Trust and Integrated Care Board. In addition, Ms Hammond had also met with improvement partners who were charged by the Local Government Authority and the Department of Health to assist Kent with its improvement journey within Adult Social Care
c) In the coming weeks, Ms Hammond planned to go on several site visits to meet front line staff.
d) Work into understanding the finances of Adult Social Care was being conducted to understand the reasons for the increase in cost and some understanding into the cost drivers had been established.
4) In answer to Member comments and questions, the following was said:
a) Dr Ghosh confirmed that KCC were promoting Influenza vaccinations amongst eligible staff, particularly within Adult Social Care and Health. Issues around mass vaccination were national decision and therefore made by Central Government before they could be executed by Local Government.
b) The Deputy Director of Public Health, Dr Ellen Schwartz explained that the most recent strain of virus had undergone various changes that resulted in making it more easily transmittable. The vaccine was modelled on the previous one, which meant efficacy was good in children and young people and moderately good in adults.
c) Dr Schwartz confirmed that NHS colleagues monitored the uptake of Influenza vaccines and COVID boosters, however the directorate worked closely with them and provided support by targeting and raising awareness of Kent residents. Low levels of COVID activity were confirmed, meaning there was no current need for additional awareness of the vaccination. The date collated by the NHS was shared with the directorate which enabled them to provide support around the vaccine uptake.
d) Dr Ghosh confirmed there was a lot of misinformation in social media around vaccinations and there had been a backlash from the pandemic and COVID vaccination. However, there was no hard evidence to show that wariness of vaccines had impacted the overall uptake.
e) It was confirmed that Adult Social Care staff working in care homes were eligible for the Flu vaccine.
5. RESOLVED Members noted the verbal updates delivered by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, the Director of Public Health and the Interim Director of Adult Social Care.