Agenda and minutes

Venue: Microsoft Teams - Virtual Meeting. View directions

Contact: Jonathan Goodrum, Senior Governance Officer  Email: jonathan.goodrum@doncaster.gov.uk

Link: click here to view the audio visual recording of the meeting

Items
No. Item

31.

Announcement by Chair and Minutes Silence

Minutes:

The Chair informed the Board of the very sad news of the death of Councillor Nuala Fennelly, Cabinet Member for Schools, Children and Young People after a short illness.

 

The Health and Well Being Board observed a minute of silence and reflection in respect for their colleague and friend.

 

32.

Welcome, introductions and apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for the meeting were received from, the Vice Chair, Dr David Crichton, Councillor Cynthia Ransome, Dave Richmond and Mel Palin.

 

The Chair asked everyone to introduce themselves in order to ensure anyone new to the meeting were familiar with people speaking.

 

33.

Chair's Announcements.

Minutes:

The Chair informed the Board that the Government White Paper from the Department of Health & Social Care “Integration and Innovation – Working together to improve health and social care for all’’ was published on the 11th February, 2021.  Members noted that the White Paper set out a number of legislative changes for the new Health and Care bill. There would be a lot of work for health colleagues to undertake in order to adopt the changes and ensure these were in place by April 2022 and the Board would also be  involved in these developments to ensure there were positive outcomes for Doncaster people with a support system in place to provide high quality health and social care.

 

It was proposed that this be put on the Boards Forward Plan as it would feed into 2 key products (Health and Well Being Strategy and the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment),  that the Board was responsible for and a paper be received in June for proposals to refresh these documents.

 

34.

Public questions.

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

 

Minutes:

There were no public questions asked at the meeting.

35.

Declarations of Interest, if any.

Minutes:

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

36.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board held on 14th January 2021 pdf icon PDF 213 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Health and Well Being Board held on 14 January, 2021, be approved as a true record.

37.

Direct Impacts of COVID-19 pdf icon PDF 98 KB

Minutes:

Dr Rupert Suckling updated the Board with regard to how Doncaster was faring with regard to the Covid-19 Pandemic, since the last meeting in January. At that meeting, the Country had just entered into its third national lockdown and figures in Doncaster had hovered at around 300/100,000 and over 100 patients in acute care in hospital. Two months on, figures had drastically reduced, and were now at 100/100,000 and more importantly, below 50/100,000 in the over 50s. This was testament to the hard work of Doncaster people in driving this back down by keeping to the rules.

 

Additionally, it was noted that the Vaccine Campaign was now increasing at a positive rate with 100,000 residents in Doncaster vaccinated which equated to approximately a third of its population and they were well on course to meet their targets. Moving forward, it was hoped that in early April, some Pharmacies would be set to administer the vaccines which would further boost the campaign and there was an ongoing effort borough wide to encourage people to take up their vaccines in the fight against Covid.

 

This week, the Board noted had seen the first step on the Governments Road Map, with children returning to schools all across the Country which was positive for children and young people across the Borough. Additionally, rules on visiting care homes had been amended, and now one nominated individual could visit an elderly relative and in fact hold hands with them, giving the closer links that many yearned for.

 

It was noted as a concern however that despite all the positive work being undertaken and their now ebbing a glimmer of hope at the end of a bleak period, there was still a huge impact being had on social isolation and mental health and support was needed to support this area which a would be effected for a long time to come.

 

The Chair thanked officers for the update and thanked the people across Doncaster who had all contributed in supporting the efforts, and was positive to see the number of people playing their part.

 

            RESOLVED that the Health and Well Being Board noted the update provided.

 

38.

Carers Update pdf icon PDF 289 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board received a presentation from Geoffrey Johnson, the Chair of the Carers Oversight Board, with support from Angela Waite, DMBC and Kay Kirk, All Action Carers Group. The presentation provided a wealth of information to the Board with regard to the experiences of carers in Doncaster whose health and well-being was being impacted upon as a result of caring for one or more family members. This was relevant now, more than ever with the additional impact of Covid.

 

The Presentation was well received and offered the Board some meaningful insights and information. A wide discussion was held on the issues raised within the presentation as it had been both very powerful and thought provoking for all members of the Board. There had been some very personal experiences recounted that allowed the board to hear first-hand how hard the life of a carer could be and the impact it had on a person’s emotional, physical and mental well-being and with this in mind, they were asked to support the Carer’s Charter. It was acknowledged that this was an opportunity for the Board to do something very positive for carers, but there was still work to be done moving forward in ensuring that Carers were a very important group of people who could not be ignored and who needed a great deal of support.

 

RESOLVED that:-

 

·         A meeting be arranged with the Director of Nursing at DBTH to ensure they were happy with the content contained within the Carers Charter;

 

·         The Board agreed to support the Charter in principle, but acknowledged there was still some work to do;

 

·         Work be undertaken to broaden the attendance of carers across Doncaster’s partnership Board’s and get the right representation at meetings in order to ensure they were well supported moving forward;

 

·         This item be discussed at the Carers Oversight Board in order to determine how Carers could hold the responsible authorities to account with regard to the support received; and

 

·         The link to the Carers Landing Page be circulated to Members of the Board.

