None received.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2021 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

None received.

The Board received a presentation from Claire McIver on the draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Board Strategy. An update was provided around the development of the strategy and consultation which had taken place between in January and February 2022. The findings and feedback gathered were demonstrated in the slides.

Across the consultation, which ran from 21 January 2022 to 20 February 2022, 227 responses were received from 219 individuals and 8 organisations. Early feedback from the Board led to some minor changes which simplified the ambition and vision.

The strategy is guided by the King’s Fund four pillars for population health, which aims to improve physical and mental health outcomes, promote wellbeing and reduce health inequalities across an entire population.

Before open consultation, early feedback from the Board resulted in a change to the priorities, moving from ‘reducing infant mortality’ to a broadened ‘health in early life’ priority, with reducing infant mortality defined as a key outcome.

An output from the consultation shows that 81% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the vision statement. Comments focused on poor access, loss of/limited services, a need for a cohesive approach to health improvement, and a suggestion that the vision should say “We will think health and wellbeing, in all that we do.”

For question 9, a relatively high number of responses were categorised in the miscellaneous/unrelated theme because some respondents had answered the question by stating what public bodies should be doing instead of what they could do to help and therefore had been excluded from the main themes.

A number of comments were received for Question 10, which was an open-ended question on what people felt needed to be focused on. Around half of all responses were themed around access to services, i.e. access to GPs, support with technology, accessibility of services, and how we organise ourselves.

Further comments in the consultation highlighted themes such as communication, organisational leadership, consideration of environmental factors, access to healthy eating, promotion and encouragement of fitness and exercise and access to services.

In summary, respondents broadly agreed with the vision outlined in the strategy, good mental health was seen as the top priority and key themes identified:

-      Access in the community and to services

-      How would we deliver the strategy and how would we know that it has succeeded?

-      A desire to see better joined up working between services and improved partnership working

-      Involvement and engagement with the public

-      Improvement on communications and information

-      Consideration of environmental factors

Next steps include an update to the strategy to incorporate feedback from the consultation, to share the final version with the Board in the following 2-3 weeks, sign-off from the Board at the June 2022 meeting, mapping of existing partnerships and workstreams to identify gaps and action plans and agree the process for monitoring progress. It was important that the next phase of mapping, identifying gaps and development of supporting plans and agreeing performance metrics/process was a shared exercise  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91.

The Board received a report and presentation on the newly developed Healthy Ageing and Managing Frailty Strategy which had been developed by Together We’re Better (TWB).

The document set out a strategic approach on how we could promote quality of life and delay the onset of frailty for as long as possible. The document also showed the key themes of the strategy.

The Board were also informed that the healthier ageing theme was being led by Public Health colleagues from two Local Authorities and preliminary scoping work had commenced.

Two questions were asked of the Board for consideration:

1.         Does the Healthy Ageing and Managing Frailty in Older Age Strategy add value to the existing Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and priorities?

2.         How would the Health and Wellbeing Board wish to contribute and shape elements of the strategy that are more health service facing?

The presentation further denoted the Staffordshire Healthy Ageing and Frailty Prevention Strategy. Recommendations from the working group which looked at the Strategy included:

-      Continuing to grow community assets

-      Improving Staffordshire’s repository of information about help available in the community

-      Continuing to development Community Help Points

-      Ensuring professionals know how to access and consistently use help available in the community

-      Promoting assistive technology and other digital innovations to help older people

-      Development of a plan to reduce social isolation amongst older people

-      Development of strengths-based practice across all health and care professionals

-      Co-ordination of a large scale prevention programme to improve lifestyles

-      Challenge societal attitudes towards ageing

-      Do more to help people plan for end of life.

The Board were supportive of the Healthy Ageing and Frailty Strategy and agreed that it did add value to the existing HWBB strategy and priorities, highlighting a need to shift the current working practices to a more holistic model. Additional comments from the Board included a focus on power of attorney, earlier conversations around death and access to services. It was highlighted that education was key around older age and managing frailty and a lack of focus on lifestyle in earlier years as the Strategy focuses on what happens afterwards.

RESOLVED – That (a) the Board note the Healthy Ageing and Managing Frailty Strategy developed by Together We’re Better;

(b) the Board consider how the Healthy Ageing and Frailty Strategy adds value to the existing Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Priorities, including primary and secondary prevention and reduction of health inequalities; and

(c) the Board consider how the Health and Wellbeing Board wish to contribute and shape elements of the strategy that are more health service facing.

The Board received a presentation on the Air Aware Staffordshire Project which was in Phase 2.

The Project consisted of five elements which included: Business Engagement; School Engagement; Electric Vehicles; Communications and Air Quality Monitoring Stations.

The Board were informed of recent work and outputs from the Business Engagement (Firebreaks affect progression) which took place in Cannock, Burton and Leek. Outputs included 3 business travel networks launched with 32 attendees, 22 business engagements, 4 proposals presented and awaiting feedback, 1 MODESHIFT accreditation and 5 events.

The Board were also informed of the ongoing work around the Electric Vehicle SCC Strategy and School Engagement which had seen active engagement with 15 schools across the County.

The project would be moving forward in March with an Anti-Idling Campaign which would run from March 14^th to March 27^th 2022 and would target 100 locations, website traffic and social media engagement.

Comments from the Board included whether air pollution checks have been made in those areas where activities have taken place. Diffusion tube monitoring takes place over a 12-month period and live tests can take place to enable instant reporting.

Members of the Board further commented around the expansion of the engagement to other schools.

RESOLVED – That the update be noted.

The Board received a report on the Staffordshire Better Care Fund and an update on the current position in 2021/22.

The Board were reminded of discussions at their June and September 2021 meetings and subsequent guidance which had been received from NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I). The Better Care Fund plan was submitted to NHSE&I in December 2021 and notification of approval was received in January 2022.

The Board noted that BCF Planning for 2022/23 was underway through the Joint Commissioning Board in conjunction with the Council and Clinical Commissioning Groups.

RESOLVED – That (a) the Board note that the 2021/22 Staffordshire BCF plan was submitted to NHSE&I in December 2021, and notification of approval was received in January 2022; and

(b) the Board note that the Staffordshire BCF Plan has subsequently been updated with the inclusion of an additional £19.25 million funding and associated expenditure.

RESOLVED – That the Forward Plan for 2021/22 be received and noted.

RESOLVED – That the date, time and venue of the next meeting of the Board (Thursday 9^th June 2022 at 2:00pm in the Council Chamber, County Buildings, Stafford), be noted.