To confirm connectivity of Board and Co-opted Members and receive any apologies for absence, including notifications of any changes to the membership of the Committee.

Apologies for absence were received from Liz Thomas, Alison Brewer and Paul Johnson who was represented by Jo Turl and David Greenwell.

To hold a one minute silence for all those who have lost their lives during the COVID-19 Pandemic and to recognise those who have supported the response on the front-line and elsewhere.

The board held a minute silence for those that have lost their lives during the COVID-19 Pandemic and to thank those who have supported the response on the front-line.

Caroline Dimond advised that is has been an extraordinary few months since the last meeting and she was pleased that the board had an opportunity to have the minute silence for not only those that have lost their lives during the COVID-19 Pandemic but to also thank those who have supported the response on the front-line.

Caroline advised the Board that the main focus of the agenda was to reflect on the new health and wellbeing landscape and to reflect on the lessons learnt of the last few months and review the priorities already set in the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Thriving Lives and how the Board can build on the collaborative work of the last few months to further progress the Thriving Lives priorities.

To review actions from:

a)    Ageing Well

b)    Age-Friendly Torbay

c)    Enhanced Care in care homes

Simon Sherbersky provided a further update to that circulate prior to the meeting and confirmed that Ageing Well Torbay had formally been invited to submit a proposal for the continuation of the programme for another year with confirmation as to whether the proposal had been successful due in the next few weeks.

To receive an update on and to consider the governance of the Track, Trace and Contain (TTC) programme as well as a proposal for a Torbay Outbreak Engagement Board linked to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Caroline Dimond gave a presentation on Track, Trace and Contain, a copy of the presentation is attached to these Minutes.

Caroline informed the Board that the nationally set components of track and trace were:

·         Test; means that we enable rapid testing at scale to anybody who develops symptoms or anybody who is linked to the person with symptoms.

·         Trace; is to identify, alert and support those who need to self-isolate.

·         Contain; means to obtain enough data on emerging cases, to have oversight of potential outbreaks and high risk settings to allow infection control and awareness raising.

·         Enable; is an understanding how the virus will affect us socially and economically.

How does track and trace work?  If someone has symptoms, they will need to self-refer and call 119, the call will then be handled by tiered roles.  If they are linked to a high risk setting or if there are outbreaks involved this will then be referred to the highest tier - Public Health England Health Protection teams, who will work in partnership with their local authority Public Health teams.

A Local Outbreak Management Plan (LOMPs) was being developed by Torbay Council’s Public Health Team who would be representing Public Health England. The LOMP’s will be overseen by the Devon and Torbay Health Protection Board who will oversee the data intelligence and response and then underneath this will be Local Engagement Board to identify local issues. Caroline suggested that the proposed Local Engagement Board reports to the Health and Wellbeing Board fulfilling the Board’s ‘oversight function’, this proposal was supported by the Board.

a.     Introduction – Understanding the new health and well-being landscape

b.     Board and Co-opted Members update:

·         What are the plans for recovery?

·         What has been the learning to date?

·         What should be the priorities for the system in the short (more urgent) and the longer-term?

In advance of the Board meeting each Board Member was asked to reflect and update the Board on;

·         What are the plans for recovery?

·         What has been the learning to date?

·         What should be the priorities for the system in the short (more urgent) and the longer-term?

Caroline Dimond set the scene and updated the board on her reflections on the impacts of Covid-19 over the past few months a copy of her presentation has been circulated with the Minutes. .

There has been 60 registered deaths as of this week for Torbay, mainly in the elderly and care sector. 253 confirmed cases in Torbay, very low numbers when compared with the rest of the country. 18 of Torbay’s care homes had experienced outbreaks that were under control.  At the time of the Board meeting, Caroline advised that 

There were currently 3 COVID patients’ across the whole of Devon, none in Torbay.  There was a multi-sectoral partnership in place ensuring a proactive approach in successfully tackling cases. The council are working closely with schools and all suspected cases have been tested.  The hospital has been busy and they are now currently testing for antibodies.

Caroline proceeded to highlight the impacts that were expected to occur in due course, what we may see and what we have already seen. Caroline explained that there were expected to be several waves to the impact of Covid-19.  The first wave demonstrated the immediate mortality and morbidity of Covid-19, the 2^nd wave was the impact of resource restriction on urgent non Covid conditions, the 3^rd wave was the impact of interrupted care on chronic conditions and the 4^th wave represented psychic trauma, mental illness, economic injury and burnout. Most of the curves would come and go however the 4^th wave was expected to be a much longer term impact.

There had been impacts in respect of food, debt, housing and how to support people in temporary accommodation post Covid and hidden domestic abuse. There are also concerns in respect of children and families as well as older people and those that had been shielding. Inequalities increasing and children not having access to education. Highlighting that the impacts of Covid weren’t just about health. Caroline added that some of the impacts would decrease over time but some would increase.  Data and intelligence from previous pandemics such as SARs indicated that the consequences in respect of mental health was likely to be felt for a long time.

Caroline further outlined the impact on Torbay’s economy, with the potential of up to 18,000 jobs being lost.  As Torbay is a coastal economy, it will be felt harder and would take longer to recover than many other areas with an anticipated 70% of businesses permanently closing as a result of Covid.

However there has been some positive impacts including diversity into the consumer market in the fishing sector and hi tech businesses experiencing job growth.

Simon Sherbersky expressed his agreement in respect of mental  ...  view the full minutes text for item 121.

A discussion on the Health and Wellbeing Board’s future priorities.Do we need to make any changes to our “Thriving lives” priorities?

-          Emotional resilience in children and young people

-          Prevention of illness

-          Creating healthy, happy places

-          Support for people living complex lives

-          Enabling people to age well

-          Promoting good mental health

Can the Board agree 1 to 2 priorities that we can all commit to work closely on to address in the coming months?

The Board discussed whether they need to make any changes to the Thriving Lives priorities.

Caroline Dimond recapped the themes that had come through the individual Board updates as the following:

1.    The need to change the ways of working, being creative, working digitally and recognising digital exclusion.

2.    Building on the experiences all partners had gained in developing agile and ‘at pace’ new ways of working with the voluntary sector and across the public sector as a whole.

Caroline reflected that the common future priorities mentioned by the Board Member were:

-      vulnerability and the necessity to tackle the wider inequalities,

-      Recognising the economic injury that the community will be facing,

-      Mental health; a cause and effect of both the above.

She also acknowledged that members supported this work being based upon a place based approach.

Board Members expressed concern on how all the workstreams would be pulled together, as there was a lot already happening outside of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Board recognised the need to carry out strength based working. The challenge was how to frame all this and adapt this to community engagement. The existing working cells and new working cells would need to be broadened and more relatable in order to engage the community in a positive way.  Recognising that the community needed time to recap where they were and allow the public need to catch up with the changes that services had put in place at a considerable pace. The pace of everything has increased, there need to make sure that the public were not left behind.

The Board agreed to create a working group to focus on the priorities and to start initial discussions.  Simon Sherbersky agreed that the Community Development Trust would coordinate the conversations on how we can all live well and focus on the mental health issue and welcomed Councillor Stockman’s offer of support.

Resolved:

i)       That Simon Sherbersky to lead the focus group on mental health, linking in with the current Mental Health Work Cell.

ii)      That Adel Jones and Matthew Fox lead and form a digital working group.

iii)        That Tanny Stobbart consider how the Board and partners could support work to address the impact of economic injury upon young people.