Agenda item

To approve the Health and Wellbeing Strategy performance dashboard and receive the delivery update in quarter one on the following:

 

·       Community map (priority 1 and 3)

·       Self-harm (Priority 2)

·       Mental health awareness training (Priority 2)

·       Green volunteering (Priority 3)

·       Impact of Covid -health survey (Priority 4)

·       Whole system approach to obesity (Priority 5)

The Board received delivery updates on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, agreed by the previous board.  A recap was provided by Heema Shukla on the Strategy and the six priorities with five being the key outcomes for the health of the population.  These were:

 

1.     Support for physical and emotional health for children

2.     Promotion of mental health

3.     Reducing social isolation

4.     Keeping residents safe from infection and learning form Covid-19

5.     Years lived with good health. 

 

In terms of delivery, the statutory responsibility sat with the Health and Wellbeing Board.  There were various forums and committees that had a remit for the biggest priority groups.  These included the Children and Young People’s Partnership Board which linked with priority one. The Children and Young People’s Early Wellbeing and Mental Health Forum, the Children and Young People’s Emotional, Wellbeing and Mental Health Forum, the Mental Health Delivery Group which sat with priority two.  The Ageing Well Forum linked to priority three.  The Health Protection Forum linked to priority four.  The Living Well Board and CVD Prevention Group linked with priority five.

 

The dashboard on process milestones and outputs was presented.  Indicators would be measured on a short- and long-term basis.  This was shared so that the board could discuss and agree the approach.  The following points were noted:

 

·       Was it appropriate to have oversight in a forum that wasn’t Bracknell Forest centric. The question was asked was it appropriate to have the Integrated Care System (ICS) as part of the governance structure.  It was outlined that whilst a lot of work took place in Bracknell Forest it was also aligned to the ICS strategy and a lot of learning and sharing took place from the ICS boards.

·       The lack of the Place Committee’s role in the oversight and governance was raised.  This was agreed to be added.

·       The use of quantitative date in year one was challenged, and it was proposed that this would fail to highlight trends. 

·       The purpose of the board was also to share good practice and focus on areas of excellence.  A suggestion was made that the role of the board and level of detail required should be discussed further. 

·       The board needed a high-level picture and indicators, qualitative data would provide greater understanding for issues that were being looked at. 

·       Establish a small task and finish group to look at what needed to be reported so that information remained the same at each board. 

ACTIONto put this in place before the next meeting – Heema Shukla

 

Development of a simple streamlined visual of the activities that fed into the Health and Wellbeing Board was agreed due to multiple agencies, projects and activities.  This could also lead to resetting the direction of the Health and Wellbeing Board.  ACTION Heema Shukla, Grainne Siggins and Nicola Airey to discuss this further.

 

Project leads presented updates as follows:

 

The community asset map project

 

Katherine Davies presented the Board with slides that gave an overview of the community asset map project which sat under priority three.  Aims of the project were to renew and re-launch a new asset map, provide training for frontline professionals and increase awareness amongst the community.  Actions completed included:

 

·       Review of current asset map

·       Engagement with users.  This identified difficulty when searching for an activity and issues with the useability of google maps.

·       Engagement with stakeholders including social prescribers and link workers, community centres, family information service and some voluntary sector through a task and finish group to support development and re-launch. 

·       Developed a support offer for local community groups which was ongoing.

·       Delivered frontline training to professionals.

 

The new map, called common place, was re-launched in November 2022.  It was more user friendly, features included new icons and spidering, filtering and search option.  Information could be directly sent to clients via email and assets could contribute directly to the map through the website.  The launch was supported with re-branding and was now called ‘My Community Map’.  New leaflets, posters and social media assets had been developed which linked to the social prescribing service. 

 

The site was the best performing on the common place platform with 3,513 visitors since its launch, 399 assets across the 6 categories with 62 added since the launch, 162 subscribers to the newsfeed and 20 groups contributed to the map.

 

An update on training sessions detailed that 23 sessions had been delivered and a total of 211 professionals had been trained including 128 Council staff, 15 NHS staff and 92 from voluntary and community organisations. 

 

The asset map had been promoted with residents and community groups.  Two focus groups were held to understand the challenges following Covid.  Key messages were that many groups had lost members who had not returned after Covid.  They would like help to promote and network with other groups.  As an outcome, a bi-monthly newsletter was set up to promote venues, funding applications and volunteering and training events. 

