Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies for absence are listed above.

 

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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of Health Scrutiny Committee are asked to consider whether they have an interest in any of the matters on the agenda and if so, to formally declare that interest.

Minutes:

Councillor Pilkington declared an interest due to being employed by Manchester Foundation Trust.

 

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MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING pdf icon PDF 355 KB

The minutes from the meeting held on 16th September 2021 are attached for approval.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 16th September 2021 were agreed as an accurate record.

 

 

Matters arising: Councillor Walmsley requested that a meeting with the Chair of Licensing, Planning and Health Scrutiny takes place prior to the next meeting to look if there are any positive steps we could take to tackle the obesity crisis.

 

Councillor Holt requested that Licensing on Gambling Establishments be brought to a future meeting.

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PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

Questions are invited from members of the public present at the meeting on any matters for which this Committee is responsible.

Minutes:

There were no public questions

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MEMBERS QUESTION TIME

A period of up to 15 minutes will be allocated for questions and supplementary questions from members of the Council who are not members of the committee. This period may be varied at the discretion of the chair.

Minutes:

There were no members questions.

 

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MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE pdf icon PDF 332 KB

Report from Adrian Crook, Director Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning attached.

 

Minutes:

Adrian Crook, Director of Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning and Jane Case, Programme Manager, Children’s CCG provided an overview of the report.

 

It was reported that the impact of the pandemic has influenced Adult and Children and Young people’s (CYP) emotional wellbeing and mental health nationally, regionally, and locally. This has brought to light system pressures that were previously being managed. This briefing is to update on the developments over the last 10 months regarding mental health provision for Adults and CYP in Bury and the proposed series of interventions that will start to address the system redesign in accordance with the Bury Mental Health Thrive framework.   

 

Some of the developments that have taken place over the last ten months are as follows:

 

Children’s and Young Peoples Mental Health

 

·         The establishment of a digital offer for children and young people’s wellbeing (Kooth) providing online counselling provision and support

·         The standing up of emotional health and wellbeing practitioners in 9 of the 13 High schools delivering in Bury. Offering 1-1 support and guidance

·         Launched the Bury early attachment service

·         Utilised the creative care kits from GM 

·         Established a waiting list initiative to support the early years neurodevelopmental pathway 

·         Linking into the wider Youth participation BEE Heard Children’s and Young Peoples Voice At the Circle of Influence * session Children and Young People told us that:

      They wanted more provision

      They didn’t want long waiting lists

      They wanted more visible support, preferably in school

 

Adult Mental Health

 

·         Development of the “Thriving In Bury” Mental Health brand and a dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing directory of services on the Bury Local Authority directory website along with a communications plan.

·         Launch of the Bury “Getting Help Line” via a local VCFE provider (Early Break) which has supported over 500 people with their Mental Wellbeing and provided person centred resource packs and established pathways into universal primary, community and secondary care services.

·         Development of a Mental Health education programme.

·         Mobilisation of the “Urgent Emergency Care by Appointment Service” to support the wider urgent care pathway and isoperational 7 days per week from 8am – 9pm.  Based at Fairfield General Hospital and excepting direct referrals from GP’s.

·         Launch of the “Bury Peer Led Crisis Service” in April 2021, delivered by a local VCFE provider (BIG) and is operational Monday, Thursday and Friday 6pm-11pm. The service has made a real difference to the lives of those experiencing Mental Health Crisis and is projected to support over 200 people by the end of March 2022.

·         A review of the Community Mental Health Team led to a number of changes to improve operations and links with wider pathways.

·         The Launch of a number of Mental Health and Wellbeing digital services in partnership with Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) to support vulnerable groups such as BAME, LGB. The Silver Cloud digital therapy is now offered with support from Healthy Minds therapists in Bury.

·         Local VCFE partner “The Creative Living Centre” made 1424  ...  view the full minutes text for item HSC.6

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SUBSTANCE MISUSE UPDATE pdf icon PDF 586 KB

Report from Jon Hobday, Consultant in Public Health attached.

