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.

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state what they were.

No declarations were made.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Wendy Clements, Councillor Janette Williamson, Karen Howell, Karen Prior, Louise Healey, Michael Brown, Sir David Henshaw, Sue Higginson, Graham Hodkinson, Paul Satoor, Simon Banks, Alan Evans, Janelle Holmes, Sheena Cumiskey, Supt Martin Earl and Liz Bishop.

To approve the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2021.

Resolved – That the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2021 be agreed.

The Chair reported that no questions from either members of the public or Members had been submitted. Nor were there any statements or petitions to receive.

Paul Edwards, Director of Primary Care and Corporate Affairs, NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group introduced the report of the Chief Officer, NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group, which set out the policy context for the development of Integrated Care Systems in the NHS in England, specifically highlighting the work to create a Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. The report also set out the emerging guidance around developing Integrated Care Partnership in “place” and specifically in Wirral.

It was reported that since the publication of the report, the Health and Care bill had passed its second reading in parliament, and within the legislation there was no mentioned which it was felt was a positive step to ensuring that ‘places’ would be able to design their own arrangements. The Board was informed that the conversations were ongoing in Wirral to develop those place partnership arrangements and the role of the Health and Wellbeing Board would be significant. Further information was provided on the decision to be taken locally, where it was anticipated that approximately 85% of commissioning would be taken at place level, with services commissioned at Cheshire and Merseyside being limited to those services where it made more sense to commission at scale such as cancer care.

Further clarification was sought on the standardisation at scale across Cheshire and Merseyside, where the Board was advised that there was still uncertainty about the allocation of resources but that there was already services being undertaken at scale when appropriate such as Alder Hey, and that Wirral had a strong case for more services to be commissioned at place given the existing pool fund arrangements.

Resolved – That

1)  The report be noted.

2)  further reports on the progress of the development of the Integrated Care System and Integrated Care Partnerships be provided at future meetings.

Nicki Butterworth, Director of Neighbourhood Services introduced the report which provided an update on the development of the Sport and Physical Activity Strategy for Wirral Leisure Services. The Board was advised that the outline strategy was endorsed by the Tourism, Communities, Culture and Leisure Committee which included developing the framework for the strategy and engaging with residents, communities and other stakeholders to design and develop the strategy which would outline the priorities for sport and leisure across the borough and aim to redress the balance between being a provider of facilities and tackling inequality through preventative, outreach and early intervention work.

Members were informed that Sports England had helped shape the thinking to improve broader health outcomes and that a diagnostic assessment of the Sport England Strategic Outcomes Planning Guidance for Wirral Council had been undertaken, the outcomes of which were included within the report.

The Board welcomed the report and discussed the wider social benefits of sport and physical activity as well as the importance of involving younger people in the strategy via schools. Further information was sought on the preventative methods undertaken to use sport and physical activity to improve health outcomes.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Julie Webster, Director of Public Health introduced the report which provided the Board with the emerging recommendations of the forthcoming 2020/21 Public Health Annual Report. Members were advised that the report was a statutory report produced independently by the Director of Public Health. The 2020/21 report detailed the enduring health inequalities in Wirral, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on those differences in health outcomes and the recommended actions needed to improve everyone’s health.

Further information was provided on the details within the report, which would report on the key statistics within the borough including the 9 year difference in life expectancy from East to West as well as those compared nationally where many were worse than the England average, whilst also acknowledging the positives such as smoking prevalence in adults in Wirral being the third best performance in the country. Additional issues to be covered included fuel poverty and benefit claimants, the increase support required to children and young people and the importance of prevention and working with partners. The final report would be published in September 2021 and be presented back to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The issue of housing standards was raised, and the Director of Public Health outlined the work ongoing on this include the Healthy Homes Initiative, and reported that further detail would be included in the final report.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Julie Webster, Director of Public Health introduced the report which provided an update on the work with the Community, Voluntary and Faith (CVF) Sector to improve and reduced inequalities. The Board was reminded that at its meeting on 31 March 2021, members endorsed an approach to working with the sector and the report sought to update on that work. This included a conference being held on 9 June 2021, designed and facilitated by and with the sector and led by a task and finish group comprised of representatives from a range of CVF organisations. It was reported that 38 local CVF sector representatives attended, and the key themes and outcomes were provided within the report. The Board was advised that a second conference was scheduled for 9 September and a further update would be provided at the next meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Members acknowledged the valuable contribution the Community, Voluntary and Faith sector played as providers and the need for the sector to be included in the integration of health and care. The Chair advised the Board that given the breadth of the sector, it was difficult to have one representative of the whole sector, therefore a Reference Group was in development to feed into the Health and Wellbeing Board collectively.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Vicki Shaw, Head of Legal Services introduced the report of the Director of Law and Governance which provided the Board with its current work programme and gave opportunity to propose additional items for consideration at future meetings.

The importance of an update on the Integrated Care System at each meeting was emphasised. A further discussion was had around the most appropriate time to consider the item on restoration and development of NHS

services after Covid-19. It was proposed that the Board receives a further update on the Council’s Leisure Strategy and on Cheshire and Wirral Partnership’s Community Services.

Resolved – That

1)  the work programme be noted.

2)  the Leisure Strategy be added to the work programme.

3)  an update from Cheshire and Wirral Partnership on Community Services be added to the work programme.