 

 

 

39.

Doncaster Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 101 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Health and Well Being Board received the Doncaster Safeguarding Adults Board annual report which detailed the work in had undertaken during the past year to achieve its strategic objectives and how its partners safeguard adults at risk. The annual report also set out the findings of any Safeguarding Adults Reviews completed during the year and the lessons learnt.

 

After a very informative presentation, which incorporated a useful video, Members were invited to make any comments or put forward any questions to officers.

 

Members noted how many issues across children and adults cross cut, and in relation to this, it was noted that a more hint approach would be taken in the future.

 

A lot of lessons had been learnt during the course of the past year, and a lot of these would be taken forward. Death amongst young men had been a point of concern during this time and was an issue that would be looked at more as time went on to address causes and ways of dealing with this very troubling concern and its links.

 

The Keeping Safe Sub Group was noted as a positive move and a way of providing support to vulnerable adults providing someone to talk to and provide them with the tools to meet their needs. Vulnerable people needed to feel included and this group went a long way to achieving this and helped people see things in a different way.

 

One concern that Members of the Board voiced was that only 59% of those assisted by safeguarding felt safer after, and it was concerning that this figure was not higher. Officers reported that they would look into this and see how Doncaster compared with other local authorities.

 

Additionally, work would be undertaken to prevent further abuse reoccurring in the future after safeguarding intervention as this was put forward as a concern.

 

RESOLVED that:-

 

·         The report be noted;

 

·         The Multiagency activity be noted;

 

·         Work would be carried out to prevent abuse recurring in the future; and

 

·         A response be provided with regard why only 59% of people felt safer after intervention from abuse and how this compared to other areas.

 

40.

Doncaster Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 98 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Health and Well Being Board received the Doncaster Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report for 2019-20 for information.

 

The report received, Members noted was a very different report to those of the past, and moving forward into a new era, it would be the intention to produce a joint report with the Safeguarding Adults Partnership of which there was now a joint Chair due the wide number of areas that crossed over.

 

The past year had been challenging, and largely due to the effect of Covid-19, a number of obstacles had presented in working to continue with day-to-day work and the co-operation of families had been relied upon in maintaining contact and engagement. The impact of Covid-19 had been significant in relation to the volume of domestic abuse and in conjunction with Adults, the Keeping Safe Sub Group would work to capture the voice of the child and ensure greater support was in place.

 

Child Suicide was a very distressing and concerning issue that had become more prevalent over the course of the year with a number of people tragically taking their own lives, and it was increasingly important to address this and prevent issues of self-harm and suicide escalating further in the future.

 

Members noted that due to the Covid response, the report largely covered the period prior to the pandemic as there had been many challenges faced by the Trust after this point. Moving forward, the Trust was looking to further strengthen safeguarding arrangements and many lessons had been learnt over the past year that would lead to more joined up working in the future.

 

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

 

41.

Director of Public Health Annual Report 2020 pdf icon PDF 205 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Health and Well Being Board considered the 2020 Director of Public Health Annual Report. The report, which was the sixth Annual Report by Dr Suckling, detailed the course of the global COVID-19 pandemic in Doncaster and included an assessment of whether health was improving locally.  The report also demonstrated how the public health grant was being used locally, how the commissioned services had performed, and also identified the role of a new Borough Strategy to support the recovery and renewal of Doncaster.

 

The report identified the immediate lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic which included:-

 

  • Doncaster people, families, communities, businesses, groups and institutions, had all pulled together amazingly;

 

  • The importance of ‘key workers’;

 

  • Not everyone had been impacted equally with inequalities, poverty and isolation were highlighted;

 

  • Local knowledge was needed for many decisions, including the relaxing of the first national lockdown, the re-opening of Schools and return of elite sporting events;

 

  • Pandemic preparation should not be neglected; and

 

  • Health and the economy were intrinsically linked and the best way to address the pandemic was good for both health and the economy.

 

The report made the following five recommendations for Team Doncaster and its partners:-

 

  • Recognise, celebrate and support the role of ‘Key workers’ in the way Doncaster operated;

 

  • Develop and adopt a new Borough Strategy to spearhead recovery and renewal;

 

  • Continue to develop asset based, community centred approaches to health and wellbeing, working with and for communities;

 

  • Revitalise approaches to health inequalities, poverty and social exclusion; and

 

  • Learn the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to prepare for future public health emergencies in light of the creation of the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) following the review of Public Health England.

 

The Board discussed all the different aspects of the report that related to their areas and how moving forward they could put recommendations into practice. A lot of emphasis was placed on preventing illness in the first place and how this could be best addressed. The Board agreed that focusing on the work they could do together was the best place to start in driving the agenda forward.

 

 

RESOLVED that the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report for 2020, be noted.