Minutes:

Jon Hobday, Consultant in Public Health did a presentation and provided an overview of the report. It was reported that substance misuse is a major public health issue and can increase health inequalities.

 

Councillor Birchmore had questions regarding the bed for every night project. Jon Hobday advised he will feed this information back to the homeless team.

 

Councillor Pilkington questioned what happens to monitor retail on nitrogen oxide canisters who they sell too and if this acts as a gateway to further drug misuse.

 

Jon Hobday advised he is not aware of any evidence but will look into this in more detail. Early Break work on the education side of drug misuse to understand why they use it. The availability issue is often due to it being available online but locally we can pick this up with health colleagues.

 

Councillor Hayes questioned if information has since come out from the spending review. Jon Hobday advised that Bury has an extra £290,000

 

It was agreed:

 

1.   Jon Hobday advised he is not aware of any evidence that nitrogen oxide leads to further drug misuse but will investigate this in more detail.

2.   Jon Hobday to pick up what can be done further to monitor the sale of nitrogen oxide locally and will pick this up with health colleagues.

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SPURR HOUSE CLOSURE UPDATE pdf icon PDF 190 KB

Report from Adrian Crook, Director Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning attached.

Minutes:

Adrian Crook, Director of Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning provided an update on the closure of Spurr House. It was reported that following a period of public and staff consultation, on 21st July 2021, Council Cabinet supported the recommendation to close Spurr House as part of a wider saving and transformation programme with the Council’s Local Authority Trading Company; Persona Care and Support Ltd. Savings achieved by this action will support delivery of the savings required by the Council.

 

Councillor Grimshaw voiced her concerns on the closure of Spurr house, the process of informing people and where the residents are now.

 

Adrian Crook Director of Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning advised the decision was taken by the Cabinet. The facility was only for short stays and the unit was regularly half full for several years therefore it drew the conclusion we are no longer able to fund it.

 

The Service was commissioned by the Council and was no fault of Persona that it was not full, this is a factor of insufficient demand for residential care and the demand of nursing care not provided by Persona is increasing.

 

Councillor Lewis advised that the first hearing of the closure of Spurr House was by the employees of Spurr House. As we now have a large facility laying empty what is next for the building.

 

Adrian Crook Director of Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning advised that the building is handed back to the Council and the business growth and infrastructure department is looking at this going forward. Until the department decide the plan of action for the building it will lay dormant as to staff the building was an expense we could no longer afford.

 

The committee recognise the pressures the Council is under as its not savings it is cuts as it is costing so much to run and is not full.

 

The Chair recognised the passion of Councillor Grimshaw and Councillor Lewis and thanked them for their views.

 

Will Blandamer Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning advised that all the appropriate processes were followed, the move was managed well and in a dignified way and staff have been re-deployed.

Councillor Tegolo reflected on an article from a care assistant at Spurr House who stated there is a short advantage in closing but will not be financially effective in the long term. She asked what is our long-term plan for doing this.

 

Adrian Crook Director of Adult Social Service and Community Commissioning reported that in next few months we will have a position statement and strategy paper of which an element will include housing options. They are looking at the demography of bury and setting future ambitions. The first cut of the data says residential care will continue to drop but complex care (could not be delivered in Spurr house) will increase.

 

Cllr Tegolo questioned that people there for short term care gave great comments but longer term longer stays were complaining. It was asked if respite care will  ...  view the full minutes text for item HSC.8

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BURY ELECTIVE CARE UPDATE AND WAITING WELL INITIATIVE pdf icon PDF 439 KB

Will Blandamer Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning will update at the meeting.

Minutes:

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning provided an overview of Bury Elective Care and the Waiting Well Initiative.

 

It was reported that the pandemic has provided limited supply of capacity in terms of availability of accommodation and also on infection prevention services in place. The update highlighted the current position for Bury patients waiting for Elective Care appointments/procedures. It provides a high-level overview of the on-going work being undertaken through the Elective Care Transformation and Improvement Programme, delivered by Bury CCG in partnership with Northern Care Alliance (NCA), to recover from the changed environment that has resulted from the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. 

