Agenda and draft minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made at the meeting.

No questions had been received in advance of the meeting and there were no members of the public or press in attendance at the meeting.

There were no communications to report.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 10th June 2026.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 10th June, 2026, be approved as a true record.

Denise Littlewood, Health Protection Principal, to present the Health Protection Annual Report, including health protection assurance framework

Denise Cornwall, Health Protection Principal, presented the Health Protection assurance report which provided a summary of the assurance functions of the Council’s Health Protection Committee together with performance.

The Board considered the following PowerPoint presentation:-

Health Protection Committee Role

-        Provided assurance that arrangements were in place to protect population health

-        Multi-agency partnership involving the Council, NHS, UKHSA and other partners

-        Oversaw prevention, surveillance, preparedness and response to health threats

-        Reported directly to the Health and Wellbeing Board

Key Health Protection Activity 2025/26

-        Infectious disease surveillance and outbreak management

-        Legionella outbreak investigation

-        Support for complex tuberculosis cases

-        Infection prevention and control support to care homes and learning disability settings

-        Ongoing management of incidents in schools, Early Years and residential care settings

Screening Programme Highlights

-        Antenatal and newborn screening meet all key Performance Indicators

-        Breast screening uptake improved to 75.5%

-        Bowel screening uptake remained above national achievable standard (>60%)

-        Continued focus on improving cervical screening uptake particularly ages 25-49

-        Strong focus on reducing inequalities and improving access for people with learning disabilities and severe mental illness.

Immunisation and Vaccination Highlights

-        Childhood vaccination coverage remained above efficiency standards.

-        Continued improvement in MMR uptake.

-        RSV vaccination programme successfully embedded.

-        Increased flu vaccine uptake across most eligible groups.

-        Adolescent vaccination programmes continued to recover post-pandemic.

Healthcare Associated Infections and TB

-        Healthcare Associated Infections

Significant reduction in C.difficile cases

MRSA remained low (5 community cases)

Ongoing antimicrobial stewardship programme

Continued focus on reducing gram-negative bloodstream infections

-        Tuberculosis

Rotherham remained a low-incidence area

Cases often involved complex social and health needs

Enhanced case management and targeted screening continued

Emergency Planning and Environmental Health

-      Emergency Preparedness

Refreshed incident management arrangements implemented

Participation in national pandemic Exercise PEGASUS

Effective response to severe weather and flooding incidents

-      Environmental Health

10,763 service requests managed

841 food hygiene inspections completed

140 housing enforcement notices issued

89 infectious disease investigations undertaken

Priorities for 2026/27

-        Strengthen infectious disease surveillance

-        Increase screening uptake and reduce inequalities

-        Improve vaccination coverage

-        Reduce healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance

-        Strengthen TB prevention and control

-        Enhance IPC support n care settings

-        Maintain emergency preparedness and resilience

-        Protect health through Environmental Health Services

-        Continue Health Protection Committee development and assurance

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·       Comparing outbreak data to previous years was not possible as 2025/26 was the first time the data had been collated in this way. However there was no great difference in the figures.

·       The Service was working closely with the housing provider to address the Legionella cases. Work continued to treat the system and a deadline of the end of September 2026 had been set, by which point, a long term action plan was expected to be in place. It was confirmed that residents in the building were being protected.

·       The auditing of Learning Disability settings was a positive step. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Jo Martin, Programme Lead – Transformation and Delivery, to present an update on the Neighbourhood Working Programme

Jo Martin, Programme Lead, Transformation and Delivery, presented an update on the Neighbourhood Working Programme

Significant progress had been made in moving from ambition and programme development towards implementation. A multi-agency Healthy Neighbourhoods Steering Group had been established, providing a mechanism for partners to collectively develop the Programme, with strategic oversight through the Rotherham Place Board.

Rotherham had also invested in a dedicated Place Team to provide the capacity required to support transformation and delivery across the partnership. The Team would work across organisational boundaries, supporting co-ordination, integration and delivery of Healthy Neighbourhoods alongside the wider Place priorities.

The following PowerPoint presentation was given:-

Healthy Neighbourhoods Rotherham – From Ambition to Delivery

Our approach to delivering more preventative, integrated and joined-up care around Rotherham’s communities

Why Neighbourhood Health

-        From – Service organised around organisations

People navigating multiple services

Fragmented support

Responding when needs escalate

-        To – services working together around people and communities

Earlier, proactive support

More joined-up care

Better use of community strengths

Care closer to home

Our Rotherham Approach – supporting people across the whole journey, from staying well to living with complex needs

-        Prevention – helping people stay well

-        Rising Risk – identifying need earlier

-        Complex Need – Joined-up support when needs were the greatest

Four neighbourhoods agreed for Rotherham

-        A common footprint for partners to work around

-        Built around whole electoral Wards and population need

-        Designed to support sustainable integrated neighbourhood teams

-        Balanced population need and inequalities across the 4 neighbourhoods

-        Recognised existing service relationships whilst enabling wider partnership working

