Agenda and draft minutes

The evacuation procedure was noted.

There were no interests declared.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting held on 21 October 2025.

Consideration was given to the minutes from the Committee meeting held on 21 October 2025.  Attention was drawn to the following:

·       Minutes: Members reiterated the need for the Committee to be kept informed about ongoing developments associated with the Tees Valley Care and Health Innovation Zone in a timely manner.  To this end, the Committee Chair would approach relevant Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) officers following this meeting.

·       Scrutiny Review of Stockton-on-Tees Adult Carers Support Service: Members were reminded that responses from the NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB) and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (NTHFT) relating to queries raised at the October 2025 meeting were relayed via email yesterday (17 November 2025).

AGREED that the minutes of the meeting on 21 October 2025 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Consideration was given to the latest quarterly summary regarding Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections for services operating within the Borough (Appendix 1).  Four inspection reports were published during this period (July to September 2025 (inclusive)), with attention drawn to the following Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) contracted providers:

Providers rated ‘Good’ overall (1)

·       The Beeches Care Home was upgraded to ‘Good’ overall, reflecting an upturn in the ‘Safe’, ‘Effective’ and ‘Well-Led’ domains which were rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ in the previous report published in October 2022.

Providers rated ‘Requires Improvement’ overall (2)

·       Mandale Care Home was downgraded from ‘Good’ to ‘Requires Improvement’ overall due to identified shortfalls in the ‘Safe’ domain.  This latest focused inspection was prompted in part by notification of an incident following which a person using the service sustained a serious injury, and concerns were subsequently found in relation to record-keeping, understanding / managing risk, and systems of accountability for oversight and good governance.

·       Ingleby Care Home retained its overall ‘Requires Improvement’ status despite advances in the ‘Effective’ and ‘Caring’ domains (upgraded from ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Good’), as well as the ‘Well-Led’ domain (upgraded from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Requires Improvement’).  Whilst sufficient improvements had been made to meet three of the breaches identified during the previous inspection (published in November 2024), there remained a breach in relation to good governance as the provider had not made sufficient progress in relation to assessing, monitoring and improving the quality of the service.

Following confirmation that the serious incident at Mandale Care Home earlier in 2025 was the primary reason for the CQCs prompt re-inspection of the service after publishing its previous report in January 2025, the Committee asked if Ingleby Care Home was being used as an unregistered setting due to the lack of a Registered Manager since December 2023.  The SBC Quality Assurance and Compliance (QuAC) Manager stated that a Registered Manager was now in post, though work was still required to address the home’s good governance breach.  Members again raised the practice of the best managers being moved between a provider’s individual services in order to get a better CQC outcome, though it was noted that the regulator had conducted an organisational check of three T.L. Care Limited premises in recent months (with The Beeches Care Home doing well), and that management of these services had become more stable of late, with a good Area Manager also overseeing the provider’s offer.

The remaining report was in relation to a non-contracted provider, with primary medical care service, Identity Dental Care deemed to be meeting regulations in all five inspection domains.

Focus turned to the section on Provider Assessment and Market Management Solutions (PAMMS) inspections (Appendix 2), of which there were nine reports published during this period (July to September 2025 (inclusive)):

·       Windsor Court Residential Home, Ayresome Court, Millbeck, Highfield (Stockton), Piper Court, Reuben Manor, and Primrose Court Nursing Home maintained an overall rating of ‘Good’ – the same grading all seven services achieved following  ...  view the full minutes text for item ASCH/49/25

To consider information in relation to this scrutiny topic from:

·       Eastern Ravens

·       Mobilise

The third evidence-gathering session for the Committee’s review of Stockton-on-Tees Adult Carers Support Service considered submissions from Eastern Ravens Trust and Mobilise.

EASTERN RAVENS TRUST

Recognising the Borough’s young carers and the importance of their transition into adult support services, Eastern Ravens Trust (a local charity supporting young carers within Stockton-on-Tees) was asked to contribute to this review.  The Trust Manager gave a presentation which covered the following:

·       Eastern Ravens Trust – Supporting Young Carers (timeline): Following the commencement of action research within the Borough in 1998, the first young carers group was launched on 1 April 2000, with Eastern Ravens Trust commissioned to work with 30 young carers per year.  In October 2023, the Trust became a strategic partner to Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) for young carers support, and between November 2024 and October 2025, assisted nearly 300 young carers.

·       Young Carers Definition: The term ‘young carer’ included children and young people under 18 who provided regular and ongoing care and emotional support to a family member who was physically or mentally ill, disabled, or misused substances.

·       Stockton-on-Tees Context – Unpaid Care: 2021 census data indicated that there were 1,500 young carers under the age of 25 locally – of these, 725 carried out their caring role for under 19 hours per week, 350 for 20-49 hours per week, and 175 for 50 hours or more per week (the remainder did not specify the time).  It was felt that the number of young carers identified via the census did not reflect the actual total (which could potentially be four times as many) as some were hidden and others did not want to identify themselves as a carer.

