Agenda and minutes

          Resolved – That Councillor David Renard be Chair of this meeting of the Board.

(Councillor Renard took the Chair.)

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 23^rd May 2018.

          Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 23^rd May 2018 be confirmed as a correct record.

Please refer to the explanatory notes below.

          No public questions were asked prior to or during the meeting.

The Board considered a report of the Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board setting out its Business Plan for the three years 2016-2019.  The Business Plan had been updated to reflect progress against the core function and to set out the plan for 2018/19.

Mr Simon Ratcliff (Local Safeguarding Children’s Board Strategic Manager), on behalf of the Board’s Chair, introduced the Business Plan which was in its third year and set out the nine core functions and five strategic priorities for improvement.  Mr Ratcliff also explained that the intension of the Business Plan was to be comprehensive on the range of work to be undertaken whilst sub-groups would be responsible for developing work and achieving targets and priorities.

Following the presentation of the report Board members discussed the matters raised including:

·       Joint multi-agency working to ensure children in Swindon received appropriate support at the right time.

·       Meetings between Children’s Services and partner agencies, including General Practitioners.

·       How the public who had concerns regarding the wellbeing of children could report these to appropriate agencies.

·       Continuing work to reduce Domestic Abuse and its impact on children and on the Health and Wellbeing Board’s priorities in this field.

·       Ensuring educational and safeguarding standards and multiagency arrangements for children in school and for those pupils excluded from school missing education, having Special Educational Needs or disabilities or were receiving home tuition.

·       Embedding learning arising from serious case reviews in Swindon that had been undertaken over the previous two to three years, especially where repeating themes had been identified.

·       Supporting the transition to new multiagency safeguarding in the final year of the business plan. 

·       The impact of the Department of Education’s published Statutory Guidance “Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018” part of which puts into guidance the Children and Social Work Bill which replaces Safeguarding Children Boards with multiagency safeguarding arrangements by 29^th September 2019.

·       The impact of the Council’s recent OFSTED monitoring inspection on the work of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB) and its priorities.

·       The role of partnership working in considering the OFSTED findings and in the setting of thresholds for case referrals to children’s services, and understanding the safeguarding system which including a sub-group putting into place quality assurance systems including more auditing and additional routine reviews of services provided by the Local Authority and its partners.

·       That following the OFSTED review the Board had agreed a training programme over the next 6 months in liaison with Children’s Services. This included work with individual parts and agencies to improve services multi-agency training in respect of thresholds for referrals to children’s services ensuring that all partners understood and applied the same threshold of risk to remove inconsistencies.

Resolved – That the Local Safeguarding Children Board Business Plan 2018/19 be noted.

The Board received a report of the Service Manager, Restorative Youth Services, setting out the Restorative Youth Services Plan for 2017/18 reflecting upon previous performance, and the priorities and business risks for the forthcoming year.  The Plan also covered the confidential youth counselling service On Trak, and the youth alcohol and drug misuse service U-Turn and the RESPECT Programme.

Matt Bywater - Service Manager, Restorative Youth Services,  introduced the report highlighting key areas and, following the presentation, the Board discussed issues raised including:

·       That the local rate of custody in Swindon continued to be relatively low, the target being less than 5% of children and young people going into custody which was broadly being met through close working relationships with the police and courts to ensure this was a final option.

·       The re-offending rates for children and young people in Swindon which had seen a continual fall since 2013/14.

·       The use of Youth Justice Board methodology (Live Tracking) which provided contemporaneous data.

·       That for the Wilshire Police area the first time entrants’ rate is quite high over the last 18 month period.  It was noted that 82% of these children and young people were being dealt with the police directly rather that going through the Youth Offending Team system; although remedial action was being taken to address this situation in liaison with the Police that was based upon a system introduced in Surrey that had proven to be very successful in reducing first time entrants.

·       The auditing of casework undertaken over the previous 12 months and the use of specialist services such as a speech and language therapist and communications specialist to assist young people with communications difficulties.

·       The use of group work for specific groups of young people for instance young women of ethnic minority groups or Children Looked After.

·       The work of U-Turn, the substance misuse service which was hosted by the Restorative Youth Service where cannabis and alcohol continued to be the predominate choice of young people for substance misuse after a large drop in the use of Spice following its reclassification (to the best knowledge of the service there is no child using class A drugs in Swindon).

·       Issues facing the ontrack counselling service with a high rate of referrals, many of them self-referrals or referrals from General Practitioners which has led to increased waiting times and waiting lists.

·       Reduced funding from partners, the Probation Service and Youth Justice Board for the Youth Offending Team.

·       Team restructuring to maintain and protect frontline services and the probable adverse effect of any additional loss of funding.

·       The valuable role of volunteers in complementing professionals in delivering some of the services provided.

·       The Restorative Youth Services’ priorities set out within pages 13 to 17 of the report.

·       The successful programme of Restorative Youth Services operated by Surrey County Council and work to produce a Wiltshire model.

·       The ambition to have no young people entering the criminal justice system and how best to provide the mechanism and partnership working to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

The Board received a report of the Director, Healthwatch Swindon, setting out the organisation’s Annual Report for 2017/18 and updating the Board on the work undertaken during the reporting period.

Mr Jo Osorio, on behalf of the Director, Heathwatch Swindon, introduced the report and tabled an Erratum to the Healthwatch Swindon Annual Report 2017/18.

