Apologies for absence were received from Paul Satoor, Sir David Henshaw, Warren Ward, Mark Thomas, Mike Maier, Michael Brown, Councillor Wendy Clements, Councillor Janette Williamson, Janelle Holmes, Karen Howell, Karen Prior, Tim Welch, Supt Martin Earl and Liz Bishop.

Members of the Board are asked whether they have any personal or prejudicial interests in connection with any application on the agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

No declarations of interests were made.

To approve the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 29 September 2021.

Resolved – That the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 29 September 2021 be agreed.

Councillor Phil Gilchrist raised that a resident had submitted a public question on time, but that it had not been received by Democratic and Member Services. The Chair undertook to provide a written response to the question.

The Director of Public Health introduced the report which detailed the work of the Marmot Community Programme to reduce inequalities and the work of the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership with the programme. The report also set out proposals for a workshop led by the Marmot team to ensure that work already in progress was acknowledged and aligned to assist in the production of the Wirral Health and Wellbeing Strategy, via the establishment of a working group with representation from partners to take forward the recommendations of the 2021 Public Health Annual Report and findings from the Marmot workshop and final report to produce the local Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Colleagues around the table welcomed the approach which aligned with other work ongoing in the Health sector and committed to engaging in the working group. The Board was informed of the investment coming into the borough through the Towns Fund, with multi-million-pound capital investment into the renovation of the Treasury Annex building in Birkenhead to develop a multi-sector Wellbeing and Opportunity Centre encompassing health, education and the voluntary sector. It was felt that the Board would benefit from an update on that development and the other work coming out of the Towns Fund from both a Health and Education aspect.

Resolved – That

(1)  a workshop be arranged in November 2021 to be held in Wirral and delivered by the Marmot team, to support the development of Wirral’s place plans in line with the identified strategic and local priorities and key drivers to address post[1]Covid-19 inequalities as outlined in the 2021 Public Health Annual Report and Wirral Plan.

(2)  a working group be established with representation from partners to take forward the recommendations of the 2021 Public Health Annual Report and findings from the Marmot workshop and final report to produce a local Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

(3)  Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust and Wirral Met College be invited to present a report to a future meeting on the developments associated with the Towns Fund.

The Assistant Director Neighbourhoods, Safety & Transport introduced the report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services which provided detail on the Community Safety Strategy 2021-2026. It was reported to the Board the strategy had historically focused on crime prevention, but that the strategy before members had been co-produced following significant consultation with a wide range of stakeholders such as victims of crime and voluntary sector organisations and had been produced taking a public health approach around prevention and early intervention. The Strategy based itself 10 priority thematic areas, these included:

·  Anti-Social Behaviour

·  Violent Crime

·  Domestic Abuse

·  Drugs and Alcohol

·  Hate Crime

·  Modern Slavery

·  Prevent

·  Road Safety

·  Emergency Planning

·  Costal and Inland Water Safety

It was outlined that these themes would be under-pinned by a detailed action plan focusing on operational delivery, and the Board were invited to select thematic areas for further updates at future meetings.

Some Board Members noted that this was the first time the Community Safety Strategy had been considered by the Health and Wellbeing Board and welcomed the public health approach being taken and the involvement of the Board given the breadth of its membership. It was felt that through the strategy there were components that had a consequence on public health and the Director of Public Health undertook to work collaboratively with the Assistant Director Neighbourhoods, Safety & Transport to align the various initiatives.

Resolved – That

(1)  The co-produced Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy (Community Safety Strategy 2021-2026 be noted.

(2)  the Assistant Director Neighbourhoods, Safety and Transport be requested to provide regular updates at least annually to the Health and Wellbeing Board on the progress made in respect to the delivery of the Community Safety Strategy.

The Director of Public Health introduced the report which outlined the link between employment and health, with good quality employment opportunities being a fundamental part of the collective effort to improve health outcomes. It was stated that the Board had considered a number of overarching policy documents such as the Public Health Annual Report, the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Wirral Plan and the report sought to illustrate how those strategies were being put into action in relation to employment and the potential further development of the recommendations in relation to the Public Health Annual Report relating to health and employment.

The Director of Public Health introduced the Chief Executive Officer and Contract Manager from Involve North West, which was a voluntary sector organisation who through its ReachOut Partnership sought to help deliver employment solutions to individuals and families across Wirral. It was reported to the Board that of those accessing the service, 40% asked for health and wellbeing support which it was felt demonstrated the link between health and employment.

The work of the partnership was outlined to the Board in detail. There was a team of fully qualified and skilled staff of Wirral residents with 14 years’ experience of supporting people into employment. The approach included looking at the health and wellbeing and social circumstances of the service user and considering in the first instance whether employment was the right approach for their circumstances. Established links had been set up with JobCentre Plus and local employers, and over the previous 5 years 2,650 local residents had gained employment, 81% of which had sustained employment for over 6 months.

Members welcomed the presentation and sought advice on how partner organisations could assist the work being undertaken. It was noted that there were issues around recruitment and retention of social workers and more could be done to link in with Involve North West to identify potential candidates to fill those vacancies. It was highlighted that the project had always been funded on a 12-month funding stream and a more sustainable funding stream would allow for more security for the staff and service users.

It was moved by Councillor Phil Gilchrist, seconded by Councillor Yvonne Nolan that Council officers be requested to explore funding streams for the continuation of the work of the ReachOut Partnership. The motion was put and agreed by assent. It was therefore –

Resolved – That

(1)  the report and presentation be noted.

(2)  Council officers be requested to explore funding streams for the continuation of the work of the ReachOut Partnership.

The Director of Care and Health introduced the report which provided an update on the development of the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS) and Wirral’s Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). The report detailed the workshop that had been held with local NHS system partners as well as representatives of the ICS on 8 October 2021 to discuss the development of the associated governance arrangements alongside system progress, system maturity and work to integrate which it was reported would soon be followed up with meetings of chairs across the system. The Cheshire and Merseyside system required ‘Places’ to self-assess in terms of partnership maturity and it was felt Wirral had well established partnership arrangements in place which should enable the ICS to have a high level of confidence in the local system and therefore delegate responsibilities to a high degree.

The concerns of residents were raised in relation to the duties reserved to the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System and the potential for merging services or making services and the need to safeguard jobs. It was outlined that the Integrated Care Board that would in effect replace the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) at a Wirral level would build on the existing partnerships and deliver local functions in a similar way, and it was felt that the level of partnership working locally would result in most functions being delegated to the Integrated Care Board. It was further outlined that the guarantee to the 1100 CCG staff to transfer to the new organisation remained. A further query was raised in relation to the existing deficit that would be transferred to the new system and colleagues in the CCG undertook to bring a further report to the Board on the financial framework in the new year.

Resolved – That

(1)  the progress achieved at the Governance workshop held with place partners on 8^th October 2021 be noted and regular committee reports relating to the development of Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System and Wirral’s Place-based partnership arrangements be noted.

(2)  the development of and next steps relating to Wirral’s Integrated Care Partnership at place level, and the requirement to submit a self-assessment against the development framework to the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System by 29 October 2021 be noted.