Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Paul Brindley and Councillor John Wade.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 21^st April 2021 were approved as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor S Peaple and seconded by Councillor M Greatorex)

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair welcomed the new members of the Committee to the meeting and thanked the retiring members, and additionally noted that Councillor Daniel Maycock had been appointed as Vice-Chair of the Committee at the full Council meeting on 20^th May 2021.

The Chair reported that she had attended the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Councillor Briefing provided by the Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups on 16^th June 2021, which had provided an overview of the Staffordshire vaccination programme and to which all Borough councillors had been invited.

The Chair updated the Committee on the Young People working group follow up meeting with Officers organised by the Assistant Director, Partnerships, and which would be discussed further under the work plan item.  Whilst the focus of the working group had been on the impact of COVID-19, members reported that the initial scope had been intended to also include educational attainment levels in Tamworth, and this was something which could be further considered under the work plan item.

(Update on responses to the Reports of the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee)

No further recommendations from this Committee had been made to Cabinet since the Committee’s March meeting and therefore there was no update to report here.

(Discussion item)

The Chair reported that there had been no matters referred to this Committee by Cabinet or Council, other than the request for this Committee to consider the State of Tamworth Debate discussion as part of its work plans going forwards, which was considered later on the agenda.

(To receive the Staffordshire County Council Digest and an update from County Councillor T Jay)

The Chair reported that she had been appointed as a member of the County Health & Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and further reported that Staffordshire County Council appointed a member to this Committee for health related matters and that member is County Councillor Thomas Jay.  The first meeting of this municipal year of the Staffordshire Health & Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee met on 7 June and considered its work plan. 

The Chair invited County Councillor T Jay to provide an update to the Committee, including on any items covered by the Staffordshire County Council Health & Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee Digests for the meetings held on 16^th March and 7 June 2021.

County Councillor Jay reported that the meetings had covered:

1.     COVID-19 Vaccination programme update;

2.     Update on the Integrated Care System proposals;

3.     Care Homes for Older People.

The Committee sought further assurances that the integration of the health and care systems would lead to improvements for local residents and requested that this remained a focus area which members would feed into the Staffordshire County Council Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The Committee sought further clarification on how the targeted vaccination programme for homeless people had operated.

Please see the link to the Forward Plan:

http://democracy.tamworth.gov.uk/mgListPlans.aspx?RPId=120&RD=0&bcr=1

The Committee considered the Forward Plan and noted that:

·       Leisure Services item was due for Cabinet consideration on 29 July 2021

·       Homelessness and Allocations Policy update was due for Cabinet consideration on 8 July 2021

·       Tamworth Community Safety Partnership Plan which had been considered by the Infrastructure Safety and Growth Scrutiny Committee in March 2021 had been approved at Cabinet on 17^th June 2021.  It was highlighted that this Plan included areas related to mental health which this Committee could consider in its work plan discussion

·       Tamworth Community Grants item would be considered at Cabinet on 29 July 2021 and clarification was sought on whether there was any priority proposed for community groups with a health and wellbeing focus, such as peer lead support groups.

(Discussion item)

The Chair introduced this item and requested that members consider whether any of the discussion points at the State of Tamworth Debate should be developed further into work plan items for this Committee.

From the discussion, the main areas for consideration by this Committee were highlighted as:

·       Access to green and open spaces;

·       The voluntary sector;

·       Mental wellbeing, including ways of working post COVID

·       Homelessness;

·       Attainment and skills

It was agreed that these areas would be considered as part of the work plan item.

To consider items for 2021/22 Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee Work Plan

The Chair asked members, in light of the previous discussions, to consider the priorities for the Committee over the next 12 months.  Following discussion it was agreed that two major themes would form the main focus for the Committee, within which there could be more details topics identified:

1.     Mental wellbeing; and

2.     Homelessness

It was reported that the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT) was working on plans to transform community mental health services in Staffordshire to create a model working in partnership with primary care, local authorities, and the voluntary sector.  As part of this work the MPFT was looking to understand health inequalities in Tamworth and was looking to engage with a wide range of key stakeholders including members of the community, service users with lived experience and voluntary groups to help develop pathways to community mental health services.  The Assistant Director Partnerships and representatives of MPFT would like to join the July Committee meeting to share further details of the work and how stakeholders could be engaged in the process.

The Committee noted that the County work plan would need to be reviewed to understand when items were to be considered at the County Committee to ensure that any coordination was managed, and unnecessary duplication avoided. There were likely to be some topics identified by this Committee which were of Staffordshire wide relevance, and where appropriate these items could be recorded and highlighted by the Chair and the County Councillors member to County.

The Committee noted that the Council had signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant some years ago and that it could be appropriate to consider the formation of a working group to review the implementation of the covenant and whether any further work in this area was required.

The Committee agreed that the Work Plan be updated to reflect the discussions of the Committee and with the oversight of the Chair.  It was agreed that representative of the MPFT and the Assistant Director, Partnership be invited to the next meeting to provide an overview of the work on community mental health pathways, as part of the Mental Wellbeing theme.

The updated Work Plan is as follows:

Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Work Plan