-        The geography enabled neighbourhood working – it did not determine how every service must be delivered

Putting the foundations into place

-        Established system leadership

-        Agreed our delivery footprint

-        Developed our approach

-        Agreed year 1 priority

-        Invested in delivery capacity

-        Moving into delivery

Year 1 Roadmap – Design, Test, Learn and Scale

-        Design – develop the Strategy

-        Test – test neighbourhood delivery

-        Learn – learn and improve

-        Scale – prepare for Year 2 implementation

What will success look like

-        Stay well for longer – more focus on prevention for healthy communities

-        Get help earlier – support before needs escalate to crisis

-        Experienced joined-up care – less fragmentation between organisations

-        Remain independent – supporting people to live well in their own homes and communities

-        Receive care closer to home – where it is safe and appropriate to do so

-        Reduce inequalities – using insight to focus support where need was the greatest

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·       The challenge in bringing this Programme together was noted. The boundaries had been based on calculations and analysis but now needed to be tested.

·       Concerns raised that children and young people were not a focus of this Programme.  Board members asked that children’s mental health and families be included.

·       It was important to start on a small, focussed area (such as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Ameilia Thorp, Public Health Specialist, to present an update on the progress of the Tobacco Control Programme

Ameilia Thorp, Public Health Specialist, presented an update on the progress of the Tobacco Control Programme with the aid of the following PowerPoint presentation:-

Why prioritise tobacco control

-        Smoking was the leading cause of preventable death and ill health in Rotherham and England

-        Smoking rates in Rotherham continued to be higher than national rates (13.5% compared to 10.4%)

-        Biggest contributor to health inequalities

-        Rotherham had worse outcomes than England on some indicators used to monitor the impact of smoking on population health

Smoking Prevalence

Quit for Good – April, 2025-March, 2026

-        1,754 people set a quit date

-        1,212 people successfully quit

-        6^th highest successful quit rate out of 153 authorities in England (69%)

-        Highest number of people setting a quit date resulting in the highest number of successful quits since 2016-17

Work Plan:

Strategy and Coordination

-      Actions within the ‘Strategy and Coordination’ priority area have remained on track, with quarterly Tobacco Control Steering Group meetings continuing to bring partners together to oversee delivery of the Work Plan. Local data is also regularly updated, analysed and reported through appropriate channels to inform priority setting and the planning of tobacco control activity.

Community Stop Smoking Service

-        Personalised quit plans

-        In-person and virtual options

-        Medications to support quitting

-        Nicotine replacement therapy

-        Support groups in community venues across the Borough

-        Vape starter kits

Smoking in Pregnancy Service

-        Highest successful quit rate recorded, 91% of people setting a quit date successfully stopping smoking

-        Smoking prevalence in pregnancy had reduced over time

-        Supporting people to quit increasingly required intensive, personalised and sustained interventions due to increased likelihood of complex needs

-        Improved quit outcomes highlighted effective support for pregnant smokers with complex needs

Reducing variation

-        Local enhanced service

Expanded support into Primary Care

Supported 388 people (2025-26)

-        Strengthened referral pathways

Very Brief Advice (VBA) training delivered to Tenancy Support Team

Plans to expand this over the coming year into other housing and health services

-        Cardio Vascular Disease workplace health checks

Opportunity to reach manual workers

1,875 health checks completed since 2025

Enforcement

-        Key achievements in 2025-26

Permanent Trading Standards Manager now in post

New reporting pathway established for schools to report vaping and underage sales concerns

-        Progress had been challenging due to limited Trading Standards capacity creating risks to delivery of this priority

-        Proposal developed to outline investment required to fully resource Trading Standards within RMBC

-        Tackling illicit products support

Reduced smoking and vaping uptake among children and young people

Protection from unsafe and unregulated products

Community safety and safeguarding

Disruption of organised criminal activity

Stop the Start: Campaigns

-        Continued membership of Breathe (Yorkshire and Humber Collaborative) and the South Yorkshire Tobacco Control Alliance

-        Supported the delivery of 2 regional stop smoking campaigns

-        Yorkshire and Humber campaign  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Katy Lewis, Carers Strategy Manager, to provide an update on the Carers Strategy and Programme

Katy Lewis, Carers Strategy Manager, presented an update on progress during the first quarter of the Strategy’s implementation.

The following presentation provided an overview of the launch of the Strategy and the co-design process undertaken with partner organisations to identify key actions as well as an update on the progress of Carers Connect, the new digital tool for carers funded by the Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF):-

Launch Event 9^th June, 2026

-        84 attendees with 16 market place stalls hosted by partner organisations

-        Target audience of colleagues in voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, Adult Social Care and frontline health professionals to champion the Strategy and Carer Connect

Care Connect Rotherham – Carer Connect and AI Assistant - Robin

-        No need to fill in a form, search the web or wait for call centre staff

-        Everyone’s situation is unique so just ask your question your way

-        Does not matter if there were spelling mistakes

-        If it was not clear Robin will ask you a clarification question

-        If knowing where you are caring for someone, advisor will ask for an area or postcode

-        Responses were immediate

-        Carers could pick up the conversation again at any point

-        The advisors would also keep in contact

Keeping in touch with Carers

Scheduled messaging spanning 18 weeks from first communication

-        South Yorkshire carers said they would benefit from this messaging and wanted it – they also had the ability to opt out

-        Enabling and driving an ongoing conversation with carers

-        Being able to proactively promote services e.g. Respite, local events, information etc.

