Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest on this occasion.

None received.

Resolved – That the minutes of the previous meeting be agreed and signed as an accurate record.

May 2024 - Quarterly Data Update

The quarterly data had been included with the agenda pack for information.

Resolved – That the quarterly data be noted.

The Board received a report from Tony Bullock on the healthy weight priority and the progress made to date.

The pandemic had brought into focus the importance of healthy weight, and ‘Better Health Staffordshire’ had been established to take a ‘whole systems approach’ to tackling obesity and encouraging healthy weight across the county.

A county wide partnership was now well established, with around 60 members representing different organisations to enable a multidisciplinary approach. Local partnerships at district/ borough level were being developed, using existing partnership structures where possible. Pathfinders had been established in Cannock, East Staffordshire and Staffordshire Moorlands.

The issue and prevalence of excess weight meant a long-term strategic approach would be required, as with the approach taken to tobacco smoking, and it was too early in the programme to see an impact on metrics.

A series of projects were underway as listed in the appendix. The main goals for 2024/25 had been identified as:

•       Continuing to roll out local partnerships

•       Developing a digital platform

•       Supporting the development of healthier school meals.

Councillor Sutton asked what was being done in relation to the prevalence of ultra processed foods and obesity levels in primary school aged children. Tony responded to say education around ultra processed foods was being addressed through the partnership, with a series of digital campaigns and education through schools aimed at raising awareness and helping people to make informed choices. The development of a digital platform should help with this. Work on school meals would also include education and there had been increased funding for a specialist child weight service to help address childhood obesity rates.

Phil Pusey recalled the national health warnings that had been used to tackle the prevalence of smoking and asked if this national level approach was currently lacking for supporting the local approach to addressing obesity. Tony Bullock responded to say proposals for national health campaigns hadn’t yet come to fruition and local agencies were encouraged to help lobby central government to make a change.

Neelam Bhardwaja commented on a recent report from the World Health Organisation which had identified alcohol, processed food, lack of exercise and smoking as the four main factors affecting the health of the population across the world and questioned whether local authorities could make use of their licensing powers for local outlets to help tackle the issue. Tony Bullock and Claire McIver explained the difficulties in addressing this through licensing schemes, because health was not a licensing objective in England. However, work was underway with local authorities to embed health into local plans to ensure health was considered as part of all policies and strategies and Claire McIver offered to provide a future update on ‘Health in Everything We do’.

Resolved – That the Board (a) notes the progress made on the Better Health Staffordshire programme; and

(b) continue to encourage organisations to support the programme.

Claire McIver introduced the new interactive online Staffordshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) dashboard, which had been developed in partnership with Staffordshire County Council, Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Integrated Care Board, Healthwatch and the District and Borough Councils, to provide an overview of the health and wellbeing needs of the population. A summary interpretation document had also been provided, summarising the data in the dashboard.

The dashboard had been created using ‘Power BI’, an automated digital tool which would pull through the latest data, to provide easily accessible up-to-date data and intelligence at different levels (e.g. county, district/borough, primary care network), enabling people to be self-serving with their data needs.

Emma Sandbach provided a demonstration of the dashboard in its draft stage and the Board were asked to consider and review the content covered, such as the language and descriptions, format of the data and the selection of indicators.

The Board were shown that the dashboard contained four chapters:

•       Population

•       Children and Young People

•       Working Age Adults

•       Aging Well

Each chapter of the dashboard contained data for a range of indicators, and a combination of graphs and tables to show trends and comparisons to regional and national statistics. The indicators included on the dashboard had been agreed through steering groups with partners and council directorates.

Councillor Sutton queried why the data came from four different Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) areas given they had been replaced by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). Emma explained this was partly due to the lag in data being published, but also because the CCG data provided a more localised picture, and when published, the IBC data will include Stoke.

Councillor Sutton asked what the criteria had been for selecting the indicators per topic and asked for reassurance that difficult issues hadn’t been overlooked or hidden. There had been a steering group for each chapter of the tool with representatives from a range of partners with differing interests which had ensured that a wide range of indicators had been included. Unfortunately robust data was not always available for all issues, but the dashboard could incorporate new measures as and when data became available and would be adapted iteratively over time.

Dr Rachel Gallyot suggested data relating to cardiovascular health and blood pressure may be useful in relation to long-term conditions such as diabetes. Neelam Bhardwaja suggested the inclusion of more data in relation to children and SEND.

It was intended that the next phase of the development of the product would be to provide in-depth analysis on specific topics or population groups, and to develop district profiles.

Questions were raised in relation to how partners would use the information, particularly district and borough councils, as the tool could be useful for planning considerations for addressing health inequalities. Emma was engaging with district and borough councils to help promote the tool and further promotion would be undertaken once the product was live. It was hoped that by using an automated product where data  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Board received a report from Ian Vinall, Independent Chair and Scrutineer, on the Staffordshire Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) Annual Report 2022/23, which set out the progress made by the partnership between 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023.

The SSCB was required to report annually on the progress made by the three statutory safeguarding partners, to provide a transparent and public account of the work of the partnership.

