Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor P Brindley, County Councillor T Jay and Mr Rob Barnes, Executive Director, Communities.  The Chair reported that Councillor D Maycock had given apologies for his later arrival to the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2021 were approved as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor J Harper and seconded by Councillor R Rogers)

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair reported that there would be a Voluntary Sector Members seminar, organised by the Assistant Director Partnerships and the Community Partnerships Manager, to which all Councillors had been invited on 20^th October 2021.  The Chair further reported that the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust had restarted its engagement process on the services previously provided at the George Bryan Centre and the Chair encouraged members as well as members of the public to consider this.

(To receive an update from representatives of the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust)

The Chair welcomed the guests who were attending this meeting from Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT); Upkar Jheeta, Head of Primary Care Development & MH Programme Lead (South Staffordshire) and Susan Unwin, Consultant Nurse and Approved Clinician, as well as Karen Clancy, the Council’s Community Partnerships Manager. 

Councillor D Maycock arrived at 6.22pm.

The Committee considered the NHS Community Mental Health Transformation video and further received an overview of the presentation from MPFT with a focus on:

·       The plans to create integrated neighbourhood teams, in this area covering Burntwood, Lichfield and Tamworth, which would form relationships with local partners and work to identify any gaps in local services where funding could be focussed;

·       The work with partners to empower people with autism to remain independent and to prevent avoidable hospital admissions;

·       The work to ensure mental health teams would be in all A&E hospitals (Core 24) with the specialisms required to address mental as well as physical conditions.  Therefore it was reported that at Burton hospital there would be a 24 hour, 7 days a week mental health component which would work in tandem with the physical health team, to support people who presented at A&E in crisis to carry out in depth assessment to make sure that patients would receive rapid access to the correct treatment;

·       The work on the pathway which would look at the social barriers following a discharge from hospital and to support patients with their integration back into the community through the support of a recovery worker.  This could also include the provision of a communication device.  These services were reported to be very broad and flexible, and could support with shopping and reconnecting essential services as well as provision of meals and appliances, and would be tailored to the individuals needs to support them to overcome any barriers following discharge from hospital;

·       MPFT reported that additional resources were being focussed to provide support to individuals through a service known as Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) which was a self-referred service for individuals who could need support through counselling with issues surrounding anxiety, bereavement, stress and depression.  It was highlighted that there was no requirement for a referral from a GP for individuals to access this service.

The Committee sought and received clarifications in the following areas from the Head of Primary Care Development:

·       The importance of partnership working to the success of this transformation process in order to assist health providers in communication with marginalised communities and then working with partners locally who had access with such communities.

·       The value of providing a communications device to relevant individuals to support their recovery and reintegration locally and to minimise any relapses on discharge from hospital.

·       The Head of Primary Care Development confirmed that this was a three year transformational programme where services would be co-produced and co-designed and services would evolve.

·       The extent to which services were provided locally and the importance of that local provision and that provision of services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

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

None

(Discussion item)

None.

(To receive the Digest from Staffordshire County Council’s Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee and an update from County Councillor T Jay)

The Committee received the Staffordshire County Council Digest of the July and August Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings and the Chair provided a verbal update from the meeting held on 20^th September 2021 which considered the following matters:

·       Transforming Urgent and Emergency Care update;

·       Difficult Decisions update

·       COVID Vaccination update.

Please see the link to the Forward Plan:

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

No additional items from the Forward Plan were identified which were not already captured on the Committee’s work plan.

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

It was noted that the bi-annual updates on safeguarding had been added to the work plan and the Work Plan updated as follows:

Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Work Plan