 

Next steps included:

 

·       Production of a gap analysis report on children and young people’s activities and expansion of this section especially for 5 to18 year-olds.

·       Re-launch the community kiosks back into the community.

·       Continued delivery of training to frontline professionals.

 

The board asked if there was a next stage to the project.  The biggest challenge was keeping information up to date which was addressed by building strong relationships with the community.  A comment was made about promoting the map through the adult social care system, linking it with groups within the community and utilising it for early intervention.

 

Self-harm workforce project

 

Katherine Davies presented the Board with slides which covered the following points:

 

·       Self-harm was common among adolescents.

·       New NICE guidelines, published in September 2022, had for the first-time published advice for education. 

·       There was limited attention to understanding self-harm collectively and owning a solution that was responsive to local needs was required.

·       The project was commissioned in December 2022 alongside Oxford Academic Health Science Network and aimed to develop a holistic and place-based approach to better understand self-harm with a focus on early intervention.

·       The project included an oversight group including – CAMHS, Public Health, Education, Safeguarding, Frimley ICB.

·       The project included 6 key elements:

o   Launch webinar – this was a place to share insights and information and provided learning opportunities for professionals

o   A workforce survey - gained deeper understanding of professional’s knowledge and understanding of self-harm.

o   Reflective sessions – delivered to the Children and Young People’s workforce to develop shared understanding of self-harm, network and promote knowledge equity

o   Understanding existing data,

o   NICE guidelines review helped evaluate current practice in line with national recommendations

o   As part of next steps, a review of grey literature/resources/services would develop a local picture of training, guidance and services and resources relating to self-harm.  This would support an understanding of what exists and its impacts.

·       The final report was due by the end of July 2023.  Learning and insight would inform the co-design of a holistic and place-based response to self-harm.  Aims would be to:

o   Build knowledge and understanding of self-harm within the Children and Young People’s workforce.

o   Develop confidence for professionals/volunteers around how to best provide support.

o   Help young people who self-harm to access appropriate support and information.

 

The Board asked how measurement of the impact of the work would take place. This had been discussed with the academic science network and would be considered in their reports.

 

A point was raised about the importance of monitoring self-harm rates to allow comparison of trajectory to other places.  Data alone wouldn’t provide a clear view of trajectory; it would need to be supported with ongoing feedback from frontline practitioners regarding the usefulness of upskilling and ongoing training.

 

Let’s Face It! Mental health awareness training

 

The board was shown slides by Louise Duffy around this training which looked at a universal approach to mental health and covered mental health promotion, prevention of mental health problems and suicide, reducing premature mortality and supporting recovery of people living with mental health problems.  The following points were made:

 

·       Mental health needs post covid-19 had increased.

·       Aims were to equip frontline professionals and volunteers with knowledge and skills around mental health.

·       Training was designed to relate to local needs and services including information about the local support and services within Bracknell Forest. 

·       Aims were around understanding mental health and helping people to look after their own mental health, recognising common difficulties and reducing stigma around mental health and enabling people to feel equipped to have brief and informed conversation around mental health and provide signposting to relevant support.

·       Training was delivered to a total of 64 participants over 10 half day sessions (8 virtually and 2 face to face) between September 2022 and February 2023.

·       Participants came from a mix of organisations from within and outside the Council.

·       Training was developed by Reading University and delivered by trained mental health professionals. 

·       Pre and post training evaluation took place focusing on knowledge, confidence to talk to someone in distress and ability to signpost to services/further support. Positive outcomes were seen with more mindfulness shown around language which reduced stigma and greater empathy and listening actively were identified.

·       90% felt better able to look after their own health and were able to apply what they learnt to their own practice when working with others.

·       Next steps included additional monthly training sessions between June 2023 and December 2023.  Dedicated sessions for councillors and parish councils. 

 

The board asked if the scheme could be rolled out to other areas in the community where people could help e.g. retail staff.  It was trialled in Fenwick and this was something that they would like to expand to retail and hospitality.

 

Green and active campaign

 

A verbal update around this campaign was given to the board by Philip Bell and covered the following:

 

·       The campaign had been running since July 2022 and focussed on looking at volunteering activities and the value of volunteering in green spaces. 

·       It was seen as an opportunity to bring a coordinated response to enhance wellbeing whilst supporting a green initiative. 

