Agenda item

Terri Roche, Director of Public Health, to present

Further to Minute No. 42 of the previous meeting, Terri Roche, Director of Public Health, presented an update on the progress being made in relation to the refresh of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy together with the full draft of the new 2018-2025 Strategy.

The 4 aims had been agreed at the November Board meeting with a number of minor suggestions made in terms of language and focus.  It had also been agreed that the new Strategy became a longer term document, in line with the Rotherham Together Partnership Plan, and set the strategic vision and direction for the Board over the next 7 years.  The Strategy’s main purpose was to strengthen the Board’s role in relation to high level assurance and holding partners to account as well as influencing commissioning across the health and social care system and wider determinants of health.

The aims contained within the Strategy were ambitious and would require a continued and dedicated focus on improving health and wellbeing outcomes across the Partnership.  Results would not be seen overnight but would ensure work at Board level could be focussed on the activity required to deliver the aims in an appropriate timescale.

It was the intention to develop an annual plan demonstrating what activity would be undertaken during that year, what success would look like and, following the first year, also include a progress report in relation to the activity undertaken in the previous year.

It was noted that the Strategy had been discussed at VCS ‘An Audience With’ session the previous day, copies of the questions/points raised were circulated for consideration.

To ensure proper alignment with the Strategy, it was noted that the refreshed Integrated Health and Social Care Place Plan would now be submitted to the Place Plan Board in April and the Health and Wellbeing Board in May.

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

Aim 1

·           Raised at the Health Select Commission and VCS that loneliness could affect all age groups and not just the elderly - should loneliness be in Aim 3 with a reference in Aim 1?

·           Focus on transition – make sure that transition from childhood to adulthood was referenced

·           Consideration to be given to loneliness and isolation with regard to children and internet/cyber bullying

·           Development work taking place on a Journey to Excellence Strategy for SEND children in Rotherham.  Clarity was still required as to what would sit within the HWB Strategy and the discreet Strategy for SEND children

·           Did the Aim focus too much on the child and not enough on the family?

·           What actions would be available to strengthen perinatal health and supporting young people into work?

-          Perinatal – multi-agency response required with effective anti-natal pathways, peer buddying.  Discuss at 0-19 Healthy Children Commissioning

-          Supporting young people into work – Bids within the Troubled Families Programme, NEETS in line with national average but need to increase the number of apprenticeships.  The Skills and Employment Sub-Group was working with the University looking at skills and employment strategies

·           The Strategy had been updated to emphasis the Voice of the Child as expressed by the Health Select Commission

·           Not enough work done to prepare those who were reaching the age of retirement for their journey out of work

Aim 2

·           Need to be more explicit with regard to suicide prevention?

·           Recognising the numbers of new mothers potentially at risk of perinatal mental health issues?

·           The number of young men who committed suicide who had not had any contact with any health services/GP

·           Change of language particularly with regard to Learning Disabled

·           Need for an explicit link with Primary Care with regard to physical care needs of people with several and enduring mental illness

·           Recently issued Prevention Concordat for Mental Health.  It was thought that there would be a direction from Public Health England that would look to Health and Wellbeing Boards to state how it was delivering on the Concordat

·           Inclusion of alcohol intake during pregnancy and links to Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Aim 3

·           Need to include Safeguarding

·           Promote independence

·           Very medically focussed

·           People needed to live in high quality housing accommodation (Aim 4)

·           Relating to both Aims 3 and 4, frontline staff needed to know what they could do to influence people’s housing – holistic assessments with housing considered as part of them and the housing duty captured within

·           Preparation for giving up work and living as well as you can

·           How to manage life transition points

·           End of life care – how to manage death in the most holistic way

·           Ageing well and what could be done to improve and influence the services available that could be accessed both short and long term

·           Ageing Well should be a separate Priority within the Aim

Aim 4

·           That Loneliness be included in Aim 4

·           No Theme leader as yet nor as detailed as the others due to the focus of the Aim having changed

·           This Aim cut across a number of strategies including the soon to be refreshed Housing Strategy and links to the Local Plan

·           Was this Aim just assurance that the strategies were maximising the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board?

·           Risk of duplication

·           Neighbourhood and building stronger communities was missing

·           Loneliness and isolation should be kept separate

·           Importance of physical activity

·           Inclusion of discrimination in the introduction?

·           Resilience should be addressed within the Priorities

Resolved:-  (1)  That the consultation responses and revised document be noted.

(2)  That with regard to Aim 2, the language in relation to “Learning Disabled” be updated to “people with learning disabilities”.

(3)  That with regard to Aim 3, Ageing Well become a focus across the Priority.

(4)  That with regard to Aim 4, Loneliness be included as a Priority within the Aim.

(5)  That Board Members receive a copy of the final report as soon as possible for consideration and endorsement by their respective organisations.

(6)  That Sara Watts, Bronwen Knight, Chris Siddall and Sam Barstow ensure that the priorities in Aim 4 were correct and the activity required picked up by the relevant strategies and plans identified.