Members of the Board are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests, in connection with any item(s) on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

Councillor Chris Jones declared a personal interest by virtue of her employment with the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Apologies were received from Councillors P Davies, JE Green, Lesley Rennie, Mr J Develing, Wirral CCG, Mrs A Roberts, VCAW, Mr A Crawshaw, NHS England, Mr R Freeman, NHS England, Ms K Howell, CEO Wirral NHS Trust, Julie Webster, Head of Public Health and Ms S Cumisky, Cheshire & Wirral NHS Partnership Trust.

To approve the accuracy of the Minutes of the Health and Wellbeing Formal Board on 8 July, 2015.

Resolved – That the accuracy of the Minutes of the Health and Wellbeing Formal Board held on 8 July, 2015 be approved as a correct record.

Report to follow.

The Health and Wellbeing Board considered a report that provided an update on the Healthy Wirral Vanguard Programme that was being sponsored and delivered by all Wirral Health and Social Care Partners. Jo Goodfellow, Programme Director Healthy Wirral, attended the meeting to present the report and responded to members questions.

The Board had previously been been briefed that the Wirral Health and Social Care Community application to the national NHS New Models of Care Vanguard programme had been successful.  The application had been driven by all health and social care partners from across the system. This was a significant national opportunity to redesign all the norms which were currently accepted about the current approach for health and social care commissioning and provision and offered both the local population and colleagues a radical new way of working, which was hoped would drive a much more integrated and sustainable system going forwards, helping to meet the dual challenges of improving quality and reducing cost.

The local Vanguard Programme would be known as Healthy Wirral to reflect the Wirral Partners vision that people will live longer, healthier lives regardless of where they live on Wirral.

Members were informed that the Healthy Wirral Programme had been asked to submit a Value Proposition to NHS England New Care Models Team to describe its new model of care and the funding sought over the three year period (2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18) to enable the delivery of the New Care Model. The Value Proposition had been submitted on 30th June and had been subject to a number of iterations to clarify the details of costing within the plan.

The Healthy Wirral Programme had been allocated £3.46m in tranche one of 2015-16 funding, with the opportunity to bid in December 2015 for a second tranche of funding for 2015-16. The Healthy Wirral Programme Management Office had allocated £3.46m to the work streams under implementation in 2015-16.

The report outlined the work streams that included: Expansion of Integrated Care Co-ordination Hubs, Development of level one of the local social prescribing model, Older People’s Pathways of care, Diabetes Pathways of Care – Development of a Diabetes Community Service, Respiratory Pathways of Care, Wellness, Rapid community response teams that provide an urgent response to GPs where patients are in crisis but do not require acute hospital care, Single front door model to enable people attending the A&E department to be signposted to the most appropriate care setting and Population Health Management and Interoperability of local IT systems to create a new single care record.

Members were advised that a Healthy Wirral Launch Event was being held on 25th/26th November 2015 at the Floral Pavilion, New Brighton which would be open to Wirral Partner organisation staff (25th November) and the public (26th November). All Partner organisations had been asked to nominate Healthy Wirral Champions who would be provided with training to support them in their role. Additional champions would be sought at the launch event.

Jo Goodfellow responded to questions and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

Members of the Board considered a report of the Strategic Director of Families & Wellbeing that requested that members of the Health & Wellbeing Board approve an agreement which was aimed at strengthening joint working arrangements between Wirral Health and Wellbeing Board, Wirral Healthwatch and health scrutiny (currently undertaken by the Families and Wellbeing Policy & Performance Committee).

It was reported that during 2013, a scrutiny review entitled ‘The implications of the Francis Report for Wirral’ had been undertaken by a panel of elected members. The recommendations of the panel members had been subsequently approved by the Families and Wellbeing Policy & Performance Committee and by the Council’s Cabinet. 

Two of the recommendations of Wirral’s scrutiny review were: Recommendation 11 – Protocol for effective working between Healthwatch and health scrutiny and Recommendation 12 – Framework for effective working between the Health & Wellbeing Board and health scrutiny.The Head of Policy & Performance / Director of Public Health was requested to develop a framework to encourage a constructive working relationship between Health & Wellbeing Board and health scrutiny, ensuring that strategies reflected priorities and delivered outcomes.

The Robert Francis report, arising from events at Mid Staffordshire hospital, had stressed the necessity to “promote the coordination and cooperation between local Healthwatch, Health & Wellbeing Boards and local government scrutiny committees”. Meetings of representatives of the three bodies had recently been held to review the practical working arrangements in Wirral. The appendix to the report contained the Agreement for joint working between Wirral Health and Wellbeing Board, Healthwatch Wirral and Wirral Health Scrutiny and outlined how the Health and Wellbeing Board would play its part in the protocol.

Resolved – That

1  the proposed agreement for joint working between Wirral Health and Wellbeing Board, Healthwatch Wirral and Wirral Health Scrutiny be approved.