-        Promoting carer wellbeing

-        Better understanding of what carers wanted from South Yorkshire services

-        Ability to broadcast messages to carers as a one-off message in development

-        Keep in touch with carers that do not use social media

Communication Plan

-        Multi-channel communications campaign

-        To raise awareness and encourage engagement

-        Social media and newsletter

-        Storytelling featuring a carer and an Elected Member

-        Complemented by targeted media engagement including press releases for local media

Social Media

-        Activity focused on increasing awareness and understanding of Carer Connect

-        Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn

-        Views – 30.6k

-        Reach – 134k

-        Link clicks – 135

-        Comments and likes – 74

Newsletter

-        Rotherham Roundup e-newsletter

-        Reached over 10,000 subscribers

-        Generated 31 clicks to Carer Connect webpage

Media Coverage

-        Targeted media engagement secured The Star and Rotherham Advertiser

-        Additional coverage secured through BBC Radio Sheffield

First Quarter 2026/27 Update

Internal Activity

-        Improving advice, information and guidance to increase the AI Assistant’s navigation ability

-        Linking the CQC Improvement Action Planning with the Carers Strategy objectives

Partner Activity

-        RDaSH improved carer identification processes and employee support

-        TRFT improved carer identification and access to advice, information and guidance

-        Family Action improved young carer identification, producing a toolkit for professionals

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·        The innovation was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Oscar Holden, Health and Wellbeing Board Support Officer, to present the Board’s refreshed Terms of Reference

Oscar Holden, Health and Wellbeing Board Support Officer, presented the Board’s Terms of Reference for its annual report to support the effective delivery of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025-30.  The Terms of Reference had been updated following a review of governance arrangements and incorporated:-

·        Amendments to Board membership

·        Leadership arrangements

·        Quorum requirements

·        Review dates

·        Supporting documentation

Membership had been refreshed to reflect current Partnership priorities.  Key changes included:-

·        Addition of a South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Alliance representative

·        Addition of a Citizens Advice Rotherham and District representative

·        Removal of the Healthwatch representative

·        Amendment of the Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust representative from Chief Executive to Director of Strategic Development

·        Amendment of attendance arrangements relating to senior Council representation

Governance and operational working had been updated to reflect current arrangements including references to the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Strategy, partnership reporting arrangements and Board responsibilities. The separate Memorandum of Understanding relating to Board Sponsors contained within the previous version had also been removed from the revised Terms of Reference document.

Changes to the leadership arrangements included the removal of the named Vice-Chair position held by the Rotherham Place Medical Director.  During the meeting it was confirmed that Shafiq Hussain, Chief Executive of Voluntary Action Rotherham, had been confirmed as the new Vice-Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The previous quorum requirement for both a RMBC and Integrated Care Board representative to be present at a Board meeting had been replaced with the requirements for at least one RMBC representative to be present for the meeting to be quorate.

The Terms of Reference detailed:-

·        The role of the Health and Wellbeing Board

·        Responsibilities

·        Expectations of the Health and Wellbeing Board Member

·        Membership

·        Governance

·        Quorum

·        Meeting arrangements

·        Engaging with the public and providers

The next review would be scheduled for September 2027.

Resolved: (1)  That the amendments made to the Terms of Reference since the previous review be approved.

(2)  That the implementation of the revised governance and membership arrangements be supported.

(3)  That the next formal review of the Terms of Reference take place in September 2027.

There were no items to discuss.

Steph Watt, Health and Care Portfolio Lead, SYICB/RMBC, to present the Better Care Fund (BCF) Call-Off Partnership/Work Order 2026-27

It was noted that the Council and the NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board had jointly developed the Better Care Fund Call-Off Partnership Agreement and Work Order for 2026/27.

The Agreement reflected the requirements of the national Better Care Fund Framework, supported local health and care priorities and set out the governance, financial and commissioning arrangements required to deliver integrated Health and Social Care Services in Rotherham.

Resolved:-   That the Better Care Fund (BCF) Call-Off Partnership/Work Order for 2026/27 be approved.

Minutes of the meeting held on 20^th May, 17^th June and 15^th July, 2026

The minutes of the Rotherham Place Board Partnership Business meetings held on 20^th May, 17^th June and 15^th July, 2026, were noted.

Health Hub Consultation

Gilly Brenner, Public Health Consultant, informed the Board that the Town Centre Health Hub Phase 2 consultation was now open and would run until 28 September 2026. She encouraged all to take part and confirmed that the Health and Wellbeing Support Officer would circulate further information on this matter after the meeting.