Agenda

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 25 September 2023.

To consider any outstanding actions.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/documents/s2305/Public%20Items%20-%20Meeting%20Procedure%20Rules.pdf 

The deadline for the submission of public questions is 3 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

It is a statutory requirement for the DBCP Safeguarding Adults Boards (SAB) to publish an Annual Report each year and to present that report to the Council’s Health & Wellbeing Board.  Many Councils also request that the report is presented to Scrutiny as the report enables a discussion on the work of the Safeguarding Adults Board.

The attached report is for the year April 2022 to March 2023.The report was agreed at the September meeting of the Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs).

The DBCP Boards have successfully worked together with joint meetings over the year

One Annual Report for both Dorset and BCP SABs has been published. Throughout this year we have delivered against all of our priorities which are set out in the annual work plan; this Annual Report summarises what the Board has achieved.

Adult Social Care has a statutory responsibility to produce an annual report on complaints received, issues that have been raised and any action that has been taken to improve services.

This report provides a summary of complaints and compliments, including learning, for BCP Council Adult Social Care from 1^st April 2022 to 31^st March 2023.

Over recent years there has been a steady fall in the number of patients in Dorset who have been able to access an NHS dentist.  The total number of adults seeing an NHS dentist in Dorset has decreased from 265,915 (42.0% of the population) in June 2021 to 231,948 (36.6% of the population) in June 2022.  This is a drop of 33,967 patients (5.4%) over this period. 

As at July 2023 there are 109 High Street Dental Contracts - these are in practices in Dorset who provide general dental services.  In 2022/23, NHS England (NHSE) commissioned 1,224,386 Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) from providers.  This figure has reduced from the previous year as a result of a number of recurrent and non-recurrent reductions which were made to contracts at the request of providers due largely to the number of vacancies for dentists in practices across the county. 

A key factor affecting access to NHS dentistry is workforce.  The lack of dentists in the area undermines the ability of High Street practices to meet their contracts.

The South West Dental Reform Programme was established in 2020 to improve access to oral health services, develop workforce initiatives to improve recruitment and retention of the dental workforce, and improve the oral health of the population.  The programme is run by NHSE and Health Education England, alongside our strategic Integrated Care Partnerships and Local Authority Public Health leads to bring together the NHSE Dental Commissioning Team and Transformation Team with key stakeholders with responsibility for oral health in the region (Public Health England, Health Education England, Local Dental Committees, the Local Dental Network, and Integrated Care System (ICS) representatives) as well as public and patient voice partners.  The purpose of the programme is to inform a roadmap/plan for the future of NHS dental services and oral health improvement in the South West.

Access to NHS dentistry in Dorset remains challenging.  Dorset ICB is working with local and regional Clinical and professional Dental leads to try and improve the situation for residents; engaging local dental clinicians, their representatives and partners, as well as Healthwatch, as part of the wider South West Dental Reform programme, to offer practical support to enable dental practices to take on more NHS dentistry in the area.

To receive a verbal update from the Portfolio Holder for Wellbeing.

To seek nominations for the upcoming Task and Finish Group to consider data.

The Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Committee is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Forward Plan.

To note the dates of the future meetings as follows:

·       15 January 2024

·       4 March 2024

All with a 6pm start, venues to be confirmed.