·       Rangers hosted volunteering activities twice a week - during the week and the weekend.

·       The campaign worked closely with Stepping Stones recovery college, the social prescribing team to help people who struggle to engage in volunteering or even to be outside.

·       One to one mentoring had taken place to engage with residents who struggle in group settings. 

·       The campaign was working with 14 corporate organisations across Bracknell Forest and was supporting the wellbeing of their workforce through actively encouraging them to engage with the programme. 

·       There was also a focus on residents with specific needs.  This was highlighted by the provision of work experience to refugee residents, aged 16 and 17, whose language barrier prevented a mainstream work experience placement. Feedback form this was very positive.

·       The campaign looked at ways to work with charities to add greater value to the work of green and active.  They were also engaged with two schools, LVS in Ascot and Owlsmoor Primary School and the Duke of Edinburgh award.

 

Survey to Understand the impacts of COVID – 19 on residents of Bracknell Forest

 

Gabriel Agboado presented slides to the board covering the following points:

 

·       This work linked to Priority 4 - keeping residents safe from infectious disease and addressing the long-term impacts of COVID-19.

·       The survey was used to understand the impact of Covid 19 on residents of Bracknell Forest. 

·       The presentation showed information from interim reports with the full analysis expected in June 2023.

·       The survey was conducted with a sample size of 1,800 residents and was representative of ward, gender, age and ethnicity.

·       Highlights of findings showed the impact of Covid-19 in general was negative for children and young people.

·       For children aged 0-4, social skills, relationships and speech and language development were impacted negatively.

·       A positive impact of vaccination was seen and residents were more likely to take up vaccination for flu and other childhood immunisation but 32% were also more cautious.  Implications were seen in relation to a vaccination drive.

·       A positive aspect was seen around overall changing behaviour and residents were spending more time outside, exercising more, and reduction of alcohol consumption.

·       There was a significant increase in use of digital media which was more pronounced in young, non-white British and female residents.

·       Changes in travel were identified with greener options more prevalent, specifically cycling and buses.

·       The impact on members in care homes was noted with an impact on mental and physical health and isolation. 

 

Next steps included looking at data in more detail once the full report was received. Discussions would take place regarding how to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.  Awareness would be raised around general prevention of infectious diseases with focus on educating further the importance of handwashing.  Improvement to health and wellbeing communications with residents was proposed.  Development of understanding further barriers to vaccination. 

 

The board asked if the results were a surprise or were they similar to other places.  It was noted that the survey didn’t raise anything new or unexpected but supported what could be done locally.  It was agreed that the views on vaccinations were encouraging. 

 

All agreed the importance of future planning around dealing with pandemics and a point raised was about how information from the survey was being used to inform this.  It was noted that how people accessed information was a salient point and the use of social media was a prominent source of information.  The impact on specific groups was also noted and this information should inform the future to ensure mitigations would be in place to protect them.

 

A point was raised about whether the more detailed results would allow specific issues with certain geographical locations to be identified.  It was confirmed that the data was collected at ward level.

 

The board agreed that more detailed results would help to reinforce awareness of some issues, specifically around the 0-4 age group and use this to plan for the impact within education to ensure what support was needed.  It was agreed that those in education were impacted significantly, and these results could be used to help plan for ways to address this.  An observation was made about the collection of lessons learned across departments and a point discussed about whether there was a system that could capture these collectively to help planning for the next pandemic where regional plans could feed into local plans.

 

With regards to next steps, it was agreed that it would be beneficial for the board to receive an update once the full results of the survey had been received and for Public Health to present a draft plan of collective actions that could take place.  This could cover how to plan differently, how to respond to the changing needs of the population because of the pandemic and what generic learning could take place relating to engagement with the community.  This approach was agreed.

ACTION: Heema Shukla

 

A point was raised around the longer term impacts that needed to be considered due to the higher rate of support required relating to longer hospital stays and residents needs on discharge.  This was pertinent for health budgets due to consequences of the increase of the weekly cost of care homes. 

 

The complex issues of the workforce within adult social care was raised.  A point was made around the damage to this sector because of covid and the cost-of-living crisis.  It was suggested that it needed to be addressed through education of society and the wider social care workforce to address the complexities within the sector and reduce stigma and blame. 

 

The complexity of the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the links with impact of Covid-19 was noted.