Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ann Edgeller declared an interest as Staffordshire County Councils appointed Partner Governor at the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT).

Councillor Bernard Peters declared an interest as Staffordshire County Councils Local Authority appointed Governor at University Hospital Derby and Burton (UHDB).

The Committee agreed to amend the minutes of the meeting held on 31 July 2023 to include Councillor Edgeller’s apologies and a spelling error under item 20.

Resolved – That (a) the minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

(b) subject to the amendments referred to above, the minutes of the meeting held on 31 July 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Care, Jan Cartman-Frost, Senior Commissioning Manager, Becky Murphy, Commissioning Officer Sarah Tunnicliffe, Commissioning Officer and Nichola Bromage, associate Director for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism and Children and Young People presented the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Strategy 2023-28 draft action plan to the Committee.

The Committee were advised that the County Council and the Integrated Care Board had jointly developed a draft action plan to support the delivery of the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Strategy 2023-28 which was agreed in March 2023. It was reported that the delivery of the strategy over the next five years would be overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Committee noted the following comments and responses to questions:

·         The Committee welcomed that the strategy and draft action plan has been co-produced by a number of partner organisations.

·         The actions, dates and timescales within the action plan were ambitious and had been agreed by the lead organisations. Some of the targets within the action plan were already underway. For the more complex actions, where more work was required, more time had been allocated within the action plan.

·         There had been a comprehensive survey sent to all of Staffordshire schools around emotional health and wellbeing which had 350/400 responses. The County Council had worked with the education sector to review the findings from that survey and an action plan had been created to address the gaps and barriers identified within the survey.

·         The importance of a person’s Mental Wellbeing, Mental Health and early intervention.

·         ICS children and young people’s mental health system improvement board had set up a number of workstream groups to look at particular parts of the action plan.

·         The original strategy was developed to reflect that the stratgey would be delivered within existing resources. There was a Mental Health Investment Standard in the NHS which was ring fenced to be spent within Mental Health. There had been opportunities for voluntary services to put forward proposals for contracts with the NHS. There was also a small grants process aimed at smaller voluntary groups. The Committee requested a list of the voluntary sector schemes which had been funded.

·         A number of the outcomes within the action plan were dependent on work in communities, in the development of the strategy, communities were keen to be involved and had requested to be kept informed on the development of the strategy.

·         Expanding the use of Staffordshire Connects (a one-stop-shop directory service featuring health and care services and events across Staffordshire) to include a section for children and young people.

·         Findings from recent engagement and a survey highlighted that people were unaware of the Mental Health services that the voluntary services offer; the action plan looked to address this so that people know where they could access services. There had been focused groups with the voluntary sector organisations which highlighted the range of services that the voluntary services offer.

·         There was an ICS Workforce plan to address the workforce  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

Chris Bird, Chief Transformation Officer for the Integrated Care Board presented the report to the Committee.

The Committee had requested this item following the quality account sessions with both Staffordshire’s Mental Health providers which highlighted a difference in approach and the Committee were seeking assurance that an equitable service provision is available to Staffordshire residents by North Staffs Combined Health Care Trust (NSCHT) and Midlands University Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT).

The Committee were informed that the Integrated Care Board were working with the two service providers to coordinate the service on offer. It was reported that the data was provided by both of the service providers and due to differing remits of the providers there was a challenge in benchmarking however, there were national performance metrics within the report.

The Committee noted the following comments and responses to questions:

·         The National performance environment meant that the data was not comparable and the data within the report was a flavour of data available for Members and there was a comprehensive dashboard of Mental Health indicators available which could be provided. Some of the data could be split into Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, but to split by District and Boroughs would need to be done by manual auditors. The Committee agreed that Staffordshire data would be useful and at this stage would not need breaking down by District/ Boroughs.

·         Within the Mental Health data sets there was a three-month lag in data and work was underway to reduce this to a two-month lag.

·         There were differences in performance between the two providers which were scrutinised monthly by NHSE.

·         Workforce issues were raised, it was discussed that the ICB worked with providers to ensure that they could access other staff to temporarily fill posts.

·         The way that current provider contacts worked was that NSCHT would provide services for Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle Under Lyme and Staffordshire Moorlands and MPFT would provide services for the rest of the County. It was reported that there was an expectation for providers to meet the requirements in their areas however there was some provision where resource could be shared. The Committee commented that there should be the ability for a Staffordshire resident to be able to be treated by either service collaboratively. 

Resolved – That the Committee noted and commented on the Mental Health performance indicators for NSCHT and MPFT.

The Committee requested that the District and Borough Councils who had not yet agreed the Code of Joint Working be requested to do so.

The Committee were advised that Cannock Chase District Council had established a Working Group to review letting standards of housing.

It was reported that Staffordshire Moorlands had requested to scrutinise the West Midlands Ambulance Service. The Committee discussed and agreed that a dedicated meeting for the West Midlands Ambulance Service on 13November 2023 at 2pm.

Resolved – That the District and Borough update be received.

The Adult Social Care Assurance Working Group, chaired by Councillor Cox had met and scoped its work. Members of that group would be looking through specific lenses to feed into the Working Group.

There had been a workshop to look into the Staffordshire connects service. Members have fed back on this service which will be launched early next year. 

The Woman’s Health Working Group were due to meet to look at the report prepared which gives the Staffordshire perspective of the Woman’s Health Strategy.

The social care working group, the timescales have moved to the end of the year. The members of that working group were looking through specific lenses.

The Integrated Care Hub Working Group had a new lead officer and the business cases for the ICHs were being worked up.

The Committee agreed to add community mental health and West Midlands Ambulance Service to the work programme following from this meeting.

Resolved – That the Work Programme be updated and noted.