Agenda and minutes

1.1  The Chair welcomed all those present to the meeting.

2.1  Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Marcus Barnett, Frances Haste,

3.1  There were no declarations of interest.

4.1  The minutes of the previous meeting on 27 January 2022 were agree as a correct record.

5.2  The Chair updated the Board on the Action Log.  He told the Board that work was ongoing arising from the report of Connect Hackney considered at the previous meeting of the Board.

  RESOLVED:

  To note the action log.

 6.1  The Principal Public Health Specialist introduced the report. At the November 2021 and January 2022 meetings, the Health and Wellbeing Board had agreed to the three priorities (mental health, social connection, financial security) in the draft strategy, as well as suggestions for ways of working to deliver on them.

6.2  The formal consultation period opened for a 12 week period on 21st November 2021 and closed on 17th February 2022. The Public Health team attended 36 stakeholder and resident meetings, during the consultation phase, and consulted with over 370 stakeholders who attended the meetings, to gather feedback on the draft Strategy across organisations and resident groups that work with Hackney residents. There had been 300 responses to the consultation document. 100 of which were paper responses. In total over 1,400 residents and wider stakeholders had been consulted to help to shape the strategy. The responses had been supportive of the priorities in the strategy with helpful suggestions for partnership working. The final consultation document would be published in due course. The aim was to publish the report at the end of March 2022. 

6.3  The strategy had been discussed at a closed session of the Board prior to the public section of the meeting to consider the  amendments made to the Strategy after the consultation and to consider how partners would work together to deliver on the 3 priorities. An Action Planning Group will be established to deliver the priorities in the strategy and identify any gaps and identify these in the action plan. It was anticipated that the action plan would be launched in June/ July 2022. 

6.4  The Public Health Specialist stressed that the co-production element of the strategy would be taken forward into the action planning phase, and within  the monitoring and evaluation phases. There would be a need to have effective communication across the partnership in regard to the action plan and links into the Integrated Care Partnership Board, with quarterly updates to the Board, in addition to ensuring that wider partners are aware of progress on the priorities. Good suggestions had arisen from the closed session on proposed methods of working together through the partnership to champion  support and implement the strategy within partner organisations. 

6.5  The Director of Public Health thanked all those involved in developing the strategy. She confirmed that although 3 priority areas had been identified, the overarching aim was to reduce inequalities and health inequalities in particular. There was a need to pay particular attention to applying the anti-racism approach and not to just consider access to services within this approach.  There was a need to consider the systemic issues that needed to be addressed.

6.6  Mayor Glanville referred to the collaborative work that had taken place with the community during the pandemic, with the development of strategic approaches. He concurred with the views of Dr Sandra Husbands. He referred to good discussion in the closed session of the meeting and emphasised that the strategy was a collective document. Mayor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

 7.1  The Senior Professional Adviser introduced the report, outlining activity between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, including the following:

·  The lessons that the CHSCP has identified through its Learning & Improvement Framework and the actions taken to improve child safeguarding and welfare as a result of this activity;

·  The collective response to COVID-19 by the partnership with contingency oversight meetings with a focus on workforce efficiency, patterns of risk with a move to digital solutions for some of the difficulties faced;

·  The range and impact of the multi-agency safeguarding training delivered by the CHSCP;

·  An increase in head injuries to young children, locally and nationally;

·  Children being less visible during the pandemic; 

·  The context for safeguarding children and young people in the City of London, highlighting the progress made by the City partnership over the last year;

·  The CHSCP’s priorities going forward and the key messages for those involved in the safeguarding of children and young people;

·  The rise in domestic violence and abuse calls received;

·  The exacerbation of mental health issues for those with existing mental health challenges;

·  The learning and development accrued from experience and reviews;

·  The governance and accountability arrangements for the CHSCP’s safeguarding arrangements;

·  The context for safeguarding children and young people in the London Borough of Hackney, highlighting the progress made by the Hackney partnership over the last year;

7.2  The Chair thanked officers for a very thorough report on this matter.

7.3  Mayor Glanville thanked officers for the report and the work carried out, including  the work on school exclusions.  He stated that the outcome of the reviews referred to, fed into the Council’s scrutiny work and political policy making, all of which strengthened practice and partnership working. 