2  Council Officers finalise any amendments to the draft agreement following the consultation with the three bodies.

Members considered a report of the Director of Adult Social Services that provided an overview of the latest position of the Better Care Fund (BCF). The BCF had been signed off with assurance from NHS England in September 2014. The BCF represented partnership working between the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Local Authority and key providers. The three appendices to the report contained the Scheme summary, Finance summary and the Performance Dashboard.

The Director reported that considerable progress had been made to progress implementation of key schemes to deliver against the national requirements and in particular, the achievement of the 3.5% reduction target for unplanned admissions. (Appendix 1 of the report showed a summary of all schemes) The importance of the commitment of all organisations that had worked proactively to streamline and integrate delivery of services and supported the BCF priorities was also highlighted.

The report detailed the key areas of progress and noted that Wirral was bucking the National trend and achieving a reduction in admissions with the schemes funded through the BCF playing a key role.

Resolved – That the progress with regard the BCF priorities, monitored via the section 75 pooled budget, be noted.

The Chair agreed to vary the order of business.

Members of the Board considered a report of the Director of Adult Social Services who briefed the Health & Wellbeing Board on the work that had been completed with regards to Wirral’s All Age Disability Strategy. Members were informed that people with disabilities needed to have a stronger voice and Wirral had now written a draft All Age Disability strategy to ensure that the priorities of disabled people in Wirral were being met. The strategy had been developed through consultation and was now ready to be shared for feedback. The All Age Disability Strategy would be the overarching strategy which would have all strategies that would have an impact on disabled people in Wirral would sit under. The draft Wirral’s All Age Disability Strategy: People with Disabilities Living Independent Lives 2016-2020 was attached as an appendix to the report.

The Director of Adult Social Services informed the Board that there had been a number of consultation sessions with all stake holders to identify the key priorities for people with disabilities in Wirral.  The ‘draft’ strategy was now ready to be shared with all of the individuals and groups of people who attended the consultation sessions, and it would also be sent to people who have autism, carers, Health and Social Care professionals, other departments in the Council, providers and the third sector. DASS had led a joint piece of work between CYPD and CCG that looked at the whole age draft strategy and identified areas that were considered to be priorities for disabled people in Wirral.

Resolved – That: -

1) the draft All Age Disability Strategy be agreed and signed off so that it can be implemented by the Disability Partnership Board.

2) the Board note that resources are to be taken into consideration to ensure that the work can be completed and the strategy launched.

A report of the Director of Adult Social Services updated the Health & Wellbeing Board on the work that had been completed with regards to Wirral’s Autism Strategy. It was reported that the National Autism Strategy had been implemented in 2009 and since then there had been an expectation that all Local Authorities would have a local Autism Strategy. Wirral now had a draft strategy that had been developed through consultation and had been agreed. Work was now needed to begin in order for the strategy to be implemented and members were informed that the Strategy would sit underneath the All Age Disability Strategy which was attached as an appendix to the report.

The Director of Adult Social Services informed the Board that there had been a number of consultation sessions with all stake holders to identify the key priorities for people with autism in Wirral. Mr Hodkinson commented that one of the strategic objectives was the need to focus on how people with Autism were prepared for adulthood and how they are prepared for work. Councillor Tony Smith raised concern that compared to other authorities Wirral had a higher number of children who attended special schools and recognised the need that all children should be prepared for life.

Members were informed that the ‘draft’ strategy had been shared with all of the individuals and groups of people who had attended the consultation sessions, and it had also been sent to people who have autism, carers, Health and Social Care professionals, other departments in the Council, providers and the third sector. DASS had worked with CYPD and CCG, looking at the whole draft strategy and had identified areas that required updating/adding to in order to make the strategy an all age one. Members were advised that the strategy had been presented to Strategic Leadership Team in DASS, Departmental Management Team for Families and Wellbeing, Disability Partnership Board.

Resolved – That;

1) the draft Autism Strategy be agreed and signed off so that it can be implemented by the Autism Sub-group.

2) the Board note that resources are to be taken into consideration to ensure that the work can be completed and the strategy launched.

Verbal report – Fiona Johnstone, Director of Public Health.

Fiona Johnstone, Director of Public Health gave the Board a verbal update to provide Members with an understanding of the strategies involved in the Wirral Plan that set out what areas the Council would prioritise over the next five years.. The Wirral Plan, published in June 2015, set out a series of 20 pledges which the council and its partners would work to achieve by 2020, focusing on three key themes: protecting the most vulnerable; driving economic growth and improving the local environment. Dr Peter Naylor, Chair Wirral CCG, agreed that it was important that strategies be aligned as there was a great deal of overlap. The Chair of the Committee indicated that it was important that all members own the Plan and Val McGhee, Director of Integration and Partnerships commented that it was incumbent on all members to have connections and work together to support each other.

Resolved – That Fiona Johnstone be thanked for the verbal report.

The date of the next formal Board meeting is Wednesday 9 March, 2016.

The date of the next formal Board meeting would be Wednesday 9 March, 2015.