Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Contact: Alexander Murray, Governance Officer 

Items
No. Item

6.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 208 KB

To receive and if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings held on 20 February 2020, and 15 May 2020.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on the 20 February 2020 and 22 May 2020 be agreed as an accurate record.

7.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

The following declarations were made;

·         Councillor Harding in relation to her work for Cancer Research.

·         Councillor Brophy in relation to her employment in the NHS.

8.

QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4 p.m. on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to the remit of the Board and will be submitted in the order in which they were received.

Minutes:

No questions were received.

9.

OUTBREAK MANAGEMENT PLAN pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health gave a brief overview of the Outbreak Management Plan. At the beginning of June the Council had to produce outbreak management plans for each area which were completed and available online from the beginning of July. The Outbreak Management Plan was a working document that covered how Trafford were responding to COVID 19. The plan was split into two sections which were preventative and reactive measures. The preventative section focused upon infection control and covered equipment, rules, and public engagement. There was a section on testing in Trafford which covered the five testing options available in the area.   A large part of the plan concerned how to make people aware of testing options available and when they needed to get a test.

 

The plan also covered contact tracing when someone tested positive including how a person’s contacts were traced, how they were contacted, and what those people had to do once they had been contacted. Within the contact tracing Trafford were trying to identify high risk settings within the area. High risk areas were those where there was likely to be outbreaks, for example workplaces or schools, or those where if an outbreak occurred it would have a large impact, for example care homes.  The other section of the plan looked at the response that was taken when there was an outbreak within the area.

 

Following the overview the Board were given the opportunity to ask questions. Councillor Brophy asked what had been learnt from the outbreaks that had been seen in the area. The Director of Public Health responded that the outbreaks in Trafford had taken them by surprise as it did not match the outbreaks seen elsewhere in the country. The lessons learned were that there was still community level transmission in Trafford and that the level of infections increased as people interacted more. The original outbreak seemed to be a group of young people where one had tested positive and then informed their friends who all went and had tests. By the time the pattern had been recognised they had stopped going for tests. Some spread had been seen to their parents but not at a high level so far.

 

Councillor Brophy asked whether the situation with the young people was now under control or if this was still an area of increased transmission. The Director of Public Health responded that there had been a change in the demographic of cases with infection levels no longer highest among young people. While there had been a reduction in the overall level of cases the Board were informed that there had been a spike in cases on Monday the 10th August and Trafford still had the 22nd highest rate of infection in the Country. The Director of Public Health then gave a breakdown of the demographics of the spread across the area.  The Board were informed that there had not yet been any spread into care homes and were assured that was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

HEALTH PROTECTION BOARD ACTION PLANS pdf icon PDF 91 KB

To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health took item 7 and 8 of the agenda together and introduced the plans for the Health Protection and Public Engagement Boards that had been created as part of the Outbreak management plan. The Health Protection Board reported into the Gold Command structure and was and internal facing Board that looked at what the organisations needed to do to reduce the risks of COVID 19. The Public Engagement Board was an external facing Board looking at the communication and engagement needed to keep the population safe and reported directly to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

 

Councillor Brophy asked whether the structures were new structures that had been set up in response to COVID 19 or whether they had already been planned to be created. The Director of Public Health responded that these were two new boards set up in response to COVID 19 but fitted into existing structures. Trafford had been looking to increase public engagement prior to the COVID 19 pandemic and a lot of the learning around public engagement that had come from the pandemic would help to shape Trafford’s approach going forward.

 

A 10 point action plan had been developed for August and September to ensure that all involved were focused on the 10 key priorities during that time. The plan covered a wide range of actions and under each one of the points were a set of actions that needed to be completed. The director of Public Health went through the 10 point plan and added additional detail to each point for the Board.

