Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies received.

(The meeting finished at 20.40 Hours).

To remind Members of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests or other interests they might have in relation to the items included on this agenda.

Cllr Durrans declared an interest in minute 19 as she was a member of a Neuro Parent group and in minute 20 as she had links with North Halifax partnership.

Councillor Parsons-Hulse declared an interest in minute 19 as she works in the psychotherapy service provision outside of the Borough.

To approve the minutes of the above meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting of the Adults, Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board held on 15th July 2021, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This item will consider suicide and suicide prevention in Calderdale, across all age ranges. Because of this, Children and Young People Scrutiny Board members have been invited to attend and participate in this discussion. The discussion will be led in “workshop style” by Sue Forster, Consultant in Public Health, with contributions from Calderdale CCG, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust and Council officers. The Scrutiny Board is asked to consider whether it wishes to make any recommendations to Cabinet, council officers or NHS bodies on suicide prevention.

The Interim Consultant, Public Health presented a report on the partnership work being undertaken on suicide prevention. The report includes the findings of the audit undertaken between 2016 and 2018 (Appendix A) and informs Members on:

·         suicide rates in Calderdale in comparison to local, regional and national figures;

·         a summary of the risk and protective factors from the suicide audit;

·         the background information on the construction and priorities of the updated Suicide Prevention Action Plan (SPAP);

·         a summary of the progress made on the delivery of the SPAP; and

·         the integration of suicide prevention into all the council’s services and programmes for all age groups.

The Chair welcomed the representative from partnership organisations and Members of the Children and Young Persons Scrutiny Board who had been invited to attend the meeting and contribute to the review of the report.

Councillors Barnes, Blagbrough, Courtney, Durrans, Foster, Holdsworth, Hutchinson, Kingstone, Parsons-Hulse, Rivron, M Swift commented:

·         Why is the SPAP not attached to the report?  In response, Officers advised that the SPAP is currently going through the final check and approvement process. A timescale  of when the SPAP would be submitted for consideration would be circulated to Members in the next few days.

·         The report does not give a sense of why Calderdale suicide rates were higher than average.

·         At the July 2021 meeting of this Board a report on “Burnt Bridges” had been scrutinised by Members where concerns had been raised about the lack of joined up services and clear signposting and no one taking on the responsibility.  There is a need for joined up services between Mental Health and Drug/Alcohol Dependency Teams. Members had experience in the past where Alcohol/drug dependant persons had been refused support within the Mental Health service and this now needs to start to happen.    In response, Officers replied they saw comparative links between the “Burnt Bridges” report and a joined up service approach required for suicide prevention.

·         There is  a lot of data analysis in the report which also advises that support for relationship challenges and adjustments to benefit status particularly for the disabled community was required. In response, Officers advised that Department of Work and Pensions and GP practices deal with the benefit assessments independent of each other and that dual diagnosis should be applied and focussed on. The following report at this meeting is about a person centred approach to avoid persons falling through the cracks.

·         The last audit on suicide prevention did not include ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. A co-ordinated approach is not limited to Mental Health and Drug/Alcohol dependencies Teams but involves other teams and partnerships as well to prevent all persons including young person’s reaching crisis point. In response, Officers advised Dual diagnosis is an area that requires attention and improvement and is one of the action points of the SPAP.

·         Data on adults show it is more common that a person who commits suicide have attempted suicide previously. Is data collected on children and young persons recorded differently as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Community services have been central to plans for the future in Calderdale, particularly since the development of the Care Closer to Home Programme in 2018. In July 2020, following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calderdale Partners came together to take stock and review/reset the existing Care Closer to Home Programme, which is  now known as ‘Calderdale Collaborative Community Partnership Board’ (3CPB).   This item will consider the objectives of 3CPB and officers will describe examples of how it will be developed in practice.

The Chair of this Scrutiny Board  welcomed the Chair and Members of the Calderdale Collaborative Community Partnership Board (3CPB) to the meeting.

The Director, Public Health and The Chair of 3CPB presented their report on Transforming Community Services and with other Members of the 3CPB gave a presentation on collaborative partnership working in Community Services which informed Members on the role of Calderdale Cares, its story so far, and the development of  the role of 3CPB and their programme plan the key factors developed in creating the conditions to achieve Calderdale Cares outcomes which are:

·         Person Centred

·         Place Based Intervention, Investment and Provision

·         Chanel Shift

·         Sustainable Place Based Workforce

·         Place Based Digital Maturity

·         Right Care, Right Time, Right Place

Councillors Barnes, Hutchinson and Kingstone commented on the report:

·         The Urgent Community Response Report contains too much jargon and is not reader friendly. Future reports needed to be simplified and not contain jargon.

·         It was useful to know where on the programme/plan the 3CPB members were at.

·         It would be useful to have solid aims rather than aspirations.

·         Members would prefer to see a local report not a duplication of the West Yorkshire Joint overview report  which had received a frosty reception.

IT WAS AGREEDthat the report be noted.

This month’s covid-19 update will focus on social care and residential care.

The Director, Adult Services and Wellbeing gave an oral update that provided information on the key changes to the response to the pandemic since the last meeting of the Board. He advised that in the period 8th to 14th August:

·         Calderdale residents had a Covid-19 case rate of 396 per 100,000.

·         there had been two outbreaks in care homes and one case from social care provision.

·         86% of care home staff had received their 1^st jab and 78% having received their second jab.

·         89% of residential care setting staff had received their 1^st jab and 74% their second jab.

The Director, Adult Services and Wellbeing further advised that on 16^th July 2021 the Government had advised that all staff in the care sector were required to be fully vaccinated by 11^th November 2021 unless they had a medical exemption. The current estimate is that potentially 120 staff in care settings will lose their job and this was on top of approximately a 10% vacancy rate within the sector.  Calderdale had the 2^nd lowest death rate in a care home setting in Yorkshire and Humber and were 42nd Local Authority nationally.

Members received the update but did not comment on the information received.

IT WAS AGREED that:

(a)    the Director, Adults Health and Wellbeing be requested to write a letter of thanks to Calderdale Care Home Staff .

(b)    the update be noted.

The latest version of the Adults Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board Work Programme is attached and provides Members with the opportunity to update or amend it accordingly.

The Senior Scrutiny Officer provided a written report which updated the Adult Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board’s Work Programme that included upcoming items and an opportunity to make any changes/additions and incorporate any suggestions made within this meeting of the Scrutiny Board.

The Chair confirmed that if anyone had any suggestion or items to add to contact him or the Senior Scrutiny Officer directly.

IT WAS AGREED that the report be noted.