Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting held on 25 October 2023.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 25 October 2023 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Board received a copy of the Healthwatch Annual Report for 2022/23 and received a presentation which outlined:

•      April 2022 – March 2023 priorities

•      10 Year Celebration Event

•      Healthwatch Heroes

•      How to become a Healthwatch Community Champion

•      Priorities for 2023/24:

·         Growing Older Project

·         Pharmacy

·         Rolling Programme of Coffee Mornings

Key issues highlighted and discussed were as follows:

•      The Board thanked Healthwatch for their help with developing the community mental health framework.

•      Access to dentistry was discussed and it was noted that Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee had received a presentation on the issue and Stockton’s Adult Social Care and Health Select Committee were doing a scrutiny of access to primary care services.

•      Waiting times for core CAMHS were good, however, there had been significant increases in waiting times for Autism and ADHD referrals since the pandemic

RESOLVED that the Healthwatch Annual Report 2022/23 be noted.

Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), the Director of Public Health had a duty to prepare an independent annual report. Nationally, there had been a hiatus in producing these reports due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently due to the recovery work.

The Director of Public Health Annual Report 2022 aimed to capture an overview of key activity from a public health perspective, over the course of the unique and challenges events of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also sought to summarise the learning from this period, from a public health perspective and describe some of the activity since, in response to this learning.

Embedding learning and monitoring of public health activity would continue to be overseen and reported through the Lead Member, Corporate Management Team and Health and Wellbeing Board as part of core business.

Board Members thanked the Director, the Public Health Team and partners for all their work in response to the pandemic. The report highlighted health inequalities and the importance of having a cohesive approach to inform future work.

RESOLVED that the Director of Public Health Annual Report be noted.

This Board received a presentation on:

•      Acute Respiratory Illness

•      Covid 19 and Flu

•      Vaccination

•      Other concerns

•      Next steps

•      Key issues highlighted and discussed were as follows:

•      Acute respiratory illness was currently on the rise which was a similar pattern to last winter.

•      Covid cases and Covid related hospitalisations were currently decreasing. The vast majority of hospitalisations remained in the clinically vulnerable 85+ age group.

•      Deaths within Stockton-on-Tees with Covid-19 on the death certificate remained low.

•      Norovirus cases were currently rising within the North East although there were currently no reported cases in Stockton-on-Tees.

•      Three cases of children with diarrhoea (Confirmed cases of Cryptosporidium and Salmonella) attending nurseries in Stockton-on-Tees had been reported, despite guidance to exclude from the setting.

•      National trends revealed increased rates in Salmonella cases with a cluster of 74 cases identified. Recent cases appeared to mostly affect young children (0-9 years) and older adults (60-69 years). Locally in Stockton, there had been a small outbreak in October with three known cases from a bakery.

Average uptake of Covid autumn vaccinations across borough for those eligible was 42.9% and Care home resident Covid vaccination uptake for Stockton on Tees was 77.3%. However, there were disparities in vaccination uptake in minority ethnic groups including black/black British, mixed, and Asian/Asian British.

•      Average uptake for flu vaccinations across the borough for those eligible was 38.7%

•      Pop up Covid vaccination clinics had been held at Thornaby Pavilion and on Stockton High Street.

•      Next steps included:

·         Support with pop-up vaccination clinics for Flu and Covid in November/December

·         Resharing of winter health messages with nurseries, childminders and primary schools, particularly regarding diarrhoea and vomiting.

·         Winter Wellbeing support leaflet - autumn vaccine information, infection prevention and control, keeping warm and welfare support.

•      Board Members were concerned about low vaccine take-up and noted unexpected variation between wards. It was suggested that variation across the Borough could be attributed to differences in start time between practices and officers undertook to review more current data. It was also confirmed anyone eligible should have been contacted by their GP practice.

•      A national report on low flu vaccination take up in the NHS had also been published. ICB colleagues advised that take up locally in Health and Social Care staff was down 7% on the same time last year.

•      Disappointing take-up reinforced the need to continue to promote key messages about the importance of vaccinations. Work continued across partners and community champions to promote these key messages.

RESOLVED that the update be noted and actioned accordingly.

Presentation to follow.

This Board received a presentation from the ICB on winter planning. The presentation covered:

•      Context

•      National Guidance

•      2023/24 Winter Planning

·         Local Accident & Emergency Delivery Board (LADB)

·         System Control Centre (SCC)

·         Tees Valley Incident Command Coordination Centre (ICCC)

·         Urgent and Emergency Care Highlight Report

·         23/24 Winter Plans and Business Cases

•      Risks and Challenges

Working alongside Tees Valley LADB partners, a resilience template had been developed. The template built in Key Lines of Enquiries (KLOE’s), based upon the requirements of the various planning guidance documents, alongside other local intelligence. The template mapped the KLOE’s against the 10 high impact interventions, ensuring response to each. TV LADB system partners had been to self-assess against the range of KLOE’s, providing a RAG risk rating. This had then been consolidated into a TV system RAG risk rating.