Following the presentation by Mr Osorio the Board discussed issued raised including:

·       The role of Healthwatch in listening to local people in respect of health and social care services and to advocate on their behalf to influence the planning and commissioning of health and care services.

·       Work during the previous year in the entering and viewing of multi-use premises that are not covered by inspections by the Care Quality Commission.

·       Access issues related to the new Swindon Health Centre and lack of response from NHS Property Services to their report on these.

·       The role of Healthwatch Swindon as an Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service in Swindon where they acted on behalf of people in respect of just over 100 complaints.

·       Support offered by Healthwatch Swindon on behalf of people with funding issues in respect of continuing health care.

·       Partnership working between Healthwatch Swindon and the voluntary and statutory sectors and public health team.

·       Forthcoming research in liaison with First City Nursing into the views of people receiving domiciliary care.

·       The work of the Patient Participation Groups Forum including Integrated Care.

·       The priorities and work programme for the forthcoming year as identified within the report.

Resolved – (1) That the Healthwatch Swindon Annual Report 2017/18 be noted and Healthwatch Swindon be thanked for their work and contribution to healthcare in Swindon.

(2) That the Council’s Adults’ Health, Adults’ Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee be requested to consider adding the Healthwatch Swindon’s report in respect of the new Swindon Health Centre to their work programme in order to seek a response from NHS Property Services or NHS England in respect of the report’s recommendations and findings in respect of access to the building.

(3) That the Chair of this Board and Clinical Commissioning Group be requested to write a joint letter to the Chief Executive of NHS Property Services seeking a response to Healthwatch Swindon Report in respect of the new Swindon Health Centre.

The Board received a report regarding the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) examining the needs of Swindon’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) population. The JNSA would inform future commissioning intentions and improve service planning for LGBT people in Swindon, including the health and social care needs for people over 16 years of age.

After the presentation of the report, Board members asked questions and made observations on the following issues:

·       The consultation process which included children and young people.

·       The lack of the local monitoring of sexual orientation with regard to service provision which meant that there was a lack of local data which led to a reliance on national data.

·       Feedback from consultation that in some areas there was good recognition of their issues in education services but that further improvement was needed in health and social care.

·       The need for the Board to use its influence to reduce inequalities for the LGBT community and work with the LGBT community to highlight best practice for health and social care providers.

·       The opportunity to engage with companies as many of the bigger employers had LGBT support groups or network.

Resolved – (1) That the report be noted and the recommendations set out within paragraphs 3.9 to 3.13 of the report in respect of the Swindon LGBT JSNA Profile be approved.

(2) That officers arrange staff training in respect of LGBT community requirements when commissioning services and that this be fed in the Council’s provider services forums and that companies commissioning services on behalf of the Council be made aware of its expectations.

The Board received a report of the Council’s Public Health Programme Manager updating the Board on the implementation of the Swindon Healthy Weight Programme 2017-2022 which promotes a whole system approach to tackling excess weight.

Fiona Dickins, introduced the report highlighting key areas and, following the presentation, the Board discussed issues raised including:

·       The detrimental effects of excess weight and obesity and its contribution to worsening a range of medical conditions including type two diabetes, cardiovascular, dementia and some cancers.

·       The complexity of tackling this issue due the modern environment and range of unhealthy options available to people.

·       The national approach, mirrored by Swindon of looking at a system wide approach to tackling obesity.

·       The use of local data for children and adults in informing policy and that between 2015/16 and 2016/17 adults with excess weight had reduced from 69% to 64% in Swindon (there were fluctuations in the date available for children through the national Child Measurement Programme which was operational in Swindon).

·       The areas of work tackling obesity in Swindon that were set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

·       The need for larger scale schemes and interventions to assist in reaching as many people as possible and to help reduce obesity in Swindon.

·       The evidence base available to support future work to upscale work to help people control their weight including the early years intervention pilot, healthy schools programme, the daily mile in schools, sugar smart and healthy weight declaration.

·       Simple programmes that could be introduced by employers, such as encouraging people to use stairs rather than lifts, or the introduction of vending machines with healthier snacks, to help to introduce a healthier lifestyle.

·       The use of best practice of other Local Authorities such as Trafford that have been successful in reducing the number of people with excess weight.

Resolved – (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That approval be given to the implementation of the Sugar Smart Programme in Swindon.

(3) That Partner agencies be requested to consider signing the Healthy Weight Declaration.

(4) That the health in all policy approach be supported by this Board.

The Board received an oral report from Nicki Millin, NHS Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group, updating the Board on the current status of the development of Integrated Care in Swindon including:

·       That a report detailing the priorities of Integrated Care in Swindon would be submitted to the next meeting of the Board including End of Care Pathway, older people frailness and loneliness.

·       The current prevention agenda and early intervention.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Resolved - That the minutes of the Joint Commissioning Group meeting held on 7^th June 2018 be noted.

          Cherry Jones, Director of Public Health reported orally in respect of the Charter for Families Bereaved through Public Tragedy noting:

·       That the Charter had been proposed by the Bishop James Jones in his report reviewing the Hillsborough Disaster that he recommended agencies sign up to.

·       That Swindon Borough Council was already undertaking the recommendations and the Leader of the Council had signed up to the Charter.

·       Other agencies were being asked to commit to signing the Charter after it had been taken to the Local Resilience Forum where partner organisations had indicated their willingness to sign the Charter.

Resolved – That the report be noted.