 

Following the overview of the Board and the 10 point plan Board Members were given the opportunity to ask questions. Councillor Brophy noted that the national government had stated that to open schools and colleges there may have to be additional restrictions elsewhere. Councillor Brophy asked the Director of Public Health where those additional restrictions might be. The Director of Public Health stated that Trafford were still working to keep schools open during the pandemic. So far it seemed as though the levels of transmission between children attending school appeared to be quite low and the impact of the virus among that age group was also low. Work was ongoing around how adults interacted to control the spread of COVID 19 and while workplaces had been set up to reduce the risk of infection it was the social interactions around work, for example car sharing to and from work or going for a drink after work, where there were concerns about possible spread. It was hoped that through the measures that were in place and by people acting in accordance with the guidance that infection rates would remain low. However, if the levels of infection started to increase to unmanageable levels then decisions would need to be taken as to which parts of society were essential and needed to stay open and which would be closed.

 

The Executive Member for Adult Social Care raised concern around people who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT BOARD PLANS pdf icon PDF 203 KB

To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

Minutes:

This item was covered under agenda item 7.

12.

LCA SYSTEM BOARD pdf icon PDF 630 KB

To receive a presentation.

Minutes:

The Corporate Director for Adult Services informed the Board that the update set out the prioritise of the work programme, bringing forward all of the locality plan work, reflecting on the COVID activity, Winter planning, and all of the partnership work that was ongoing.  The work was about ensuring that the longer term planning reflected the needs of all Trafford residents.

 

The Health and Social Care Programme Director then went through the presentation that had been circulated as part of the supplementary agenda. The key components of the Locality plan remained although COVID 19 had changed the way those components were to be delivered. The plan had always taken a holistic approach which looked at the wider determinants of health and that approach was to continue. The programme had been built around six pillars which were understood as the key aspects of delivering health and social care. It was now understood that a more fluid approach was needed to understand how the different programmes of work were interconnected and how everyone had to work together to achieve the aspirations. COVID 19 had shown how interrelated all of the work was and the importance of being open and inclusive in the designing of services. It had also shown the importance of taking an asset based approach to empower communities and the value of involving partners from the earliest stages of design. The system level thinking which had been so important in coping with the pandemic was something that would be taken forward and developed further as a core part of the work. The Health and Social Care Programme Director informed the Board that the LCA needed a more formal route into the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Trafford Partnership to be able to influence the wider determinants of Health and that was one of the key asks of the Board. 

 

Four strategic design groups had been set up which involved key partners from the outset. There was a programme team who provided wrap around support for the four groups and aided in understanding how their work linked together. By involving partners involved at the right time it was hoped that the strategic design groups would reduce duplication, encourage coproduction, and remove barriers. The presentation contained an overview of each of the four strategic design groups which detailed the senior responsible officer, the senior lead officers or Chair, the priorities of the group, and a group description. The group descriptions were to be shared with wider partners so they could identify which group they needed to interact with. 

 

For communications the aim was to have a single communications and engagement strategy which would cover the work of the locality plan as well as the response and recovery for COVID 19. The strategy would look to build on the excellent work done in the last few months, for example the progress made around behaviour change. The presentation included a number of key asks which had been put forward by the steering group  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

INFECTION CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT pdf icon PDF 861 KB

To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health introduced the report and informed the Board that Community Infection Control Team was a small team 3 nurses and admin support. The report summarised the work the team had done over the year. During the outbreak the team had supported teams across the Council in reducing spread and outbreaks of COVID 19. The Director of Public Health highlighted the work the team did throughout the year, especially with care homes and GPs, in combatting all infectious diseases across the borough. Following the Director of Public Health’s Introduction Board Member were given the opportunity to ask questions but none were raised.

 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

14.

EXCLUSION RESOLUTION (REMAINING ITEMS)

Motion   (Which may be amended as Members think fit):

 

That the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the remaining items on the agenda, because of the likelihood of disclosure of “exempt information” which falls within one or more descriptive category or categories of the Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12A, as amended by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, and specified on the agenda item or report relating to each such item respectively.