From the 66 KLOE’s identified the TV system rated 12 as amber (In plans, but risks associated with delivery) and 0 as red (No evidence of existing implementation or in system plans). The Amber KLOE’s were set out for the Board and the LADB would ensure monitoring and delivery against each over the coming months.

Key issues discussed were as follows:

•      Community based support reduced the pressures on tertiary care.

•      If a new and serious covid strain was to emerge, there would be a national response and communications strategy.

•      Additional support had been provided to GP practices to enable more appointments to the offered over the winter period.

RESOLVED that the presentation be noted.

The Board received a presentation from Catalyst on an exercise that had been carried out to map out and identify gaps in themed areas. The presentation covered:

•      FSOT Framework - Coordinator role - SBC/lottery funded

•      Health Inequalities National Lottery funding

•      Identifying the gaps and how to address them

•      Role of VCSE

•      Themes to map:

·         Food Poverty

·         Skills and Employment

·         Fuel Poverty

·         Money and Debt

·         Health and Wellbeing

Key issues highlighted and discussed were as follows:

•      The mapping had led to:

·         Understanding of the VCSE and how it worked alongside commissioned services

·         Strong working relationships with a range of partners

·         Gaps identified and connections made to bring organisations together to meet needs

·         Identifying contacts on the mailing list – allowing information to be shared easily with VCSE and SBC colleagues

·         Key themes identified were transport and social isolation

•      Board members highlighted an opportunity for a bike recycling scheme in Holme House prison and also an opportunity for joint working to take place with social care colleagues around hording

RESOLVED that presentation be noted.

The Board received a presentation on the Government’s announcement for the UK to become a Smokefree generation by 2030 by reducing smoking prevalence to 5% of the adult population. The proposals included:

•      Legislation for increasing the age of sale and proxy purchases

•      Restricting vape flavours and regulating vape packaging

•      Restricting the sale of disposable vapes

•      All would require new enforcement powers for Local Authorities

•      Additional funding nationally: £70m stop smoking services; £5m this year then £15m thereafter for campaigns; £30m for enforcement agencies and introducing on the spot fines for underage sales of tobacco and vapes

The consultation would be open until 6 December 2023. The Director of Public Health would draft and circulate a response from the Board for comments. Individuals would still be able to submit their own comments.

RESOLVED that the presentation be noted and the Director of Public Health be authorised to draft and submit a response to the consultation on behalf of the Board, following seeking comments from Board members.

The Board received a report on progress achieved by the Physical Activity Steering Group (PASG) and partners since January 2023. As a sub-group of the Health and Wellbeing Board, the report also outlined future proposed developments of the steering group.

RESOLVED

(1) That the presentation on Physical Activity Developments, and on the Healthy Weight Strategic Approach, be noted.

(2) That the expansion of the steering group’s remit to include healthier weight be supported and approved.

(3) That the next steps for Healthy Weight Strategic Approach for Stockton-on-Tees be supported and approved.

The Board considered a report providing an update on the submission of the Stockton-on-Tees BCF Quarter 2 report. The quarter 2 report was developed to collect:

• Confirmation of S75 agreements and that national conditions are being met

• Updates on metric ambitions

• Refreshed capacity and demand plans for Nov 2023 – Mar 2024

The quarter 2 report had been agreed by the BCF Delivery Group and signed off by the Pooled Budget Partnership Board on behalf of the Health and Wellbeing Board. It had been submitted to the NHS England on 31 October 2023.

Following concerns expressed on behalf of the Board, frequency in submitting reports had now been reduced from fortnightly to monthly.

RESOLVED that the submission of the Stockton-on-Tees BCF Quarter 2 report to NHS England as part of the reporting requirements set out in the BCF Planning Requirements 23-25 be noted.

Parking Arrangements – Thornaby Health Centre

Councillor Sylvia Walmsley highlighted a problem that had come to her attention regarding confusion about parking arrangements at Thornaby Health Centre. She suggested that a solution might be to include parking options on appointments letters. Alex Sinclair undertook to investigate with the acute trust.

Right Care, Right Person

Dominic Gardner highlighted this national programme which set out a framework for how police and health services should improve the response to people with mental health needs. The partnership approach would establish an agreement between policing, health and other relevant partners that aimed to ensure that individuals in mental health crisis were seen by the right professional.

A formal update would be brought to the Board in January.

RESOLVED that the forward plan be noted.