Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED

That Cllr J Clowes be elected Chairman for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor R Bailey, Dr P Bowen and K O’Dwyer.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2017.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2017 be approved as a correct record.

In accordance with paragraph 2.32 of the Committee Procedural Rules and Appendix 7 to the Rules a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relevant to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

No members of the public wished to speak.

  To note the progress made in establishing the CCG Joint Commissioning Committee and its initial work plan.

Consideration was given to an update on the establishment of the Joint Commissioning Committee, and to its initial work programme.  Progress in developing a Joint Commissioning Committee for the four CCGs of Eastern Cheshire, South Cheshire, West Cheshire and Vale Royal, was an important part of work being undertaken towards the development of integrated health and social care systems across the County.  The Board had received a report on the formation of the Joint Committee at its meeting last July since when NHS England had formally approved its establishment, Terms of Reference (TOR) and Annual Work Plan.

The TOR were now reported along with a resume of the key areas to note concerning the remit of the Committee, membership and meeting arrangements. Committee business would be divided into Levels One and Two with different levels of accountability and if in the course of time these needed to be adjusted then it would need to be with the approval of all of the four CCGs.

In response to a question concerning scrutiny arrangements the Board was advised that it rested with the NHS.  It was however reported that the 2012 Regulations allowed for there to be joint overview and scrutiny of cross boundary functions and it was requested that this be taken into account in the governance arrangements.  Also, under the current arrangements, the Local Authority representatives did not have any voting rights and it was suggested this should be monitored in case it needed to be revisited in the TOR.

RESOLVED

1.    That the progress in establishing the CCG Joint Commissioning Committee, and its initial work plan, be noted.

2.    That the comments made in respect of overview and scrutiny arrangements, and of the current voting arrangements be taken into account in future consideration of the TOR and governance arrangements.

To consider a report updating the Board on the progress of the Caring Together programme.

Consideration was given to this report on the progress of the Caring Together Programme – to merge the Caring Together (Eastern Cheshire) and Connecting Care (Southern Cheshire and Vale Royal) transformation programmes into a joint programme overseen by a Joint Programme Board.  Discussions to agree the geography for the joint programme were due to be resolved by 31 March.

The report set out proposals for the Joint Programme Board, the first meeting of which was planned for 7 February with the Memorandum of Understanding and governance arrangements currently being finalised.  Programme work streams were detailed in the report, for which work plans were being developed and a workshop planned to develop an overarching implementation plan.

The Chairman extended thanks to all those involved with the two transformation programmes to date, and in their very significant successes, and also in preparing for this next stage to merge them to gain even better economies of scale, and to deliver greater efficiency savings and productivity gains.   

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

To consider a report informing the Board about Community Cohesion work in Cheshire East and to discuss how local challenges to cohesion can be addressed and improve health outcomes for migrant communities. 

Consideration was given to this report on work on community cohesion in Cheshire East, and on how local challenges might be addressed in order to improve health outcomes for its migrant communities.  It was reported that  there had been a rise in both the migrant population and its diversity, the most up to date evidence being drawn from the Cheshire East Schools Census (January 2017) which showed 102 languages were spoken and 5.9% of pupils did not have English as their first language. 

It was reported a Cheshire East Cohesion Strategy was to be developed from evaluation work on the Crewe Cohesion Action Plan and that it would address the challenges in accessing and navigating health care services or community based support by people who are isolated and do not speak English. 

Recommendations within the report encompassed

1.    Cultural Competency training for all staff

2.    Member organisations to commit to working with multi-agency groups in the south and east Cheshire CCG geographies with an agreed Memorandum of Understanding

3.    Fully utilising the diversity of the health and social care workforce

4.    Review of existing on line methods of education and sharing information and develop better mechanisms to engage with under represented migrant groups.

Among the organisations present it was recognised that the sharing of best practice and knowledge, and of resources, would enhance this process and it was agreed that this be followed up outside the meeting. Councillor S Gardiner, Cheshire East Champion for Diversity, asked that all those involved with migrant communities provide as much information as possible to inform the preparation of the Strategy.

RESOLVED

1.    That the recommendations of the report be accepted in principle and that the MOU being developed by the Manchester Multi-Faith Groups be explored as a way of moving forward in Cheshire East.

2.    That a further report and progress be considered in six months time.

          To consider and comment upon the draft Strategy, to inform the final version that will be brought forward for adoption in March 2018.

The Board was asked to consider and comment on the Strategy prior to its adoption in March.  To date there had been two public engagement events, and an online engagement was ongoing and it was reported that the level of feedback had been extensive.  A main factor so far had been that of the need for integration and joint working and that local communities wanted to be involved in the work. 

The Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2018-2021 set out the vision and priorities for the Health and Wellbeing Board’s collective endeavours for the next three years. This was the third Strategy prepared by the Board since its inception and with increasing pressures on the health and care system and reducing resources it was considered to be more important than ever that there was a system of leadership to help address the challenges faced and to facilitate improved health and wellbeing for the residents of Cheshire East.   In addition it needed o be able to take into account changes within the Public Sector Reform Programme.

RESOLVED

That consideration be given to the final version of the Strategy prior to its adoption.