Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of Substitute Members.

There were no substitute members.

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2019.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2019 be confirmed and signed by the Chair. 

To consider the Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2018/19.

The Sub-committee considered the report of the Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2018/19.

It was noted that the Safeguarding Adults Board is a joint Board between Northumberland and North Tyneside and as such the report has been published on both the Northumberland and North Tyneside Council websites.  Unfortunately, due to timing issues, it has not been possible to submit the report to the Scrutiny Committee ahead of publication. 

Some members expressed concern that they had been unable to see the report in advance of publication and asked officers to ensure that time was built into the timetable for the coming year to ensure this does not happen in future.

It was noted that this was the third year that the Board had been operating as a joint board and this was proving to be a good arrangement with a high attendance rate of partner agencies.  It was highlighted that two lay members had been appointed to the Board which had been helpful in adding additional perspective to the work of the Board.  It was noted that it was the responsibility of the Board to ensure that all the potentially vulnerable people living in North Tyneside and Northumberland are kept as safe as possible from abuse or neglect, whether they are a hospital patient, a care home resident or living in their own home.

There was some discussion about the frameworks in place for officers in dealing with people who do not have the capacity to consent to assistance or who have fluctuating capacity, for example due to substance misuse or mental health issues.  It was noted that the law provides the framework under which officers act.

The sub-committee noted some of the statistics in relation to safeguarding referrals, including that 49% of abuse relates to abuse within the home, 28% in a residential or nursing home and 84% involves someone known to the victim.

It was noted that the priorities identified by the Board for next year are:

·         Transitional Safeguarding arrangements;

·         Early identification and prevention of domestic abuse;

·         Criminal exploitation, including County Lines;

·         Making Safeguarding personal.

It was noted that officers had taken on board comments made by the Scrutiny Committee last year and were preparing an easy read version of the report.

Members asked for more detailed information on the ward distribution of cases.  It was noted that around half of enquiries are linked to care homes and this will impact on location data.  Officers agreed to provide members with more detailed breakdown of the number of enquires by ward.

There was some discussion about prevention and how lessons learned from safeguarding cases could be fed into a cycle of improvement. 

The Chair thanked officers for an informative report.

It was agreed that more detailed information on the number of enquires by ward by provided and circulated to Members of the Sub-committee.

The Chair to provide an update from the recent meeting of the Joint OSC for the North East and North Cumbria ICS and North and central ICPS. 

A copy of the agenda front sheet, minutes and presentation are attached.  Full documents have been emailed to members of the Sub-committee for information.

In the absence of the Chair of the Sub-committee, Cllr Mulvenna provided feedback from the last two meetings of the Joint Scrutiny Committee as he had been in attendance at these meetings.

It was noted that there was a focus on prevention and helping individuals to stay out of hospital where possible.

There was some concern raised by Members that they did not feel they understood the changing structures around the Integrated Care System and the implications for the local area, and also had concerns about accountability.

It was noted that the Health and Wellbeing Board had recently received a presentation from the Council’s Chief Executive and other partners about the structure of the Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Partnerships and how organisations were working together across North Tyneside. 

It was agreed that:

1.    The slides from the recent presentation to the Health and Wellbeing Board be circulated to members of the Sub-committee as background information.

2.    That a presentation be requested for the first meeting of the new municipal year, setting out the background to the new structures, and what the implementation of the ICS and ICPs will mean for services in North Tyneside.

To receive a progress update from Healthwatch North Tyneside

The Sub-committee received an update from Healthwatch North Tyneside on progress made since their last report in November 2019.

The Sub-committee noted:

·         Healthwatch have updated their ‘Mental Health in North Tyneside’ leaflet, and have also funded a self-help guide for young people, produced by young people in the borough, and this has been well received;

·         Healthwatch will be publishing a report in the near future on Dementia Services in the Borough based on discussions with 70 service users;

·         Healthwatch will be publishing a report following research around ‘where people go when they are feeling ill’.

·         Emerging issues for Healthwatch include transport issues and prescriptions.

There was some discussion about the impact the work of Healthwatch has on health services.  It was noted that Healthwatch are improving follow-up activity to assess the impact of their recommendations.  It was highlighted that there have been some clear successes such as action by the CCG to introduce improvements to the mental health crisis service, but some improvements are more subtle and harder to quantify.

The Chair thanked Healthwatch for the informative report.