Agenda and minutes

Apologies received from Cllr Judith Cooper and Cllr Janet Gardner.

None.

RESOLVED: That the minutes from the meeting on 16 January 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record.

It was confirmed that there were no Part II items and that all business would therefore be conducted in public.

Members received an update report on the review thus far.

Following the last meeting, Democratic Services informed the Committee that a witness session had been arranged for Thursday 14 February 2019 with Inderpal Mudhar from the Department of Work and Pensions and Nigel Gee from Mind.

At the meeting on 18 March 2019, Members would have an opportunity to discuss review recommendations and, subject to the recommendations agreed by the Committee, work would commence on drafting the final report for the review.

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the information presented in the update report.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Steve Hajioff, provided the Committee with an oral update on Stroke Prevention.

The previous Social Services, Housing and Public Health Policy Overview Committee undertook a review into stroke prevention in the Borough. The aim of the review was to examine the work the Council carried out in relation to stroke prevention and to investigate other ways in which the Council could improve stroke prevention and help residents better understand what caused a stroke.

The previous Social Services, Housing and Public Health Policy Overview Committee undertook a review on stroke prevention in the Borough. The aim of the review was to examine the work the Council carried out in relation to stroke prevention and to investigate other ways in which the Council could improve stroke prevention and help residents better understand what caused strokes.

Dr Hajioff explained the impacts of a stroke on both patients and services. On average, it cost the NHS £10,000 to provide care for someone who had a stroke, but if that person had to go into a care home, it could cost the council £100,000 a year for the rest of that person's life. A third of care home admissions are for people who have had strokes. All of this is in addition to the human cost to the person and their family.

There was an emphasis placed on what could be done to raise awareness and try to prevent strokes. The main risk factors for strokes are obesity, high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation. Dr Hajioff informed the Committee that since the review, a number of projects had commenced including an initiative to change the way NHS  health checks were undertaken. The results from these were positive as 500 new people with atrial fibrillation had been identified and treated, as appropriate. This is estimated to prevent around 10 stroke deaths, and  20 hospital admissions for stroke. A programme looking into adult weight management had also been introduced with the hope of targeting at least 200 residents a year to manage obesity. Going forward, in addition to looking for obesity and high blood pressure, NHS Health checks locally will also specifically look for atrial fibrillation.

In the Council, mini health checks were offered to staff members during lunch sessions. This proved to be a positive exercise as a number of staff members were detected to have high blood pressure and referrals were made to GPs.

During Member discussions, it was noted that there was ongoing monitoring of people who had had stroke and a variety of services were available to help patients. These services included stroke association which provided advice and rehabilitation and there was also strong engagements with the CCG in relation to early intervention. Concerns were raised about encouraging men to be more proactive with managing their weight. It was raised that some men could find it daunting or less willing to take ownership to tackle weight loss. Dr Hajioff explained that people being referred by their GPs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

The Assistant Director of Early Intervention Prevention and SEND, Tom Murphy presented the update report on The Effectiveness Of Early Help To Promote Positive Outcomes For Families in 2015/16. A number of recommendations were made to Cabinet in 2016 and Mr Murphy outlined how these recommendations had been implemented.

Overall, there had been positive progress since the review which could be seen by the outcome of the Ofsted inspection for childrens services. Early help services were judged as good.

It was highlighted that there had been significant development in partnership working which involved a focus on sharing data and intelligences to support effective collaborative working so that those in need of early help could be identified and supported. This was demonstrated through the Troubled Families initiative and the Axis project.  Troubled Families was a multi-agency initiative   was established to support families experiencing different challenges. Under this scheme 2000 families had identified as being in need of support and 736 had achieved significant and sustained changes in their circumstances.

The Axis project was also highlighted as being a project which recognised the importance of using and sharing data and intelligence. This project specifically supported children and young people at risk. It was highlighted that out of the 61 young people working with the Axis project, none were referred to the youth offending service and childrens social care.

It was noted that early help was being promoted through the Council’s Connect to Support website. It was acknowledged that although it was a difficult task to encompass all information, the service was still in good shape. Further, services and advice was communicated through apps developed and social media.

Members considered the report to be comprehensive and were pleased to see the progress made through the recommendations.

During Member discussions, it was noted that internal audit made a number of high risk recommendations in relation to an audit of early year’s centres. It was confirmed that there were challenges in relation to business management of centres. Business process needed to be looked into, the issues had not been resolved but were being looked into by staff.

Members questioned why one of the recommendations made during the review had not yet been undertaken. The recommendation is stated below:

That a review be undertaken of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) at the earliest possible opportunity during 2016/17. It is further proposed that this be a joint review to involve the Children, Young People and Learning Policy Overview Committee, the External Services Scrutiny Committee and other bodies, if appropriate.

Members were informed that a review had not yet been undertaken, this was still on the agenda and would happen. Although better position as there were reports provided to Committees, it was acknowledged that this still needed to be actioned.

Overall, Members were pleased with the review updates, however requested further information on the types of families being helped. It was acknowledged that this data was not easy to ascertain as there were a breath of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Forward Plan be noted.

The Chairman informed the Committee that the establishment of the Corporate Parenting Panel would be added as an item to the work programme for the next meeting in March 2019. Members would be presented with a copy of the proposed terms of reference and a report detailing its governance structure.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the establishment of the Corporate Parenting Panel be added as an item to the work programme for the March 2019 meeting

2)    That the work programme be noted.