Agenda and minutes

The Chair, Councillor K Caan, welcomed everyone to the meeting, advising the theme of the meeting was children, young people and mental health.

The Chair welcomed Chief Superintendent Paul Drover, LPA Commander to his first meeting, joining in place of Peter Henrick and also welcomed A Khanom from the SEND Parent Forum.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 27^th September, 2023 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

The Chair, Councillor Caan, welcomed everyone to the meeting, informing the Board that the Christmas season was in full swing with the annual Christmas light switch on which had made a welcome return and hundreds of families had come together to enjoy an evening of culture and entertainment and how the lights had been used in celebration of Diwali and Armistice Day.

The Board were reminded of how Christmas can be a challenging time for many families across the city who continued to be impacted by the cost of living crisis.  The Household Support Fund continued to be used to support households with the greatest need.  The council were working with Coventry Food Network offering subsidised food support.

The Chair brought to the Board’s attention, the increase in measles cases across the country including the West Midlands and stressed the importance of ensuring both MMR vaccinations were taken up.  World Aids Day had taken place on 1^st December; with the city hosting a number of engagement events.

Finally, the Chair advised the Board of the Covid vaccination programme mobile unit, in which CWPT nurses were providing Covid-19 and flu vaccinations to the community using a mobile vaccination van.  Walk-in appointments were available to those eligible and both vaccinations were free.

Report of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing.

The Board received a report of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, regarding the appointment of a Deputy Chair for the Coventry Health and Wellbeing Board.

In June 2023, the Chair of the H&WBB, invited Members for nominations for the appointment of a new Deputy Chair which was currently vacant.  One nomination was received from Danielle Oum, a current Member of the Board and also the Chair of the Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care Board.

RESOLVED that the Board approves the nomination of Danielle Oum to serve as Deputy Chair on the Coventry Health and Wellbeing Board.

Report of the Chief Partnerships Officer/Chair of SEND Board and the Head of SEND and Specialist Services

The Board received a report and presentation of the Chair of the SEND Board, the JSNA data summary October 2023 and the JSNA data supplement October 2023, regarding the implementation of the new Local Area SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) and Alternative Provision (AP) inspection framework. 

The new framework had a strong focus on education and health and social care.  It was important that all partners continued to work together, to ensure that the local area was inspection ready.  It was expected that all local areas would be inspected within a 5 year cycle.  Governance oversight was provided through the SEND and AP Partnership Board.

Coventry was previously inspected in October 2019 under a different framework and received a positive outcome.

The Board asked questions, made comments and sought assurances on a number of issues, including:-

• How schools would cope with the influx of extra children with additional needs.
• Why families with children with additional needs were moving to and settling in Coventry.
• Was there enough qualified support for young people and how was this monitored.

RESOLVED that the Board:

1. Notes the progress made so far with the new Local Area SEND and AP Inspection Framework.

2. Agrees to the Health and Wellbeing Board having governance oversight of the SEND and AP Partnership Board.

3. Confirms with the SEND and AP Partnership Board, the proposed governance including reporting frequency.

ICB Update – Verbal report of the Chief Medical Officer, ICB

Children’s Mental Health – Report of the Director of Commissioning / CAMHS Programme Manager, ICB

The Board received a verbal update from Dr A Brady, Chief Medical Officer, ICB regarding the progress of the ICS Strategy, the focus being to prioritise children and young people.  A system strategic group had been formed which included partners and providers of NHS services and working groups had been created to ascertain where value could be added by working together.  Commissioning in mental health was underway along with a shift towards prevention.

The Board received a report of the Director of Commissioning, Coventry & Warwickshire ICB along with the 2023/24 CAMHs Local Transformation Plan Refresh which outlined the progress made to date and the priorities in which the LTP would focus on for 2023/24, broken down into national and local priorities:

1.  National priority – meet the constitutional target set by NHS England

2.  National priority – to develop a children and young people’s emotional wellbeing/mental health support offer up to the age of 25.

3.  Local priority – implement a structured framework, such as i-Thrive into the system.

4.  Local priority – improve the waiting times in accessing services.

5.  Local priority – develop system wide dashboard to further understand local needs and demands.

6.  Local priority – focus on early intervention and prevention.

7.  Local priority – develop the system offer for children and young people in crisis.

A delivery plan was being developed which would be used to plan out the work required to work towards / achieve the priorities set out in the plan.

RESOLVED that the Board:

Note the content of the report and endorse the 2023/2024 CAMHS Local Transformation Plan.

Report of the Director of Children’s Services

The Board received a report and presentation of the Director of Children’s Services regarding Family Hubs and the Start for Life Programme.

Coventry City Council operated 8 Family Hubs to a deliver place-based integrated offer to families across the city, including the offer from the buildings, through an outreach model to communities and a developing digital offer.

Coventry City Council was selected in October 2023 to join the national Family Hub and Start for Life Programme with a financial investment to strengthen its offer to babies, children and families building on the achievements to date. The application was successful and trailblazer status was also awarded on 9.2.3023. Regular reports on this grant and the Family Hub and Start for Life programme were received by the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Children Services, and to the funders.

This programme awarded £4.27 million of grant funding across the 3 years 2022/23 to 2024/25 to deliver the programme objectives. 

Progress to date included:

• A Family Hub transformation programme team has been established as part of the delivery of the Early Help Strategy and a comprehensive delivery plan was in place.

• The Family Hub and Start for Life Programme Board oversees the work of each funded workstream, with workstream leads representing the partnership agencies and teams delivering on this programme.  The Public Health Consultant responsible for inequalities and Children currently attended and supported this board.

• Regular updates and reports were submitted to the Family Hub and Start for Life unit and quarterly data returns submitted on the reach of the programme.

