Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Remote Meeting

Contact: Lesley Bennett 

Items
No. Item

153.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor E Simpson.

154.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 305 KB

Minutes of the meetings of the Health & Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 12 January 2021 and 2 February 2021, as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 12 January 2021 and 2 February 2021, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

155.

FORWARD PLAN pdf icon PDF 89 KB

To note the latest Forward Plan of key decisions.  Any further changes to the Forward Plan will be reported at the meeting.

Minutes:

The latest Forward Plan of key decisions (attached to the signed minutes as Appendix A) were noted.

 

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

156.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING BOARD pdf icon PDF 181 KB

The minutes of the Health & Wellbeing Board held on 14 January 2021 is attached for the scrutiny of any issues considered or agreed there.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Health & Wellbeing Board held on 14 January (attached as Appendix B) were noted.

157.

COVID-19 UPDATE (PUBLIC HEALTH AND CCG) pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To receive a presentation from the Director of Public Health and the Clinical Commissioning Group (APPENDIX C).

Minutes:

Members received a presentation on the COVID-19 vaccination programme from Rachel Mitcheson, Service Director for Transformation and Integrated Care at Northumberland CCG. (Presentation attached as Appendix C).

 

The public were reminded that the NHS were working through the priority groups and that they would be in touch with members of the public when it was their turn to be vaccinated.

 

The Committee were informed that in the last 12 weeks over 2.3 million people had been vaccinated across the North East and Yorkshire region.  This equated to about 34% of the total eligible population and included 94% of care residents, 75% of care home staff and 91% of people identified as extremely vulnerable.  Within Northumberland, 102,831 people (38% of the eligible population) had received their first dose of the vaccine. 70,582 of those vaccinated were over 65. 

 

The Committee were shown were the local vaccination sites (LVS) were across the County and were reminded that transport was available for those unable to access vaccination sites.

 

With regards to NHS staff, Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust had vaccinated all of their frontline employees; while Northumbria Healthcare had vaccinated over 18,000 staff across the wider health and social care system, and CNTW had vaccinated over 80% of their staff and also most vulnerable inpatients. Within Northumberland 10,368 out of 11,163 social care staff had been vaccinated. A further list of staff groups that had been vaccinated was also shared with the Committee.

 

The Centre for Life in Newcastle remained the chief vaccination site for the North East with access to the National Booking Service. This is a national system which is used by people identified by letters sent to specific cohorts that had been agreed at a national level.  The Centre for Life would be used to support JCVI groups 5 and 6 and remaining health and social care workers.  People still had the choice to access their vaccination via primary care if they wanted. Due to supply and demand issues with the National Booking Service, many people were opting to wait and to use primary care.  Cohorts 1-4 had now been vaccinated and cohorts 5-9 should be vaccinated by 15th April.  A change in national guidance resulted in JCVI groups 5 and 6 being split between National Booking System (Cohort 5) and primary care networks (Cohort 6).  

 

Some practices had already started to deliver 2nd doses around the 11th week since the first dose. PCN’s had been working to develop a pull model to enable better planning for delivery and capacity.

 

Across the 10 local vaccination sites, over 102,000 doses had been delivered in the 11 weeks from December to February. 147,746 doses (including 2nd doses) were to be delivered in the next 9 weeks; this equates to an 63% increase in number of doses.

 

The Committee were shown two graphs which showed the number of vaccines received and the number of projected vaccines needed until the end of April. Due to the increase in activity, the CCG had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 157.

158.

CORONER’S SERVICE pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To receive a presentation from Andrew Hetherington, Senior Coroner and Karen Lounton, Service Manager (attached as APPENDIX D).

Minutes:

Members were updated on the County Hall refurbishment works for the coroner’s service and some of the pending service changes. Members also recivied an update on the work of the death management group.  The presentation was delivered by Andrew Hetherington, Senior Coroner, and Karen Lounton, Coroner Service Manager, Report attached as Appendix D.

 

The Committee received a brief explanation of the role of the senior coroner and the coroner service. The Coroner’s service is a county of treasure and had concluded 3 out of 14 inquests already this year. 

 

Andrew Hetherington was appointed as Senior Coroner in October 2020 following the retirement of Tony Brown.  Northumberland was currently split into two Coroner jurisdictions: North and South but will be come one later in 2021.  The service and it’s staff had recently moved to County Hall next to the registers office.  Administrative staff had previously been split between a site in Berwick and a site in North Tyneside and, Coroner’s Officers working from Ashington Police Station. 

 

Member’s were told that as part of the County Hall refurbishment programme a business case was made for the Coroner Service and its staff to be centralised and located in a more accessible location to families, officers and professional who were required to attend an inquest.  Work was completed on the new court and accommodation in October 2020 with the first inquest being held in November 2020.  Hearings were currently listed ahead until September 2021.  An offer was extended to the Committee to visit the new court when safe to do so. 

 

Member’s were shown a series of photographs of the new Coroner’s court and the new waiting room, meeting space, family room and jury room.  The Coroner’s court is a flexible space with movable walls which allows the room to be expanded or shrunk to allow for a more versatile workspace.  The Court and private family room had been designed with bereaved families at the heart of it and aimed to help put people attending court at ease.  The jury room could be repurposed as a second court to deal with backlog if needed. 

 

With regards to the continued modernisation of the Coroner’s Service, COVID-19 had created provisions for hearings to be conducted remotely.  This had allowed the Service to conduct an inquest with a family in Hong Kong and New Zealand.  The Service was working towards a paper lite court and developing its IT provisions.  A website was under development. The service was also working closely with key stakeholder such as Northumbria Healthcare, Northumbria Police and Funeral Directors. 

                    

The Coroner’s Service in Northumberland was working with colleagues as part of the General Register Office.  This work is part of a central government agenda to look at digital transformation in relation to death investigation and registration.   

                    

The service had recently recruited a First Officer and was looking to recruit at least 3 Assistant Coroners with Newcastle City Council to help with North of Tyne coronial resilience. 

                    

The Committee were then updated on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 158.

159.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING OSC WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 215 KB

To consider the work programme/monitoring report for the Health and Wellbeing OSC for 2019/20.

Minutes:

Members considered the work programme/monitoring report for the Health and Wellbeing OSC for 2019/20.  (Report attached to the signed minutes as Appendix E.)

 

The April meeting would receive Northumbria Healthcare’s annual quality accounts and a COVID-19 update from CNTW.

 

Members were reminded that there was limited left within this municipal year for items to be added to the work programme buy were encouraged to contact the scrutiny officer if they wished to discuss the inclusion of an item on the work programme. 

 

RESOLVED that the work programme be noted.

160.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next remote meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, 6 April 2021.

Minutes:

The next meeting would take place on Tuesday 6 April 2021 at 1:00 pm.