To receive a presentation.

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 and Trafford’s five principles for communications and engagement. The Board were informed that there was a draft of the written strategy which would be brought to the next meeting of the Board.

The presentation briefly covered the phase three letter, what was required in response to the letter, and the timeline for response. The requirements laid out by NHS England linked into the locality plan work of having a system wide approach to Health and Social Care. The Accountable Officer for Trafford CCG added that the letter outlined a number of tasks that were to be done but did not outline a budget for completing those tasks.

Following the presentation Board Member were given the opportunity to ask questions. The Executive Member for Adult Social Services asked how the work streams were going to be coproduced, how the public would be involved, and how the work would be cascaded down to other Boards. The Health and Social Care Programme Director responded that there were pockets of good coproduction and the aim was to expand that practice. There was always a balancing act between the desire to coproduce and the demand to complete a piece of work quickly. The Health and Social Care Programme Director spoke about the need for more structured asset based approach to commissioning that looked years in advance to allow for true coproduction in the redesigning of services going forward. Public engagement was a key priority of the Communications and engagement steering group. The group had agreed to look at ways to use group members existing links with the public to increase their levels of engagement, which would then be utilised by the four strategic development groups. The Health and Social Care Programme Director recognised that this work was ongoing and asked for Board Members to share any examples of good or best practice that they were aware of.

Councillor Brophy noted that the plan was very ambitious and raised concern about the people who might fall through the gaps, such as those who were isolating themselves due to the pandemic. The Health and Social Care Programme Director responded that this was a constant problem as the Council only knew of people they have had contact with. Work was ongoing at the GM and local levels to try and identify people who had not contacted services before. A key element of this work was the interaction with VCSE providers as they often had far better knowledge of their community than the Council or other organisations. The Corporate Director of Adult Services added that at the start of the outbreak there were thousands of people who were being shielded who the Council were in contact with. As the shielding ended the Council had maintained contact with those people and the CAB hotline was still open for people to use to seek support and the Council were using the primary care messaging system so residents were aware of access points.

The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford noted that the communications for the longer term strategy for Health and Social Care reform had been listed under the COVID 19 Public Engagement Board. The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford felt that piece of work was too broad to be covered by that board and that it should be held somewhere else within the programme of work. The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford requested that a number of strategies listed on page 13 of the document pack, including the mental health strategy and the learning disability strategy, be fed into the Health and Wellbeing Board. The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford also stated that the role of public consultation in the plans and where equality impact assessments were to be conducted needed to be made clear. The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford also requested to see the phase three priorities before the response was provided to NHS England. The Health and Social Care Programme Director responded that the mental health strategy was going to the LCA in October and then would come to the Board. Public consultation was part of the planning for the changes to services and the Board were assured that Communications and engagement, including public consultation, had been embedded into the strategic design groups and the way they approached service change.  The Health and Social Care Programme Director agreed to circulate the Phase three letter to all Board Members following the meeting.

The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford responded that they were concerned about their lack of involvement up to this point in the development of the strategies. The Health and Social Care Programme Director responded that the strategies were in the very earliest stage and HealthWatch would be involved in due course. The Executive Member for Adult Services assured the Chair of HealthWatch Trafford that they would be involved in this work going forward.

The VCSE representative welcomed the way that organisations had responded and services had been delivered during the pandemic, as the response had been far quicker than previously. It was hoped that the new ways of working with the community would continue beyond the pandemic. The VCSE representative then drew the Boards attention to the difficulties that the VCSE sector was facing with regards to funding due to the impact of COVID 19. The VCSE representative warned the Board that if adequate support was not provided to the VCSE sector then many of the organisations who delivered services across the borough would be forced to close. The Health and Social Care Programme Director responded that support for the VCSE sector during this time was a high priority for the whole system and they were looking at how to build a sustainable VCSE model which worked in the new environment.   

The Director of Public Health stated that it was important that the Board recognised their role in ensuring that the plans of the LCA were delivered. Want the 10 point plan and the LCA plan to come back to the Board’s next meeting to look at progress.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the presentation be noted.

2)    That the request for formal route to the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Trafford Partnership for the LCA System Board be noted.

3)    That the draft Communications and Engagement Strategy be brought to the next Board meeting.

4)    That Board Members share examples of best practice in communication and engagement with the public with the Health and Social Care Programme Director.

5)    That the strategies listed on page 13 of the document pack be fed into the Board.

6)    That the Phase Three letter be shared with Board Members following the meeting.