• An outcome framework and logic model were in place, setting out the ambitions for the programme for Coventry and this was the basis of the internal evaluation of its impact.

• Coventry was required to take part in a national evaluation and a series of consultation and surveys were due to take place from January 2024 focusing on family experiences and satisfaction, and the workforce.  There would also be a 2-day case study fieldwork visit early March 2024 to cover 2 hubs including observations of family activities, staff focus group interviews and family interviews.

• Updates to the Children’s Senior leadership team and the Cabinet Member were provided on a regular basis.

• Headline progress was reported to the Early Help Strategic Partnership which was a subgroup of the Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership and was responsible for the oversight of the Early Help Strategy. Updates had also been provided to a range of partnership forums such as the LMNS, and the Children and Young People System group (Coventry and Warwickshire).

• Due to the level of funding, investment of this programme and the scrutiny that it attracted, it was recommended to review and amend the governance arrangements to ensure all parties that signed the funding application were sighted on progress and could provide support to its ongoing success.

• The programme board currently oversaw operational aspects of the programme however, it had been recognised that a more strategic oversight should be in place to oversee progress and support  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Report of the Mental Health Transformation Manager – Joint Commissioning Team, NHS Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care Board

The Board received a report and presentation of the Mental Health Transformation Manager – Joint Commissioning Team, NHS Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Care Board regarding perinatal mental health – needs assessment and outputs.

Perinatal mental health (PMH) problems are those which occur during pregnancy or in the first year following the birth of a child.  PMH affects up to 27% of new and expectant mothers and covers a wide range of conditions.

Historically, there has been a lack of integrated physical and mental health care in this area however, timely access to good quality PMH care can provide a range of long term gains for the woman, baby/child and wider society.

Findings and actions arising from the Perinatal Mental Health Needs Assessment included linking up with the Looked After Children’s Service, understanding workforce development plans for midwifes and maternity support workers, engaging with GP colleagues to determine uptake of mothers offered post-natal assessment, use data effectively to plan services, work with NHS providers to identify how the service was responding to the needs of the population and work with specialist perinatal mental health providers to ensure coding for PMH develops a level of detail so that services could be targeted.

In order to develop better understanding of how the recommendations fit in with the Family Hub programme, the Perinatal Mental Health workstream, how services could be improved in line with Maternity Ambitions, the Long Term Plan and LMNS ambitions, the Perinatal Mental Health Subgroup would undertake the following:

·  Share findings amongst partners and clinicians.

·  Agree a programme of work which will be co-produced with partners and maternity voices.

·  Develop further the qualitative data.

·  Develop new services to fill the gaps in provision.

The Board asked questions, made comments and sought assurances on a number of issues, including the impact on for carers who were pregnant or mothers of young children and what support was available to them.

RESOLVED that the Board:

1.  Note the findings of the report and the recommendations that have been made. 

2.  Agrees to support the Family Hub programme of work which includes Perinatal Mental Health as a fast track programme.

Reviews the progress made against the recommendations, as set out

Report of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing.

The Board received a Briefing Note and presentation of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing regarding the progress made in refreshing and developing the Coventry Parenting Strategy 2024 – 2027.

In 2018, the Coventry Parenting Strategy (2018-2023) led by Public Health was launched.  A Coventry Parenting Strategy Steering Group was established to co-ordinate the approach to parenting support, sharing resources, knowledge and experience, to review current provision and highlight recommendations for future parenting support.  The strategy implementation led to further investment in parenting programmes for teenagers, increased online parenting provision, resources being crated to co-ordinate antenatal parent education across the city and resources for parents around transition to secondary school.  Parenting provision for dads increased and parenting webinars were delivered to upskill staff and inform partners of the latest parenting support offer.

Progress on refreshing the Coventry Parenting Strategy 2024-2007 included:

·  Reviewing the national context

·  Reviewing local data and intelligence – understanding the needs of Coventry children and young people

·  Stakeholder engagement – holding a workshop to map current universal and targeted parenting provision, the findings of which showed there was a variety of evidence-based parenting programmes and informal parenting support currently available in the city including Family Nurse Partnership and iBumps, MAMTA and parenting programmes as part of the SEND local offer.

National funding had been received as part of the Start for Life Programme to enhance services delivered through transformed Family Hubs and provide support to children and families to improve outcomes.  Public Health was working closely with Children’s Services on the delivery plan associated with the Start for Life programme parenting workstream and a parenting operational group had been set up to discuss the delivery plan in detail.

Key priorities of the strategy included:

·  Improving information and advice

·  Improving accessibility

·  Workforce development

·  Reducing health inequalities

·  Strengthening targeted parenting support

The next steps included developing a detailed delivery plan for each priority through the multi-agency Coventry Parenting Strategy Steering group. To determine the success of the actions arising from the Strategy, the expected outcomes were:

Short term outcomes – parents and professionals knowing where and how to access the parenting support they need.  Increased choice, volume and range of parenting support offered.

Medium term outcomes – positive feedback relating to services and improved parental confidence and improved take-up and completion of parenting programmes.  Parents reporting improved confidence in parenting and ensuring the workforces was skilled, knowledgeable and competent to deliver parenting support.

Long term outcomes – increased rates of school readiness and a reduction in children entering the care system, reduced youth offending, improved child obesity rates and a reduced need for referrals into mental health services for children and young people.  Additionally, an increase in collaborative working across the health and social care system.

In terms of governance, the Coventry Parenting Strategy 2024-27 progress would report into the Health and Wellbeing Board.

  RESOLVED that the Board endorses the Coventry Parenting Strategy, noting progress made in the refresh and supporting the priorities.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

There were no other items of public business.