The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Commission was scheduled to meet to discuss a hoarding report, the Blue Badge scheme, cancer prevention and early diagnosis, and Healthwatch Southwark. The meeting was also scheduled to include a discussion of the commission's work programme.

Healthwatch Southwark

The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Commission was scheduled to receive Healthwatch Southwark's annual report for 2024-25, alongside a report setting out priorities for 2025-26.

Healthwatch Southwark describes itself as the 'local health and social care champion' for the area, ensuring that the voices of patients and carers are heard by NHS leaders and decision-makers.

The annual report includes a message from the chair, who notes that Healthwatch Southwark gathered insights from residents across Southwark, combining them with ongoing feedback and project findings, which shaped their future priorities, including webinars and coffee mornings on mental health and the cost of living.

The report also highlights work exploring the experiences of people with learning disabilities and autism, and research into Black mental health in Southwark, as well as follow-up work with the Latin American community, which led to improvements such as multilingual service leaflets.

The Healthwatch Southwark Priorities Report 2025-26 notes that Healthwatch Southwark champions the voices of local people to ensure health and social care services meet the needs of diverse communities. It highlights key health and social care issues affecting Southwark residents, drawing on a wide range of sources including community feedback, surveys, local data, and national and regional priorities.

Healthwatch Southwark's three main priorities for 2025–26 are listed as:

• Temporary accommodation and health, exploring how housing conditions and instability affect people's health and access to care.
• Children and young people's mental health and social care experiences, focusing on early support, transitions to adult services, and the impact of social care.
• Southwark Resource Centre (Disabilities Hub), using statutory powers to review services supporting vulnerable residents.

The report notes that these priorities reflect the most pressing concerns raised by local people and align with wider strategies across Southwark and South East London.

Hoarding

The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Commission was scheduled to receive a presentation on hoarding, to provide evidence for the scrutiny review on safeguarding.

The presentation defines hoarding disorder as:

a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value, due to a perceived need to save them.

It notes that hoarding can be a disorder in its own right or part of other health problems such as physical illness, dementia, depression, substance misuse, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, learning disability, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The presentation distinguishes between different types of hoarding:

• Inanimate Objects: Accumulation of items like old clothes, newspapers, food, containers, or papers.
• Animal Hoarding: Obsessive collecting of animals, often without the ability to provide proper care.
• Data Hoarding: Storing large amounts of data or equipment (computers, storage devices, paper), including keeping excessive electronic records like emails.
• Financial Hoarding: Refusal to spend money or accumulation of cash/valuables out of fear of loss, insecurity or mistrust.

The presentation also refers to Diogenes Syndrome¹, a behavioural disorder characterised by extreme self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal and often hoarding of waste or possessions.

The presentation notes that hoarding is formally recognised under the Care Act 2014² as a manifestation of self-neglect, which is a safeguarding concern.

The presentation also provides information on the Southwark Hoarding Panel, which plays a safeguarding role by supporting officers in managing complex hoarding cases. It meets every six weeks to review live cases from Housing, as well as referrals from Housing Associations and third parties in Southwark.

The presentation notes that nationally it is estimated between 2% and 6% of the UK population may have a hoarding condition, but only about 5% of hoarders seek specialist or official support.

The presentation lists options for people that hoard in Southwark, including the London Fire Brigade, Environmental Health, Housing, and Adult Social Care.

Blue Badge Scheme

The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Commission was scheduled to receive an update on a briefing on the Blue Badge Scheme³ provided in February 2025.