The following apologies were reported to the meeting by the Chair

Lee Chapman, PFH Organisational Transformation and Digital Infrastructure (Co-Chair), Shropshire Council
Mark Brandreth, CEO, Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Karen Bradshaw, Director of Children’s Services, Shropshire Council

Andy Begley, Director Adult Services, Public Health & Housing and Chief Executive, Shropshire Council

Dr Julie Davies, Director of Performance and Delivery, Shropshire CCG

Megan Nurse, Non-Executive Director MPFT
David Stout, Chief Executive, Shropshire Community Health Trust
Ed Potter, PFH Children’s Services
Louise Barnett, Chief Executive, SaTH

       The following substitutions were also notified:

       Maggie Bayley substituted for Louise Barnett.
Tanya Miles substituted for Andy Begley

Members are reminded that they must not participate in the discussion or voting on any matter in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

Members were reminded that they must not participate in the discussion or voting on any matter in which they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2020.

Contact: Michelle Dulson Tel 01743 257719

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2020 be approved as a correct record. 

To receive any questions, statements or petitions from the public, notice of which has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 14.  The deadline for this meeting is 9.45am on Tuesday 8 September 2020.

Questions submitted by Ms Diane Peacock, in relation to the impact of Covid-19 on care home residents, had been circulated to Members. 

A copy of the questions and responses provided are attached to the signed Minutes and available on this Committee’s pages on the Council’s web site.

Regular update reports to the Health and Wellbeing Board are attached:

STP Update

A presentation will be given.
Contact: STP Representative, Shropshire CCG

Shropshire Care Closer to Home

A presentation will be given.

Contact: Lisa Cliffe, Deputy Director of Performance & Delivery, Shropshire CCG

Better Care Fund

Report to follow.
Contact: Penny Bason, STP Programme Manager / Covid Community Response Lead

STP Update

Jill Robinson, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin STP gave a presentation – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which covered the following areas:

·         Covid-19 Key Quality and Safety Risks

·         High Level System Improvement Plan

·         System Priorities

·         System Restore and Recovery Performance

·         Phase 3 Planning

·         System Finances

·         ICS Development

Maggie Bayley, the outgoing Interim Chief Nurse at SaTH (substitute for Louise Barnett, CE SaTH) clarified that the CQC visit had taken place on the 9 and 10 June not July.  She informed the meeting that the Trust has had an Improvement Plan in place in relation to CQC actions that have been implemented within the organisation and currently they had implemented, from May, 74% of those actions to date. She confirmed that SaTH were looking forward to working collaboratively with UHB as part of the Quality Improvement Alliance.

Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer for Healthwatch Shropshire commented that it would be really helpful for the STP Update to explain all of the acronyms used within in it for the benefit of the public.  It was confirmed that a list of acronyms would be attached to future STP Updates.

RESOLVED:

To note the STP update provided through the presentation.

Shropshire Care Closer to Home

Lisa Cliffe, Shropshire CCG gave a presentation – copy attached to the signed Minutes - which covered the following areas:

·         Where we were

·         What happened?

·         Where are we now?

·         NHS England and Improvement Work Programmes and Priorities for Restoration

·         Next steps

The Chief Officer, Healthwatch Shropshire queried how members of the public could find out more information about the programme and their eligibility to get involved.  It was explained that as part of the previous programme they had done extensive communication and it was on the website of the CCG.  They were now working to refresh those pages to ensure that that there were mechanisms available for people to come forward however that detail was not yet available.

The Chair felt that it would be good for the Health and Wellbeing Board to have an update as things develop in the next few months. 

Finally, Lisa thanked the teams and the partnership working from across the system for what they had achieved prior to covid and the extensive learning as part of covid that really would benefit them going forward and confirmed she would be happy to come back and update that position to the Board in the future.

RESOLVED:

To note the Shropshire Care Closer to Home update provided through the presentation.

Better Care Fund

The report of the STP Programme Manager and Communities Lead was received– copy attached to the signed Minutes – which provided an update on the performance of the Better Care Fund (BCF) for quarter 4 of 2019/20, an update for 2020/21 progress, including an amendment to the BCF Section 75 Agreement, adjustments made to support people through the Covid 19 pandemic, the financial proposal for 2020/21, and provided a brief summary of the national BCF support offer.

Penny Bason, the STP  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

A presentation will be given.

Contact: Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer, Healthwatch

The report can be found at this link: https://www.healthwatchshropshire.co.uk/report/2020-07-07/health-care-and-well-being-services-during-covid-19-pandemic

Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer, Healthwatch Shropshire gave a presentation – copy of slides attached to the signed Minutes - which provided a summary of the findings and recommendations made following a survey looking at public experiences of Health Care, Social Care and Well-being services during the Covid-19 pandemic up to 31 May. 

Rachel Robinson, the Director of Public Health for Shropshire thanked the Chief Officer, Healthwatch for her really useful presentation and recognised the need for clear information and guidelines which was something that they had continued to try and support as the guidelines had changed throughout the pandemic.  It continued to be a challenge but was absolutely crucial to the work being done.  She recognised the work ongoing on this and with the communications teams to ensure that the messages got out. 

The Chief Officer Healthwatch Shropshire commented that the information given by employers was found to be the most helpful, and she wondered whether the system was sharing the information with employers so that it could be added to their websites and in their communications with staff.  Rachel thanked her for the feedback which was really helpful and she confirmed that they were working really closely with businesses.  The specific point about whether employers were sharing that through their intranet or through staff emails would be really useful and this would be followed up.  The Director of Public Health commented that the challenge had been that the government guidance had changed quite quickly but she explained that the Frequently Asked Questions were really useful on both the local and national sites.

