Agenda and minutes

Councillor Daniel Maycock declared an interest in item 3 relating to the George Bryan Centre in Tamworth as a previous service user.

Councillor Richard Cox declared an interest in item 3 relating to the George Bryan Centre a family member was a previous service user.

Report of NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT)

The Deputy Chief Executive MPFT introduced the report and explained that the presentation would be led by the Integrated Care Board ICB as the commissioning body. The Chief Medical Director ICB confirmed that no decision had been made at this stage of the process and introduced the presentation.

The presentation – ‘Finding a long-term solution for the inpatient mental health services previously provided at the George Bryan Centre’ provided background, context and highlighted matters in the business case and process to be followed for further discussion:

·       Updated on the clinical case for change in mental health services

·       Explained the recommendations from clinicians/staff for inpatient mental health services for people living in south east Staffordshire

·       Shared the robust process followed

·       Shared the next steps

The Chief Medical Director highlighted that proposals must be viable and invited members questions and points for clarification.

The Chairman thanked partners for the presentation. The slides and the link to the video would be circulated to members and uploaded to the webpage.

The following matters were discussed, comments and responses to questions during the debate were noted:

Role of Members: Members paid tribute to the dedication and hard work of staff and to the value of mental health services in Staffordshire.  Members highlighted their role was to represent people in the community to ensure their voice was heard in developing mental health services in their communities.

Service User Satisfaction - A member questioned satisfaction ratings for inpatient services in 2021 and whether the business case proposal was moving away from what the people thought worked well. It was explained that population of the unit had reduced between 2019 -2021 and it was difficult to compare unit for unit.  The 2022 figures were not available but would be provided.

Workforce safety on site – Members questioned if there had been an issue with the level of workforce at the George Bryan Centre (GBC) prior to the fire. Committee acknowledged that workforce in isolated buildings was difficult to manage and that there had been issues with the number of staff to patient ratio.  Recruitment and retention at the GBC had been a challenge, it was a small centre. As part of involvement process MPFT had talked to the staff that were previously employed at GBC – they ascertained that none of the staff who responded would want to move back, they had moved on to other roles and felt reassured in a hospital setting, which had more people on site. It was acknowledged that recruitment and retention was a big problem for the NHS in all settings.

Workforce safety in the community – Community Mental Health Services have larger teams; staff also work alongside police officers when required. Members were advised that staff safety in community services had not presented a risk.  It was clarified that if someone was identified as a high risk to safety, they would be referred to an inpatient service. Members queried whether incidents where police were called to GBC were now  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.