 

The paper includes information on the completion of a locality review of the Bury Orthopaedic pathway, which has a focus on addressing inequalities for patients waiting, and redesigning care pathway to reduce the burden on secondary care through integrated working across primary, acute, community and 3rd sector services.

 

The implementation of the Greater Manchester Waiting Well initiative within Bury is a key element of the Orthopaedic work and the wider recovery of Elective Care waiting lists.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning opened to questions.

 

Councillor Hayes questioned if there is any evidence that these prolonged waiting lists are having adverse effects on physical and mental health of patients.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning advised he will look and provide evidence if he can find it. Waiting so long can be detrimental to health especially mental health. To support patients to have control of their period of wait is where the Waiting Well initiative to help.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning advised Waiting Well means supporting people to be active, stop smoking, eat well, support their own conditions. Patients want to be in control of their care and circumstances of their lives. The Bury Directory has more detailed information and resources on the Waiting Well initiative.

 

Cllr Tegolo questioned the issues to recruit staff and why are we not addressing staffing issues in conjunction with this report findings.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning advised the consequences of this can be felt across all services and there are increasing gaps in the workforce. We want to increase the option to make bury a great place to work as there are many opportunities to connect to so many parts of the health system and a workforce group is looking into delivering this.

 

It was agreed.

 

1.   To note the report.

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COVID-19 Update

Will Blandamer Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning will update at the meeting.

 

Minutes:

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning provided a verbal update on COVID-19 and the vaccine programme on behalf of Lesley Jones.

 

Community incidents rates in Bury are just below the English average at 328 per 100,000 which equates to around 600 cases of COVID-19 in bury in the week up until last week. The rate is falling after a rapid increase but the rate of decrease has begun to slow.

 

The COVID-19 prevalence is not related to deprivation and COVID-19 positive patients requiring hospital treatment is decreasing.  We still have three or four patients dyeing per week as a result of COVID-19.

 

In terms of the vaccination programme, we outperform the Greater Manchester average in terms of all cohorts of the vaccination programme. We are close to 80% of over 12 year olds receiving the vaccination are the third best in Greater Manchester for the 12-15 year old cohort and our booster uptake of those eligible is the third best in Greater Manchester. We have given out around 44,000 boosters, our booster offer is aligned with our flu vaccines and we are already over the total number of residents that had the flu vaccine last year.

 

There are some challenges around vaccination programme such as the compulsory vaccines in hospitals and home care providers and younger children and considering dropping the age for the booster.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning wished to place on record his thanks to colleagues on the vaccine rollout.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning opened to questions.

 

Councillor Pilkington questioned the transmission and location of it. He asked if there is any statistical data if it is being transmitted more in Hospitals than outside.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning advised he will check this data and provide an update by email.

 

Secondly Councillor Pilkington asked a question regarding the vaccination of school children despite giving verbal consent.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning advised he will provide feedback after speaking to the school’s team.

 

Councillor Birchmore stated there are no clinics currently in Radcliffe to deliver booster injections and asked if there are plans to do this.

 

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning to check and provide an update by email.

 

It was agreed:

 

1.   Data about nosocomial infection rates at Fairfield General Hospital to be provided

2.   Confirmation if the Gillick competence test is being applied to the school vaccination programme. 

3.   To update if we are we offering any further vaccination sites in Radcliffe.

4.   To thank Will Blandamer for the update.

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URGENT BUSINESS

Any other business which by reason of special circumstances the Chair agrees may be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

Councillor Holt offered the Committee the option to attend a pre-meeting prior to Health Scrutiny. Chloe Ashworth, Senior Scrutiny Officer will provide an invite for this at the next meeting.

 

It was discussed how seeing statistics and figures helps with update reports especially on Mental Health.