Agenda item

To receive a presentation on Medway as a Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) Network Area from Chris Giles, Acting Housing Strategy and Partnerships Manager.

Discussion:

The Housing Partnerships Strategy and Customer Relations Manager, delivered a presentation on Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) Network Area and highlighted the following:

• Making Every Adult Matter is a national coalition of charities that has been established for over 10 years and represents 1300 member organisations across 42 areas in England
• Having been approached in June 2022 to become part of the network due to its recognised strong network of partner organisations, it was confirmed on 7 September 2022 that Medway had been successfully included in the programme.
• Being part of the Network provides Medway with a dedicated critical friend and support from MEAM who will guide us to improve services and systems through access to a wide range of learning including access to core training, including trauma informed and strength-based approaches.
• There would also be access to focused intensive support to manage systemic issues
• MEAM had received funding to work with Medway for two years and Medway would recruit to a Coordinator post. The programme was expected to build on established panels already in place in Medway.
• A strategic board had been set up to agree and track progress and explore and identify areas that require improvements that have been recognised as systemic barriers where joint working can be strengthened to ensure appropriate delivery of services to vulnerable people in the community.

·       To keep the project moving forward, support was required to identify key contacts, support was sought for staffing and sharing the goals, plans and outcomes of the Medway MEAM project.

The following comments were made:

The Director of Delivery, Medway & Swale Health and Care Partnership informed the Board that contact had already been made with Officers regarding this project as the work underway would significantly affect colleagues working in health. There was some resource availability in her team and discussions were taking place on how they could support the project.

The Director of Public Health and the Director of People, Children and Adults Services were both in support of engagement and support of the project. They advised they would ensure their services responded positively to the request of colleagues involved in the MEAM work to unblock any barriers quickly and effectively.

The Chief Strategy Officer, Integrated Care Board Executive Team, NHS Kent and Medway, stated the ICB would link into the work of this project. There was good evidence from similar pilots, that outcomes could be used to inform work to improving life expectancy through prevention. The development of the current Integrated Care Strategy would take this further. It would focus on partnership working at neighbourhood level to tailor intervention to the needs of the local population.

The work that was proposed was welcomed and the commitment from partners to link into this initiative to support the most vulnerable, was commended. Discussions on how the work could be taken forward on a longer-term basis beyond the two-year pilot would be undertaken in due course.

Decision:

The Chair thanked Officers on behalf of the Board for the information presented and looked forward to an update at a future meeting of the HWB on next phase of the project.