Ian Vinall provided an update on the current position for safeguarding arrangements and the partnership, referring to Working Together 2023 which had been published in December. It was explained that this placed a different perspective in relation to safeguarding arrangements and would require changes in Staffordshire, particularly in relation to the roles of the chief officers as well as the removal of an independent chairperson. An updated annual report was required by September 2024 for the Department of Education and the priorities of the safeguarding partnership would need to be refreshed.

For 2022/23, the main priorities for the SSCB had focussed on neglect and quality assurance priorities including child exploitation; domestic abuse; and early help. A series of independent scrutiny reviews had been undertaken focussing on the multiagency safeguarding arrangements and ensuring that the voices of children and young people were heard and understood. Ian Vinall felt that true engagement with young people had remained a challenge for the partnership but would be addressed through the plans for future arrangements. As part of the existing arrangements, the Chair of the Board and other partnership chairs had met as a strategic group to look at shared priorities, understand challenges and discuss opportunities for joint working. The report highlighted the successes and barriers, and Ian was confident the involvement of chief officers in future arrangements would make a significant difference in addressing former challenges.

Sharon Conlon, Associate Director for Safeguarding at Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent ICB, provided an update on behalf of health, commenting on the focus to strengthen arrangements for health organisations to act as one health voice.

Colin Mattinson, Chief Superintendent for the Public Protection Unit in Staffordshire, provided an update on behalf of the Police. It was reported that the Force had recently moved out of the ‘Engage’ stage and were now in a much better position to provide child protection following increased training and investment. By November 2024 there was due to be an increase of 99 officers, which would contribute to a significant increase in resource for public protection. There was also a new violence reduction team in the county, co-located with the criminal exploitation team to work together to tackle the issue of child exploitation, and frontline vulnerability training had been delivered to 1200 police officers.

Neelam Bhardwaja, Director for Children and Families, provided an update on behalf of Staffordshire County Council, informing the Board that the requirement to evidence the involvement of education in the new partnership arrangements was under consideration, given the range of academies, trusts and free schools. She also highlighted the need  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Board received a presentation from Lisa Cope, the Right Care Right Person (RCRP) Business Lead, providing an update on the Right Care, Right Person programme which comprised 4 phases.

Phase 1 had gone live in February and was focussed on concern for welfare calls for healthcare facilities and was now in a period of stabilisation. Concern for welfare calls had reduced by 35% on average, in line with predictions. Calls from the public mainly related to mental health or welfare of a relative or neighbour. The number of incidents resourced had dropped from 79% to 55%, but a number of factors were taken into consideration, with significant risk to life/ harm or risk to an individual being prioritised. Over 4000 concern for welfare calls had been recorded since go live to the end of April. A Power BI product was being developed to map demand and identify signposting demand for partners. This would be shared with partners.

37 forces had gone live with phase 1 and a post implementation review was expected in November.

In Staffordshire, it had been decided that the same principles for Right Care Right Person would be applied to adults and children and young people. Nationally there had been substantial consultation with the Local Government Association, the association for children services and the association for police and crime commissioners, to agree the principles for RCRP for children. The pre-election period had delayed publication but would be applied to Staffordshire once published.

Phase 2 was concern for welfare and walkouts from mental health facilities and had gone live on 4th June. Although only 1 week in, as it was an extension to phase 1 and had been codesigned with mental health transformational leads across the partnership, phase 2 seemed to be going well. A closure report following the go live of phase 1 and 2 was expected to take place in July.

There had been changes to the governance of the RCRP, with a new RCRP strategic partnership board and revised terms of reference, in recognition of the need for cohesion with existing transformation works across the ICB, health and local authorities for phases 3 and 4. This had met for the first time yesterday and had been well attended by partners.

Phase 3 was due to start in August and related to transportation and conveyancing and phase 4 was about management of mental health incidents and scheduled for November. The partnership activities involved in phase 3 and 4 were outlined. Local escalation protocols were being reviewed to reduce the time spent under the care of the police, mechanisms to support data collection and sharing across agencies were being established and multiagency training was being developed. Representation from the voluntary sector, including ‘Expert Citizens’, would be involved to represent the lived experience of complex multiagency systems.

Councillor Sutton invited partners to share their perspectives of the RCRP project. There were no concerns raised from the implementation so far and partners reported it generally seemed to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Board received the Staffordshire Health and Wellbeing Board Forward Plan for 2024/25 and were provided with an update on the items scheduled for future meetings.

Items for the September meeting were noted as follows, subject to further discussion:

•       Health in Early Life Priority Progress Update

•       Public Engagement – Healthwatch

•       Better Care Fund

•       Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy – General Review

•       Integrated Care System/ Integrated Care Board Status Update – Annual Report

•       DPH report – workforce and aging

•       Health in all policies

•       RCRP – phase 1 and phase 2 update

The Chair gave thanks to Neelam Bhardwaja for her work at SCC and support to the HWBB.

Resolved – That the Forward Plan for 2024/25 be noted.