Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and reported that apologies had been received from Councillors Nigel Ball and Nuala Fennelly, and Jackie Pedersen, Mel Palin and Shayne Tottie.

The Chair paid tribute to all the work being done in the borough by all partnership teams. The pressure on the NHS Staff and those working in care homes was immense and it was important to recognise the pressure they were under and ensure that adequate support was given.

(A period not exceeding 15 minutes for questions from members of the public.)

Councillor Phil Cole was in attendance at the meeting, and asked a question regarding the vaccination programme in Doncaster and how it was being rolled out. There were a number of issues he wished to have answered in regard to this, but as this was all to be covered under the next agenda agenda item, Councillor Cole was happy for his queries to be covered at this point in the agenda, where he would be given the opportunity to ask any further questions if he desired.

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Health and Well Being Board held on 12th November, 2020, be approved as a correct record.

Dr Rupert Suckling provided an update to the Board with regard to how Doncaster was currently faring in the face of Covid-19, and the direct impacts it was having on the Borough.

It was reported that currently in Doncaster, whilst they had risen to around 350 per 100,000 since the Christmas period when at that time, figures had hovered around the 200 mark, they were still positive when looked at comparatively with the rest of the country. They were much lower than in many areas and were currently considerably lower than in October and November when Doncaster’s levels reached their peak. However, despite this, the numbers were still higher now than in the first peak in Spring 2020.

The pandemic was continuing to have a massive effect on the Borough, its residents and those working to assist the issues it presented. 

The third national lockdown was considerably stricter than the one experienced in November, as this time around, Schools had closed to all children again for the second time aside from the children of critical workers or those who were vulnerable. The majority of people where possible were continuing to work from home, and all non-essential retail, leisure and social businesses had closed again aside from click and collect, and a range of grants and support were granted to those in need.

In terms of the health care system, symptomatic testing was now much more readily available with additional testing sites established. Additionally, asymptomatic testing was being carried out in the workplace for those working in the NHS, Police, School staff and certain areas of Local Government and other areas of the public sector.

Dr Suckling reported that it was expected that rates across the country and also across the Borough would start to stabilise over the next couple of weeks, but despite the steadying numbers there would still be a great amount of pressure on the NHS for a number of weeks as the effects started to show.

Richard Parker, agreed with the information provided by Rupert Suckling and reported that there had been high pressure placed on the hospitals in October and November, with many more acute beds taken with Covid patients than in the first wave, and whilst rates stabilised and discharges were now improving, these were considerably slower than in April. It was hoped that the national measures currently in place would work well to reduce numbers and there was optimism that Communities would again pull together to get past this time, but it was crucial that people adhered to the restrictions or other added pressure would be placed on the hospitals. There had been an increased demand for oxygen, which was proving challenging as well as the pressure on staffing levels with rising sickness.

It was reported that there was an enhanced infection control scheme in hospital in order to present unnecessary transmissions. This had resulted in a loss of beds across the hospital, which also had a knock on effect on the non-Covid  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

Andy Maddox, Business Development Officer, and Jodie Bridger, LDP Programme Manager for the Get Doncaster Moving Programme provided a presentation to the Board.

The Strategy had first been introduced in 2016, with emphasis placed on developing a healthier population, and the intention was to seek support from the Health and Well Being Board moving forward in an endeavour to move this further forward, and create a culture change to encourage a healthy way of living for all and improve the health and well-being of the population.

It was reported that the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic had been detrimental to the levels of physical activity taken as a whole, with 7% less movement carried out overall. This was massive, as inactivity could lead to an increase in health and mobility problems and was at a huge cost to the economy, with more stress placed on health services as a result.

The main principle that the Get Moving Strategy aimed to communicate, was the health benefits it would give to people in all areas of society, of any age, any background. Sport of any description brought huge benefits to a person’s life, and to their well-being.

Focus needed to be placed on targeting communities and those individuals most in need of support, and the strategy was looking at families with young children, people living in the most deprived areas, and people facing mobility issues. Many things made people inactive and it was a challenge to promote change and encourage new ways of living.

However, it was acknowledged that whilst the ideas were in place, without the systems to support the strategy, no change would take place. The aim of the strategy, officers informed the Board was now to work with the Health and Well Being Board to unlock behaviours and influence those to bring about change.

Members discussed the ideas presented to them and it was acknowledged that it was important that all partners across Team Doncaster worked together to unlock behaviours and influence discussions.

Members welcomed the update from Officers, and all members of the Board were in agreement with regard to the benefits of sport and activity and a number of ideas were put forward in terms of how the Board could support this moving forward:-

·         Support for Community Groups to enable them to operate in church or community halls providing dance or exercise;

·         Make use of any funding streams to support such groups as detailed above;

·         Talk to the Parish Councils and local communities to see what facilities they wanted or felt would be useful;

·         Help local sports clubs and groups ensure their facilities were coved secure to enable them to operate successfully when restrictions were lifted;

·         All areas needed to work together in order that everyone was reading from the same page, and it was proposed that the strategy was taken to Directors for their consideration;

Members thanks officers for their presentation, and a lot of useful information had been provided which enabled a strong foundation on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

This item was withdrawn from the Agenda, and would be brought for consideration at the next meeting of the Health and Well Being Board following final approval.

This item was withdrawn from the Agenda, and would be brought for consideration at the next meeting of the Health and Well Being Board following final approval.