Cllr. Clark reported that he had attended the ‘Fair Care for Kent’ event at Ashford on 7 June 2016, which had been organised by– Action With Communities in Rural Kent (ACRK) which was looking at alternative ways delivering care which was why Kent County Council (KCC) were interested. The focus had been on community micro enterprises, locally owned and providing care solutions ie at village level. There had been a number of presentations by different groups.  The idea was to replace that lost extended family care with extended community care, pooling skills already within the community, from carers to cooks and gardeners.  Largely on a funded basis but some voluntary input as well.  The principle was supported by the Department for Health.  There were some issues with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the feeling of being over regulated, but if not registered it was hard to become visible and used within the community.  Being small such groups could also suffer from competition and being undercut by larger organisations; have difficulty finding start up funding; and issues with holiday and sickness absence issues when so few. 

KCC seemed willing to work with someone but not lead on it. Unless there was someone willing to be the coordinating body there seemed no real way forward at the moment however good the idea was.

Cllr. Dr.Canet reported that there were now over 1000 members of the Sevenoaks District Senior Action Forum.  In celebration of Older Peoples Day on 1 October there would be a local event with a physiotherapist at Gloucester House between 3-4pm.  The physiotherapist was doing a lot of work on getting people to walk and was willing to talk to the Board.  It was agreed she should be asked to attend a future meeting. 

Cllr. Dr. Canet advised she may attend an evening talk called ‘Breath of Fresh Air – Addressing Climate Change and Air Pollution Together for Health’ run by UK health alliance on climate change.  She also handed out a leaflet entitled ‘thinking of moving’ from a private company.  The Head of Housing & Health advised that the Council ran a similar free scheme called ‘small is beautiful’ and believed it was a question of getting the scheme more widely known.

Cllr. McArthur had recently attended the Housing & Health Portfolio Holder’s briefing where there had been a good brainstorming session on mental health issues and housing.  She was impressed by the joined up thinking going on between departments.  She had also attended the West Kent MIND AGM and managed to get to a session of the ‘Forget me Not’ café in Edenbridge.  Members briefly discussed how transport issues affected attendance, and agreed to request the dates of the cafes to be advertised in ‘In Shape’.

Cllr. Dyball reported that she had attended the first phase of Swanley Town Centre consultation.  There was a groundswell of opinion especially with regards to parking concerns and mobility issues around the two large GP centres.

Cllr. Parkin advised that she had been tasked by the Portfolio Holder for Housing & Health to form a working group to look into loneliness.  The Head of Housing & Health advise that under the new health deal it was a message coming through quite strongly from local GPs who were saying it because of the lack of community and local relatives.  The difficulty was in identifying those people before they reached crisis point, and agree it was a good topic to look at.  At the moment the work being carried out was mainly with older people through work on health integration.  The voluntary sector played a massive part and it may be a question of identifying all the schemes currently on offer and having a targeted campaign.  The Board agreed to go away and research this before the next meeting and bring the information together for a ‘think tank’ session at the next meeting. 

The Chairman announced that the Council was one of four shortlisted for a Kent Dementia Award at a ceremony taking place on 24 October 2016, for the work carried out so far in working towards being dementia friendly.  The Head of Housing & Health took the opportunity to show the Board the new signs she had designed for the building’s toilets.  She also advised that better signage in reception along with a plaque stating that the Council was working towards being dementia friendly, were being looked at.