Ros Preen, the Director of Finance, Shropshire Community Health Trust commented on how useful feedback from this kind of survey was for health care providers and that she would be sharing internally the outcomes from the report and considering the recommendations when restoring services.

The STP Programme Manager and Communities Lead explained that draft guidance in relation to shielding had been received and she suggested that collaborative working on this with Healthwatch Shropshire would be really helpful especially around clear messaging for the public.  She also drew attention to the on-line platform for people aged 16+ who were suffering with their mental health.  This provided a useful tool to ensure that people were not left struggling.  She also touched on investment in bereavement counselling services.

The Chief Officer, Healthwatch Shropshire informed the Board that the full report including all comments received was available on their website.  She reported that Healthwatch Shropshire had aligned their priorities to those of the STP and she requested that if any organisation within the system wished them to undertake a particular piece of work to let her know and she would take it to the Board for consideration.

RESOLVED:  To note the contents of the Health Care, Social Care and Wellbeing services during the Covid-19 pandemic – Healthwatch survey responses.

A presentation will be given.
Contact: Emily Fay, Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance Co-ordinator

Emily Fay, co-ordinator of the Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance gave a presentation on food poverty – copy of slides attached to signed Minutes, which covered the following areas:

·         Food Poverty in Shropshire: Covid-19

·         Food response in Shropshire during covid-19

·         Going forwards: increased need due to covid-19

·         Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance

She reported that it had been a very busy six months and that so much had changed and so many volunteers were now involved in supporting people.  She gave an overview of what had been happening around the county with foodbanks, and community projects around Shropshire.  She explained that before covid, their main concern was around people not being able to afford food.  However the national lockdown had created lots of issues around people accessing food, particularly those who were vulnerable or were shielding.  She discussed what had been done to assist people to access food.  The key learning from all of this was the role that local organisations played in both identifying need and creating avenues of support. 

Going forward it was really clear that there was going to be an increase in hardship particular over the winter but probably into the longer term as well.  There were a number of key areas of concern including the furlough scheme coming to an end, support for the self-employed along with concerns around housing and debt.  All of these issues would have a huge impact on people’s health and wellbeing.  It was therefore important that people were aware of the support that was available and that they be encouraged to come forward for help. 

The Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance have been working throughout the pandemic and were really grateful for the financial support received from Shropshire Council and for the continuing support going forward.  They were still working to the Food Poverty Action Plan which was now more important than ever.  The Board were informed that the main focus of the Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance had been the Relaunch of the Shropshire Larder website and associated media.  So they were really focused on signposting people to the support that was available. 

Laura Fisher, Housing Services Manager at Shropshire Council wished to thank the foodbanks and food poverty alliance for their work and help during lockdown and she was confident that this partnership work would continue.  She also drew attention to the work of the Hardship Forum.

A brief discussion took place in relation to the 20% contribution that all but the most vulnerable have to pay towards their Council Tax.

RESOLVED:  To note the contents of the presentation.

A presentation will be given.

Contact: Sarah Hollinshead-Bland, Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner, Shropshire Council

Sarah Hollinshead-Bland, the Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner, Shropshire Council gave a presentation – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which covered the following areas:

·         Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership – our previous structure

·         Our new structure

·         How we developed our priorities

·         How the partnership is supported

·         Achievements so far

·         How do we work more closely?

The Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner updated the Board in relation to where they were with their new governance structure for Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership.  Looking at the new structure (slide 3) the networks at the bottom of the triangle were a very important foundation to the partnership.  The dark blue boxes set out their agreed strategic priorities whilst above these sat the System Groups (Business as usual groups).   These groups were created by combining case review groups and they were in the process of establishing joint learning and development groups along with an assurance and performance group. Each Chair of these groups would be attending the Executive Group.

The Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner informed the Board that the Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership had met on 13 February 2020 in order to develop their strategy and priorities for the next three years and she explained the process that was undertaken.

The Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner explained that the partnership was supported by an Independent Chair and a business team.  She then drew attention to some of the things that had already been achieved this year, including responding to the covid crisis. 

The Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner posed some questions to the Board, including how they could work more closely with the Board and what would the Board be looking for from the Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership.

The Chairman thanked the Statutory Safeguarding Business Partner for her very informative presentation and suggested that the CCG Board would be very interested to hear more directly from her and that he would ask someone from the CCG to get in touch to arrange this.

RESOLVED: to note the contents of the presentation.

A presentation will be given.

Contact: Rachel Robinson, Shropshire Director of Public Health

Rachel Robinson, the Director of Public Health for Shropshire gave a presentation – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which covered the following areas:

·         Screening and Immunisations

·         Restoration of services

·         Current status

·         Covid-19 and Impact on Immunisation uptake

·         Government Targets for flu vaccine uptake for 2020/21

·         Work in progress

She explained that this update was part of a report that came annually but she wished to update the Board in relation to screening, immunisation and the restoration of services following the covid-19 pandemic.  She reported that the restoration of services had begun in June and July, starting with those appointments that had been cancelled before moving on to new invitations.  Looking at the current status for the restoration of services, the Director of Public Health drew attention to the challenges currently being faced due to social distancing restrictions, the additional time taken for each appointment due to the use of PPE, and the reduction in the workforce due to shielding and redeployment etc.

The Director of Public Health informed the Board of the impact of Covid-19 on the uptake of immunisations, in particular the MMR vaccine and she would bring a further update on this to the next meeting.  She then drew attention to the importance of the flu vaccination programme, especially in light of the covid pandemic, which was being extended to include more eligible groups.

RESOLVED:  To note the contents of the presentation.

None.

None.