Presentation by Board Sponsors
Minutes:
Consideration was given to a presentation in respect of progress associated with Aim 3 of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy which was presented by the Chief Executive of Rotherham MBC on behalf of the Council and TRFT. The two key priorities comprising Aim 3 were described in the presentation:
• Ensure support is in place for carers.
• Support local people to lead healthy lifestyles, including reducing the health burden from tobacco, obesity and drugs and alcohol.
In regard to Priority 1, to ensure support is in place for carers, progress was described. The Borough That Cares Strategic Framework had been agreed by the Health and Wellbeing Board in September of last year and formally launched on Carers Rights Day in November 2022. The strategy set out the vision that was to guide partnership approaches in the work to ensure that carers in Rotherham stay mentally and physically healthy, and economically active, for longer. Underpinning the strategy was a three-year roadmap, with each year grounded in a specific area of focus: creating carer cornerstones in year one (22/23), creating communities of support in year two (23/24), and solidifying a carer friendly borough in year three (24/25) and beyond.
To ensure Carers were supported when they have a breakdown in care through delivery of Carers emergency services,this service was commissioned by the Council. The service provided emergency care and support in situations when the unpaid carer becomes incapacitated and are unable to fulfil their role. This service aimed to provide interim cover to prevent admission to residential care and support people to remain at home.
Progress was also described regarding implementation of Priority 2, to support local people to lead healthy lifestyles, including reducing the health burden from tobacco, obesity and drugs and alcohol. This work linked into the Prevention and Health Inequalities Group.
Ongoing work to identify and treat inpatient smokers as part of the QUIT programme was noted.The treatment of tobacco dependence was established at TRFT across all inpatient pathways. This included mandated smoking status screening at point of admission with automated notification of all smokers to the Tobacco Treatment Team. KPI data from January 2023 showed 89% of inpatients had smoking status recorded within 24 hours of admission, and 69% of smokers received a specialist assessment from a Tobacco Treatment Advisor.
Rotherham had shown a steady increase over the last 4 months for alcohol successful completions and had shown an increasing trend over the previous 10 months for non-opiate completions,whereas the England average had remained static. Rotherham had exceeded National averages in Q3 data. It was noted that figures from 2023/24 may have been impacted by some expected disruption caused by a change of provider. However, the new service model, once embedded, was anticipated to have a positive impact in the longer term.
A partnership plan focussed on tobacco had been developed and presented to the Board.The Tobacco Control Action Plan was presented to Health and Wellbeing Board in January. The Tobacco Control Steering Group would continue to oversee the actions with representatives from across Place and use the dashboard of indicators to monitor progress.
Learning from the Place Development Programme had been fed back to various groups,including the Prevention and Health Inequalities Enabler Group and the Place Board. Significant analytical work was undertaken through the Place Development Programme. Discussions about how to take this learning forward were being held as part of the Place Plan refresh, as noted in detail in the update presentation from the Prevention and Health Inequalities Enabler Group.
Progress to review and establish the drug-related death pathway to identify improvements across the system was described. Work was ongoing to develop a process to learn from deaths from drug misuse, improve services and gain intelligence around needs and where they were not being met. This work was being done by Public Health and reported to both the Safer Rotherham Partnership and the Combatting Drugs Partnership. It was noted that the rates of drug related deaths had increased nationally. A local review had been undertaken and had highlighted increased age-standardised mortality rates for deaths related to drug misuse over three-year periods for Rotherham as well as Yorkshire and the Humber, and England. Further in-depth analysis was scheduled in March/April to establish any identifiable themes.
A new information management system had been purchased in partnership with Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield to record and report drug-related deaths which would mirror the suicide work to improve ability to respond to trends across South Yorkshire. A full-time Police role had been established to operate the real-time surveillance and support the learning panels. Also, a pilot funded by NHS England was progressing to support frequent attenders to ED with complex Alcohol and Mental Health needs through an outreach team providing holistic support offer.
An NHS England Peer to Peer review was held in December 2022, with positive results. The project was becoming embedded within the community as intended, influencing positive change and reducing Blue light Calls significantly. The one-year pilot was initially going to run until March 2023, but an extension to March 2024 was agreed in February 2023. TRFT was the only site in England that had progressed the pilot.
No milestones under Aim 3 were rated as ‘off-track’, but five were rated as ‘at-risk’. This included the following actions:
• Refresh of information, advice and guidance available to carers, including the launch of the carers’ newsletter. Newsletter development had been delayed due to capacity issues. Informal arrangements were in place to share information, advice and guidance.
• Actions as part of delivery of area of focus 2 and 3 of the Carers strategic framework were rated amber.A dedicated officer resource, Carers Strategy Manager, commenced in post 6 March. It was felt that this appointment would accelerate progress to co-produce the Action Plan and deliver the associated objectives and priorities. Priority was being given to advancing work in this area, including, for example, through promotion of national initiatives such as Carers UK – Carers Active Hub, a resource to help carers to increase activity levels and improve their health and wellbeing.
Next Steps to be undertaken relating to Priority 1, Ensure support is in place for carers, were described:
The Carers Strategy Manager had commenced developing an Expert by Experience programme and would establish locality-specific carer partnership network groups with increased diverse representation of unpaid carers. A co-production approach would be carried out to determine a detailed action plan. The co-production outcomes would be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in Sept 2023. An assurance process for all published Information would be introduced. The Advice and Guidance offer would be assessed to ensure the relevance, accuracy and accessibility. Overall progress would be reported into the Health and Wellbeing Board and board sponsors, via the Health and Wellbeing Strategy Action Plan.
Development of a partnership prevention campaign with a focus on upstream prevention messaging was underway.Options had been developed, and community insights had begun shaping this campaign. This would be reviewed for approval by all partners and launched in the coming weeks/months. The next presentation from the Prevention and Health Inequalities work had the latest information on the progress. Content had also been written for the expansion of RotherHive to include wider health issues (such as smoking, weight, physical activity). This would be ready to launch by the end of March/early April.
Development of partnership plans focussed on alcohol was also described. An action plan on alcohol had been developed, which would go through the Combatting Drugs Partnership on 30th March 2023. Further, the tender for the new drugs and alcohol service had been awarded to the new provider and mobilisation was underway. The new service model included a separate pathway for alcohol, which would incorporate tailored clinical care pathways to address individual risk and need, with delivery from a range of community venues. The new service model included enhanced hospital liaison and outreach services, which sought to address Rotherham’s identified needs.
In discussion the following points were made:
- An upcoming 10 K was an opportunity to support Priority 2.
- It was felt that the Council should be proud of the progress made.
Resolved:-
1) That the report be noted.