7.4  Susan Masters congratulated officers on the good report. She suggested that in the key roles and relationships section of the report the safeguarding partners should be widened to include community groups. 

7.5  The Senior Professional Adviser clarified that while community groups were not specifically mentioned in the report, there was an expectation that all relevant agencies form part of a wider collective with the voluntary sector being central to what the partnership wished to achieve.

7.6  Deputy Mayor Bramble commended the good leadership on safeguarding, including on school exclusions, the work of Hackney Education and elected members including the Mayor. There was a need to work with young people who needed to be supported and facilitated to manage their behaviour, with training for staff who support this. There was also a need for conversation on disproportionality. She stressed the importance of the need to tackle school exclusions with the required outcomes. 

7.7  The Senior Professional Adviser referred to the need to support the partnership in preventing children having less supervision but that this could not be achieved without considering the structural issues at play.

7.8    The Chair referred to the importance of the expression of the metric of school exclusions over a period of time. He stated that children were less visible during the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1  Malcolm Alexander told the Board that Jon Williams would no longer be the Director at Healthwatch Hackney as he has  taken up another post.

8.2  Malcolm Alexander introduced the draft strategy, which is due to be published  in September 2022.  A consultation exercise would be carried out in the coming months. The aim was for the work of Healtwatch Hackney to become more outcome focused. One of the organisation's primary roles was to collect information from local people about their experiences of health and social care services. Healthwatch Hackney wished to enhance this role and to increase the number of volunteers who assist with ‘enter and view’, accessing health and social care services and discussing how services could improve. 

8.3The key priorities in the draft Strategy were:

·  Mental Health Services

·  The 3 year plan was to consider acute services more closely with attendance at the East London Foundation Trust to speak to ward patients about their experiences on accessing services, on the wards and the discharge arrangements. Consideration would be given to issues around ethnicity, gender and age in relation to detention and the use of restraint.

·  Involvement of Young People through co-production

·  To look more closely at the outcome from the 2021 Ofsted report. Healthwatch Hackney also wished to look at the needs of young carers and further develop the co-production charter to ensure that younger people are more fully involved in this. Consideration would also be given to young people with mental health problems being moved outside the area together with the transition from young people to adulthood.

·  Influencing Primary Care Services

There were concerns over the number of GP practices that had closed in recent years and work was needed in this area, including succession planning, ensuring that primary care is not disrupted. A further piece of work would centre on patient participant group (PPG) development. Where a practice was at risk the PPG would have a much more active role, enabling patients to have empowerment and influence in practices. 

·  The Redevelopment of St Leonard’s Hospital

It was believed that all the land at St Leonards Hospital should be used for health and social care services. There were good opportunities in St Leonards to develop the people’ plan. Healthwatch was currently in the process of employing a worker to start the work around effective involvement of local people in the development of plans for the hospital.

·  Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Many GP practices were not registering people who were migrants or refugees or did not possess proper paperwork or identification. The aim was to ensure that no one was denied registration at a GP practice and that GP websites are accessible to all.

8.4  Councillor Chris Kennedy thanked Jon Williams for his work on the Board together with the Integrated Commissioning Care Partnership. He considered that the priority areas outlined in the draft Strategy were good, with the exception of the focus on NHS estates such as St Leonards, in particular so early on before  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.1  The Principal Public Health Specialist introduced the report which included an updated forward plan with agenda items, including upcoming Health in all Policies agenda items, scheduled for upcoming Board meetings in 2022. Members were asked to advise on any further thematic agenda items to include in the forward plan.

RESOVLED:

  To note the report.

10.1  Date of the next meeting:  16 June 2022