Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVgqILh1vto&list=PLrlN4_PKzPXgH2NU3lNSh-0DlLIPEBe4d

RESOLVED:

That Mr. J. Morgan CC be appointed Chairman of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the period ending with the date of the Annual Meeting of the County Council in 2022.

Mr. J. Morgan CC in the Chair

RESOLVED:

That Mr. P. King CC be appointed Deputy Chairman of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the period ending with the date of the Annual Meeting of the County Council in 2022.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2021 were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5).

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

Mr. C. Smith CC declared a personal interest in agenda item 11: Ex HM Armed Forces: Spotlight on Mental Health Services as he was a former member of the armed forces.

No other declarations were made.

There were no declarations of the party whip in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 16.

The Chief Executive reported that no petitions had been received under Standing Order 35.

A presentation will be given by Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The Committee received a verbal update from Rachna Vyas, Executive Director of Integration and Transformation, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups (LLR CCGs) regarding the proposals for Community Services in Leicestershire.

As part of the update the following points were made:

(i)          The Community Services Redesign project had been launched prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and engagement with the public and patients had began at that time but the project and the engagement had to be put on hold during the pandemic. However, the pandemic had enabled a lot of learning about services to take place and feedback from patients to be received which had been taken into account in the planning for the new services. The feedback made it clear that patients wanted services to be close to their homes or available in their homes where possible and patients wanted a large amount of input in the way those services were designed.

(ii)         Community Services would be part of the Integrated Care System (ICS) which would involve the Health and Care system coming together and close working between Clinical Commissioning Groups and the Public Health and Adults and Communities Departments at the County Council.

(iii)       It was intended to build on the work of Integrated Locality Teams which were already in place and brought together Health and Social Care colleagues.

(iv)       In response to concerns raised by a member that there had been a lot of consultation taking place, particularly regarding the plans for Hinckley, but no actual changes to Community Services had taken place, reassurance was given that Wave 4 of the project would be taking place imminently.

(v)        Members requested that a full written report containing details of the community services plans be brought to the next meeting of the Committee and Rachna Vyas agreed to this request.

RESOLVED:

(a)        That the contents of the update on the plans for Community Services in Leicestershire be noted;

(b)        That the Clinical Commissioning Groups be requested to provide further detail of the plans for Community Services in a written report to a future meeting of the Committee.

The Committee considered a report of Healthwatch Leicestershire which gave a summary of their findings in relation to the experiences of people who had served in Her Majesty's (HM) Armed Forces and those people’s experience of Mental Health Services in Leicester and Leicestershire. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11’, is filed with these minutes.

The Committee welcomed Mukesh Barot, Chief Officer, Healthwatch Leicestershire to the meeting for this item along with John Edwards, Associate Director of Transformation, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) and Brendan Daly, Armed Forces lead, LPT.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted;

(i)          The Government had proposed legislation which would strengthen the support available to armed forces veterans with regards to mental health.

(ii)         LPT had been awarded ‘gold standard’ status by the Ministry of Defence’s Employer Recognition Scheme in recognition of their support for the Armed Forces community.

(iii)       The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Civil and Military Partnership Board had been set up to ensure that armed forces personnel, past and present, received the same treatment and had the same access to services as the civilian community.

(iv)       There was no legal requirement for GP Practices to ask persons registering with the practice whether they had served in the armed forces however the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups had taken steps to ensure this question was asked by practices to ensure that armed forces veterans could be referred for the appropriate help if required. The Central Access Point phoneline also asked whether callers were armed forces veterans so they could be signposted to receive the relevant services for veterans.

(v)        Consideration also needed to be given to the impact on families when a member of their household left the armed forces and entered civilian life.

(vi)       Concern was raised by members regarding the small sample of people that took part in the Healthwatch survey and the narrow focus in the report on those that suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder rather than other armed forces related mental health conditions. In response it was explained that the limited numbers of people that took part in the survey was due to the Covid-19 pandemic and staff turnover at Healthwatch Leicestershire and the intention had been to get better feedback from veterans themselves.

(vii)      An Armed Forces Covenant Survey had taken place in early 2019 Connected Together, Harborough District Council, Rutland County Council and South Kesteven District Council, with a view to understanding all aspects of military life and over 700 people had taken part and although this was before the pandemic it demonstrated that it was possible to get large numbers of people involved in these surveys.

(viii)    The National Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall on the border of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire dealt with members of the armed forces.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report and the response from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust to the issues raised in the report be noted.

The Committee considered a report from the Director of Public Health which provided an update on developments in Suicide Prevention from Public Health and its partnership group, the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Suicide Audit and Prevention Group. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 12’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)          Real Time Surveillance Data indicated that there had been higher than the usual numbers of student suicides in LLR in the previous 12 months. Student suicides included all people in education, though there were very small numbers of school children in the figures.  

(ii)         The ‘high-risk’ groups in Leicestershire included ‘middle aged men’ i.e men between the ages of 35 and 55.

(iii)       There were many different initiatives across the country for tackling suicide, and the success and effectiveness of the initiatives differed. Initiatives implemented in Leicestershire by the Public Health department would usually be those which had been monitored and evaluated at a national level and proven to be successful.

(iv)       The Tomorrow Project was a service commissioned by Public Health and set up to support anyone bereaved or affected by a death by suicide. The Project offered one to one, confidential and face to face support. There was no age restriction in the service and no limit on how long after a bereavement a person could continue to access support. It was intended for the service to keep in contact with individuals for as long as necessary.

(v)        Public Health worked with British Transport Police and other organisations to identify high risk locations for suicides.

RESOLVED:

That the update on developments in Suicide Prevention from Public Health and its partnership group, the LLR Suicide Audit and Prevention Group be welcomed.

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to take place on 1 September 2021 at 2.00pm.

RESOLVED:

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on 1 September 2021 at 2pm.