·       Reasons for Caring Roles: The main factors leading to the onset of caring responsibilities were physical illness and / or disability, mental health illness, sensory / hearing loss, alcohol / drug dependency, and learning difficulties.  Young people were sometimes carrying out multiple caring roles, taking on numerous additional tasks that went beyond what was considered ‘normal’ for their age-range.

·       What do Young Carers do?: Young carers were involved in practical tasks (e.g. cooking, housework, shopping), providing emotional support, giving / reminding about medication and collecting prescriptions / accompanying to medical appointments, managing finances (e.g. family budgeting, collecting benefits, banking), and interpreting.  Assistance with physical (lifting, transferring) and personal (dressing, washing, toileting) care was also given, and there was sometimes a need to look after a younger sibling.  All things considered, it was remarkable what some young people were doing across the Borough.

·       Impacts of Caring: Young people could be adversely affected as a result of their caring roles in a variety of ways.  In terms of education, reduced attendance, lateness, struggling to cope within lessons and / or completing homework, worry, not having the correct uniform, and lower attainment (decreasing future life chances) were potential possibilities.  Socially, young carers could experience loneliness and isolation, become victims of bullying, and have increased risk of criminal and  ...  view the full minutes text for item ASCH/50/25

The Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) Director of Public Health was in attendance to present their latest Annual Report which, under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), they had a duty to prepare (with the Local Authority having a duty to publish it).  The report was not prescriptive (nor was it necessarily a reflection on the previous year) and had the flexibility to focus on any public health-related matter which the Director wished to raise.

The first draft of the SBC Director of Public Health Report 2025 (‘Building Healthy Communities – connecting people and place’) had been provided to the Committee and outlined the opportunity to bring work on healthy communities and healthy places together, to improve health and wellbeing, and address inequalities.  The report highlighted existing examples of good practice and proposed actions that supported delivery of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Stockton-on-Tees Plan, as well as aligning with the Council’s Powering Our Future (POF) initiative.  Key messages were outlined as follows:

·       Communities are the heart of places – both geographic places and the places where people feel ‘at home’ with others they identify themselves with (which can be many things).

·       If we start with communities and build flexible approaches and systems, we are more likely to have meaningful partnerships with communities, understand what is important to them, develop joint solution to meet people’s needs, and get better outcomes for all our communities (addressing inequality).

·       How do we do this?  Through a framework that builds collective aims, enablers and resourced plans, that links working with communities, to developing local places and neighbourhood approaches.

·       This needs to be about more than our ‘service offer’; rather it needs to use a system-wide approach, building on evidence, intelligence and partnerships, and maximising the opportunity for health creation.

·       There are examples of local work that we can build on to help us with our approach; and a self-assessment tool to support us with where to start.

·       The report identifies suggested actions to take the work forward. It also reviews progress on the actions identified in last year’s report (this would be added to the final version under Appendix 2).

The local Health and Wellbeing Board would consider the final report in December 2025, with a view to presenting this to SBC Cabinet in January 2026.  It was also being proposed to publish the report on the Council’s website (with accompanying links to further relevant information), with hard-copies being available on request.  The Committee was reminded that the report was primarily aimed at partners / professionals.

AGREED that the SBC Director of Public Health Report 2025 be noted.

Consideration was given to the minutes of previous Health and Wellbeing Board meetings which took place in March, April and July 2025.

It was noted that all three meetings included Better Care Fund (BCF) updates, with the July 2025 agenda also involving a discussion on the Board’s structured programme of development to review and reflect on its purpose, role, responsibilities, and overall effectiveness – this had culminated in the production of a revised Terms of Reference for the Board which was included with the papers for this Committee meeting (along with an accompanying report which was presented to full Council on 24 September 2025).

AGREED that the minutes of Health and Wellbeing Board meetings which took place in March, April and July 2025, as well as the Board’s revised Terms of Reference, be noted.

CHAIR’S UPDATE

The Chair asked for congratulations to be passed onto staff within the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) Adults, Health and Wellbeing directorate following the recently published Care Quality Commission (CQC) report which saw the Council’s adult social care services graded ‘Good’ overall.

Thanks was also given to those Committee Members who visited the LiveWell Dementia Hub in Thornaby last week as part of the ongoing Scrutiny Review of Stockton-on-Tees Adult Carers Support Service.

WORK PROGRAMME 2025-2026

Consideration was given to the Committee’s current work programme.  The next meeting was due to take place on 16 December 2025, where agenda items would include the latest Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board (TSAB) Annual Report (2024-2025), the next (and final) evidence-gathering session for the Stockton-on-Tees Adult Carers Support Service review, and a new Stockton-on-Tees Independent Complaints Advocacy Annual Report.  Members would also be receiving a presentation on the outcomes of the recently published CQC report following the late-2024 inspection of SBC adult social care services.

AGREED that the Chair’s Update and Adult Social Care and Health Select Committee Work Programme 2025-2026 be noted.