The Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the annual report of the Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care, and to receive an update on dental services in Camden from the North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB). The committee also reviewed its work programme for the coming year.

Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing, and Adult Social Care: Annual Report 2025

Councillor Anna Wright, Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care, presented her annual report, which members commended as comprehensive and impressive.

Key discussion points included:

• Adult Early Help Pilot: In response to questions about the effectiveness of the Adult Early Help pilot, Jess McGregor, Executive Director Adults and Health, explained that its relational and holistic approach had been effective for people who had fallen between the nets of different services, rather than a specific cohort. The next stage would involve applying the learning to broader council services and identifying particular cohorts who would benefit most from this approach.

• Food Provision at Charlie Ratchford Court: Councillor Anna Wright clarified that residents at Charlie Ratchford Court, a supported living environment, were required to pay for one meal a day as part of their tenancy agreement to ensure the economic sustainability of the service. Residents could cook their own food if they wished, but the provided meal was part of the social contract within the supported living environment.

• Recruitment and Retention in Adult Social Care: Chris Lehmann, Director of ASC Strategy and Commissioning and Deputy DASS, reported a reduction in reliance on agency staff in directly delivered services and expected greater retention over time for social work practitioners.

• Change Grow Live (CGL) Services: Kirsten Watters, Director of Health and Wellbeing, offered to provide exact figures on the number of people in treatment compared to the treatment target for Change Grow Live services, following a question on whether the services were keeping up with increasing demand.

  Kirsten Watters, Director of Health and Wellbeing, stated that exact figures on the number of people in treatment compared to the treatment target could be provided.

• Weight Loss Jabs and Tablets: Councillor Anna Wright emphasised the need for a holistic approach to weight management, viewing medication as part of a broader strategy focused on prevention and lifestyle changes. The importance of addressing the obesogenic environment[^1] was highlighted, making healthy choices easy and affordable.

  [^1]: An obesogenic environment is an environment that promotes obesity by increasing food intake, decreasing physical activity, or both.

• Use of AI in Health and Social Care: Jess McGregor highlighted the use of AI in transcribing conversations with residents and identifying actions using Magic Notes, allowing social workers to spend more time having conversations and less writing reports, and analysing data to identify opportunities for proactive intervention. A project with Demos[^2] and Google would be starting shortly to support work on citizen's assemblies.

  [^2]: Demos is a UK-based think tank that focuses on issues related to social and political change.

• Active for Life Campaign: Councillor Anna Wright confirmed that the Active for Life campaign would continue, with learning from the past year being fed into designing the programme to be more successful, sustainable and have more impact.

• Loneliness in Camden: Councillor Anna Wright acknowledged concerns that Camden had been found to be one of the loneliest boroughs and noted that it was a priority area for the Health and Wellbeing Board. Ongoing work was highlighted, including ward councillors being offered the chance to hold community meetings focused on social connectedness.

• iCope Counselling Services: Kirsten Watters stated that data on waiting times for iCope counselling services, which were commissioned by the NHS, would be obtained from the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and circulated to the committee.

• Substance Misuse Services: Kirsten Watters offered to provide a separate report with detailed data on drug and alcohol services, including penetration rates, successful treatments, and re-entry rates, following a request for a breakdown of treatment types and success rates for substance misuse, particularly regarding abstinence-based recovery versus long-term methadone use, and relapse rates.

• Indoor Air Quality: Councillor Anna Wright explained that indoor air pollution was often caused by gas stoves, boilers, damp and mould and candles. A Public Health grant was funding an indoor air quality monitor pilot whereby people can borrow the sensor and see the level of particulates in their home and then follow simple guidance, such as ventilating by opening a window, and observe the improvement in air quality.

• Women's Health: Members discussed how women as a group were being subsumed within broader discussions on carers and requested that reports take opportunities to provide an explicit and intersectional analysis of how women were affected as a demographic class.

• Childhood Immunisation: Councillor Nancy Jirira declared employment as a Health Visitor for transparency when asking questions about low rates of childhood immunisation. Kirsten Watters detailed ongoing efforts to improve uptake, including community outreach, targeted campaigns, and partnerships with healthcare providers.

• Hoarding Behaviours: Chris Lehmann spoke to the importance of working in partnership across services to address hoarding behaviours and assured the committee that care workers were valued and this was demonstrated by the Ethical Care Charter that commissioned providers must adhere to.

• Work Ready Coach and Learning Disability Job Hub Advisor Initiatives: Officers agreed to provide data on the Work Ready Coach and Learning Disability Job Hub Advisor initiatives, including how many people were engaging and how many were able to maintain employment as a result.

• Kailo Research Project: Kirsten Watters explained that the Kailo research project was looking at the structural determinants of adolescent mental health and that a report could be scheduled for a future meeting to provide more detail.

The committee then:

RESOLVED – THAT the report be noted.

North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) Dental Transformation and Dental Services Update

The committee received a report from the Director of Strategic & Delegated Commissioning (NHS North Central London ICB) and Head of Primary Care Commissioning; Dentistry, Optometry and Pharmacy (NHS London) on dental services in Camden.

Key discussion points included:

• NHS Dentistry Access: Members raised concerns about the difficulty of finding an NHS dentist. The Head of Primary Care Commissioning; Dentistry, Optometry and Pharmacy acknowledged the challenge and provided information on the number of NHS dental services in Camden (33 general dental service contractors with the value of the contracts being nearly £13 million). The NHS website was the primary source of information for dental practices accepting new NHS patients, but its accuracy could vary with the status of individual practices changing daily.

• Childhood Tooth Decay: Progress was recognised on childhood tooth decay and it was noted that the Government had provided additional funding to address this.

• Reasons for Attending Dental Hospitals: There was interest in studies on why people ended up in dental hospitals rather than access preventative services such as routine check-ups. The Head of Primary Care Commissioning; Dentistry, Optometry and Pharmacy explained that the reasons why patients required hospital services was multi-factoral and they may go regularly to a dentist. It was acknowledged that messaging to the public on what NHS dentistry could provide was opaque.

• Contract Reform: Officers expressed concern that contract reform was exploring a focus on high-needs patients which was morally right but without additional funding will result in less routine work.

• Supervised Toothbrushing Initiative: Dr Rakhee Patel, Dental Clinical Lead (NCL ICB), explained that a targeted supervised toothbrushing initiative has been underway for two years and Government funding would now enable that to be widened. Members suggested that councillors could be approached to use Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds to support the initiative in primary schools.

• Urgent Dental Care: The Head of Primary Care Commissioning; Dentistry, Optometry and Pharmacy clarified that Melbourne Dental Group in High Holborn was the commissioned urgent dental care provider for Camden, and that A&E is not the place for people with toothache who would be triaged to another service.

• Report Format: Members expressed concern with the format of the slide-pack report, noting that it was difficult to penetrate with no story running through the information.

The committee then:

RESOLVED – THAT the contents of the report be noted.

Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and Action Tracker

The committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Adults and Health, and Councillor Larraine Revah, Chair of Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee, requested that a report on proposed changes affecting Healthwatch be scheduled. Members also recommended adding an item on the effectiveness of reablement packages within Camden.

The committee then:

RESOLVED –

(i) THAT the work programme for 2025-26 (Appendix A) be noted; and

(ii) THAT the Committee's Action Tracker (Appendix B) be noted.