Agenda item

Ahead of the forthcoming winter period, the Committee considered and responded to the Stockton-on-Tees Health and Wellbeing Board’s ‘Care and Health Winter Planning Update’ report.

Presented by the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) Director of Public Health, Members were reminded that the Board had responsibility for seeking assurance on health protection, and that this report supported the Board in this duty.  The Board would consider the report, with a view to ratifying it, at its meeting on 29 October 2025.  As in previous years, the report was being presented to the Committee for information and discussion ahead of the Board meeting later this month, and contained the following:

·       Winter Planning

·       Integration

·       Infectious Disease Surveillance

·       COVID, flu and vaccinations

·       Health protection work with key settings

·       Local health protection response

·       Adult social care support

o   Demand and capacity management

o   Ensure adult social care teams have sufficient staff and access to care capacity to continue supporting people to live independently in their own homes wherever possible in line with Care Act 2014 principles

o   Ensure a home first approach

o   Monitor the impact of winter on local people and the social care workforce

·       Housing

·       Supporting our communities

o   Information and advice

o   Food support

o   Community Transport

o   Community Spaces (previously known as Warm Spaces)

·       Consultation and Engagement

·       Next Steps

Attention was drawn to several parts of the report, beginning with the oversight of NHS planning and co-ordination of partners by the Tees Valley Local A&E Delivery Board (LAEDB) which was intending to share a comprehensive overview of winter planning arrangements with the wider system in November 2025.  Other key entities included the Cleveland Local Resilience Forum (LRF) which enabled wider system resilience as needed, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) which maintained the national monitoring system for Influenza, RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and COVID-19, and the Tees Valley Vaccination Board which continued to have oversight of the flu and COVID vaccination programmes and reported into the regional Integrated Care Board (ICB) Immunisation Board.

From an adult social care perspective, SBC monitored the care market to understand capacity and quality pressures to ensure it could meet its statutory duties.  All commissioned providers were contractually required to submit winter contingency plans by 31 October each year and the Council would continue to monitor compliance and use these plans to manage pressures over the period.

In terms of supporting the community, the annual Winter Health Conference was held earlier this month, nine weekly ‘Warm Welcome’ sessions took place across the Borough to address social isolation and loneliness, and the launch of the Multibank in November 2024 had seen over 400,000 items distributed to the Local Authority area.  A range of information and advice was also available, including regular features in Stockton News (promoting support services for this time of year) and a ‘Winter Wellbeing’ webpage.

Welcoming the update, the Committee focused its response on vaccinations.  Expressing concern about instances of public confusion caused by changes to the qualifying age-ranges for this year’s vaccination roll-out, Members relayed incidents of people turning up to a site expecting to receive both the flu and COVID jab but finding out one was not available / provided.  A discrepancy with one of the local practices (Queens Park Medical Centre) with regard the stated flu / COVID offer within the report was also noted, as were issues raised by some around having to pay a parking charge (including the challenges of trying to pay via an app) when trying to get to / near a site providing vaccinations.  The SBC Director of Public Health stated that the Council worked with the ICB to relay core vaccination messages to the public, and would follow-up with ICB colleagues to check what communications were issued around this year’s offer.  In terms of the list of local practices providing flu and / or COVID vaccines, this was extracted from a main database and would be checked to see if it required updating.

Staying with the theme of vaccinations, the Committee highlighted additional uncertainty around the need for a second shingles jab as some people had reported only receiving one dose whilst others had been given two.  The SBC Director of Public Health offered to seek clarity on the required protections against shingles and gave assurance that there were no significant gaps across the Borough regarding the overarching vaccination offer.  In other vaccine-related developments, it was also noted that data was not yet available for the occupational health flu and COVID-19 vaccination programmes within NHS Trusts and primary care, though this could likely be provided in the future if required.

Praising the range of work evidenced within the ‘Supporting our communities’ section of the report, the Committee asked if this update was being presented to SBC Cabinet after consideration by the Health and Wellbeing Board – it was confirmed that this was indeed the intention.  Members also commended the Council’s OneCall service for assisting vulnerable people with sources of heat.

AGREED that the ‘Care and Health Winter Planning Update’ report, and the subsequent Committee comments in relation to its content, be noted.