Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Dr Matt Tyrer (Cheshire East Council).

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

Councillor S Corcoran declared a non-pecuniary interest by virtue of his wife being a GP.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2021.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2021 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 wishing to ask a question or make a statement 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.

There were no public speakers.

To consider the findings of the Healthwatch survey on health and care during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Board received a presentation from Louise Barry and George Gibson on the findings of the Healthwatch Cheshire Health and Wellbeing During Coronavirus survey during the period 4 May 2020 to 15 October 2020.

The presentation and report in the agenda detailed the key findings from the survey in areas of healthcare, mental health and wellbeing, and care.

The final results from the survey would be reported to the Board in due course.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be received and noted.

To consider the update report on the work of the Cheshire East 0-25 SEND Partnership.

The Board considered an update on progress against the Cheshire East SEND Written Statement of Action, produced following the Ofsted and CQC inspection in March 2018.

The report set out the progress on the two areas of significant weakness identified by the Ofsted and CQC inspection and set out the key priorities for the next twelve months.

Ofsted had been due to carry out a SEND re-visit before the end of April 2020.  However in March 2020 Ofsted had announced that all inspections were suspended due to the Covid pandemic.  From autumn 2020 Ofsted and CQC had been carrying out joint interim visits to local areas regarding their SEND arrangements in lieu of SEND inspections or re-visits.  It was understood that Ofsted and CQC were likely to re-commence SEND inspections and SEND re-visits  from 1 April 2021, dependant on Covid restrictions in place, and preparations were continuing with preparing key documents to evidence progress, carrying out communications and engagement with all stakeholders and ensuring arrangements were in place to respond quickly upon notification of the re-visit.

RESOLVED:  That the Health and Wellbeing Board:

1  note the update on the preparations for the SEND re-visit, and

2  note and endorse the contents of the SEND Self-evaluation in Appendix 1 to the report.

To consider the proposal for the postponement of a revised Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for a period of 12 months.

The Board considered the proposal to postpone the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for a period of 12 months.

The NHS Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services Regulations 2013 required Health and Wellbeing Boards to publish and keep updated a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for their area.  The current Cheshire East Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment was published in 2018 and was due for renewal in 2021.

The Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment could take six to twelve months to prepare as it went through an extensive engagement and formal consultation process. The current demands placed upon the Public Health Team and the Pharmacy profession dealing with the Covid pandemic meant that the capacity to review the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment was not available.  It was therefore proposed that the current version remain live for the next twelve months and plans be put in place to work on the refresh from June 2021 onwards if the demands of Covid reduced.

RESOLVED:

That the Cheshire East Health and Wellbeing Board agree to the postponement of a revised Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for a period of 12 months.

To consider the proposed changes to the Health and Wellbeing Board’s Terms of Reference.

Consideration was given to the proposed changes to the Health and Wellbeing Board’s terms of reference.

Following recent changes to the Council’s senior management team and the forthcoming introduction of the new Committee system of governance, changes to the wording of the membership section of the terms of reference were required.

RESOLVED:  That the following proposed changes to the Health and Wellbeing Board’s Terms of Reference be recommended to the Constitution Committee:

1          the Acting Director of Adult Social Services be included as a core voting member of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Interim Director of Children’s Services as a core non-voting member.

2          the wording in paragraph 5.1 of the terms of reference regarding the nomination of Councillors to sit on the Health and Wellbeing Board be amended to read ‘will be determined by Cheshire East Council’.

3          the reference to the Scrutiny Committee be amended in paragraph 4.6 of the terms of reference.

To receive a verbal update on Test, Trace, Contain, Enable.

Professor Rod Thomson gave an update on the Test, Track, Contain and Enable system in Cheshire East.

He reported that since the last meeting there had been a reduction in the number of case, with the rate of infections hovering around 52-55 new cases per 100,000 in the last seven days and no new cases had been reported in care homes in the last two weeks. 

Schools had reopened and asymptomatic testing of pupils was being carried out at school for the first two weeks and then moving to home testing.  So far 25 schools had identified cases of covid, and action had been taken quickly to isolate the affected pupils.  

There have also been a few workplace outbreaks with these being initially identified via people being symptomatic. These have been followed up with the Swab Squad going into the workplace and additional testing being provided which had identified further cases.  The Public Health Team and Regulatory Services team were working with business to ensure covid secure procedures were in place.

The asymptomatic testing programme had been opened to wider parts of the community to enable workers who must attend work rather than work from home to be able to receive asymptomatic screening.  As part of a national pilot the Crewe testing site would switch to a new model, which would allow it to do asymptomatic testing in the morning and symptomatic testing in the afternoon and evening.  Also five pharmacies currently provided asymptomatic testing as well.

RESOLVED:

That the verbal update be noted.

To receive a verbal update on the work of the Cheshire East Place Partnership.

The Board received an update on the Cheshire East Place Partnership from Steven Michael.

The Partnership had been looking at its form and purpose and at its last meeting had reviewed its terms of reference and memorandum of understanding.  There was a need for the Partnership to realign its work with that of the Health and Wellbeing Board, and the ICS as it developed and became clearer on how decisions would be made.

Following discussions on the way to take things forward, it had been agreed that a workshop format would be adopted, which would include all partners, to get a collective understanding of where it was thought the Partnership needed to move forward and how it fitted in within Place.

Four key areas to look at had been identified:

1. Future commissioning arrangements
2. Development of the ICS and gaining clarity of what was in/not in its remit
3. Sustainability of acute services, which linked to the development of the ICS
4. Mental health services and how they align with Place

RESOLVED:

That the verbal update be noted.

To receive a verbal update on the Cheshire East Integrated Care Partnership.

The Board received a verbal update on the on the Integrated Care Partnership.

It was reported that a development session would be held in April to consider the ambitions of the partners for the next 12 months and beyond and would include consideration of how to deliver the recovery programme and move out of the covid pandemic stage back to ‘business as usual’.

RESOLVED:

That the verbal update be noted.