Agenda and minutes

None.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 1 December 2020 be confirmed and signed by the Chair. 

To receive a verbal update on COVID-19 in Telford and Wrekin from Liz Noakes, Director for Public Health, Telford & Wrekin Council.

The Committee received a presentation introduced by The Director: Public Health, Telford & Wrekin which including information in relation to an update on the COVID-19 pandemic previously provided to the Telford & Wrekin Health and Wellbeing Board. 

The first part of the presentation reflected on the COVID-19 journey so far including facts and figures on case rates, number of deaths, number of tests and number of hospitalisations since the beginning of the pandemic. The Committee were informed that a total of 10,803 cases have been confirmed during the pandemic and during the first wave, community testing had not been taking place therefore the number of cases were much higher at this point in the pandemic. The Borough is the 5th lowest infection rate overall within the West Midlands but unfortunately to date have recorded 256 deaths. The overall mortality rate for COVID-19 has been less than the national average within the Borough and hospital admissions were at a peak of 165 patients which has now decreased to less than 10 patients. Cases were recorded at their highest with a peak of 181 cases over the course of one day in January 2021 with over 1,000 cases across a period of 7 days within the Borough. The Committee were provided with an update on the actions undertaken by the Council to support residents during the pandemic including test and trace isolation support payments and the role of the Health Protection Hub in supporting contact tracing and outbreak management within the Borough.

The presentation continued to provide a further update on the current number of COVID-19 cases as of 23 March 2021 with the current infection rate at 36 per 100,000. Current case numbers have displayed a decline with 64 cases recorded over the last 7 day period and the Borough is currently in the bottom three alongside Shropshire and Herefordshire with the national average displaying 55 per 100,000. Local Outbreak Management Plan has been refreshed and recently reviewed by the Health & Wellbeing Board. Nationally, the Department of Health and Social Care had requested for the Local Outbreak Management Plan to be updated to reflect the next phase in the pandemic with a focus on dealing with enduring transmission and outbreaks and ensuring the local vaccination programme uptake is as high as possible across all age groups. New elements to the plan include preparation for variants of concern and how to deal with multiple virulent variants including the introduction of a Council wide operational plan to undertake surge testing if required deployed using a Public Health Risk assessed approach, tackling and enduring transmission by looking at areas where transmission continues to take place in different communities and workplaces thus tackling inequalities the pandemic has widened and finally focusing on the vaccination programme to reduce inequalities in vaccination uptake across the community and the need for ongoing boosters during the autumn months.

The presentation came to a close with a final update on the vaccination roll-out up until 25 March 2021 which informed the Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item HAC-15

To receive a report on the draft Learning Disability Strategy and consultation proposals from Sarah Dillon, Director: Adult Social Care, Telford & Wrekin Council.

The Committee received a presentation introduced by The Director: Adult Social Care, Telford & Wrekin on the proposals of the draft Learning and Disability Strategy currently in consultation. The committee were asked to note that Adult Social Care have previously developed a strategy around learning disability but have recently worked alongside Telford and Wrekin Integrated Place Partnership which has enabled the strategy to now be seen as the local learning disability Telford and Wrekin place-based approach towards supporting people. The aim of the strategy is to continue to ensure the Council are achieving legislative requirements and includes new elements such as the Transforming Care Programme which supports people with learning disabilities moving back into Telford and Wrekin post hospital stay, developments around Think Local Act Personal and the recent addition of British Association of Social Workers – Professional Capability Framework. The Director: Adult Social Care continued to inform the Committee that the Council had worked carefully worked across Telford and Wrekin Place with Partners and more importantly across the STP/ICS around how as a system the Council supports people with learning disabilities to live a life to their full potential. The strategy consultation will feed into the wider STP/ICS strategy to support people with learning disabilities.

The Committee were advised that in Telford and Wrekin last year the Council developed the Learning Disability Partnership Board to feed into the development of the Council’s approach to supporting greater independence of people living in Telford and Wrekin also linking with the Making It Real Board, Carers Partnership Board and Local Telford Voices group. The Learning Disability Partnership Board was started in Autumn 2020 to champion, challenge and support delivery of the strategy. This involved an engagement period which commenced from 30 September to 11 November 2020 to enable the development of the draft strategy between November 2020 and January 2021. The formal consultation period commenced in February 2021 and includes a number of sessions to collate feedback and comment to enable the strategy to be finalised and approved by Cabinet in Summer 2021. The draft Learning Disability Strategy will be in place from 2021-2025 and sets out the most important elements that the Council will focus resources on. The Director: Adult Social Care highlighted to the Committee that for each area asked about in the engagement there is a section in ‘You said…We will do’ that includes:-

·         A summary of feedback from people with learning disabilities

·         A summary of feedback from parent, carers and professionals; and

·         Suggested actions to address the feedback.

In particular, there are 15 specific questions and the consultation responses will help further shape the draft strategy and the implementation of it. The Committee were provided with examples of the wide range of individuals who have been consulted with including but not limited to people who are expert by their experience, family and carers, professionals and a range of different groups.

The Committee were informed of the breakdown of how the Council will be consulting which includes:-

·         Virtual sessions for  ...  view the full minutes text for item HAC-16

The Chair highlighted Members to the published response provided by the Health Scrutiny Committee to the Phlebotomy Review undertaken by the Clinical Commissioning Group.

The Chair advised the Committee that the published response had been composed from the responses received by email from Members and would be submitted to the CCG in due course.