Presentation by Brenda Howard, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW)
Minutes:
The board received a joint presentation which provided an update on progress with the Better Health, Better Care, Better Value Maternity and Paediatric Workstream. Meghana Pandit, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW), Jo Dillon, Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Brenda Howard, Programme Director for the Better Health, Better Care, Better Value programme attended the meeting for the consideration of this item. Councillor Abbott, Cabinet Member for Adult Services was also in attendance.
The presentation informed of the national vision for maternity services, to implement Better Births by 2020/21 which involved establishing a local maternity system (LMS) with the same scope as the Better Health, Better Care, Better Value programme. The requirement to establish the vision and plan to implement Better Births in the LMS in October 2017 was highlighted. Guidance was available in two key documents – The National Review, Better Births and the West Midlands Neonatal Service Review.
The key proposals for Better Births were personalised care; continuity of carer; safer care; better postnatal and perinatal mental health care; multi-professional working; working across boundaries; and a payment system. Further information was provided on each of these areas. The vision, metrics and examples of 5 high impact changes of the West Midlands Neonatal Review were detailed.
The presentation set out the vision for the Local Maternity System as follows:
‘Work together to improve the health and wellbeing of mothers, mothers to be, babies and families in our local population, and our staff who provide the care’. The objectives were to implement Better Births; delivery of Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle; improving maternity safety and wellbeing; and implementing the recommendations of the West Midlands Neonatal Review. The key responsibility was to provide assurance to the STP Board that the Maternity and Paediatrics work stream was progressing well and would deliver the expected benefits in a timely manner. Reference was made to the early engagement that the CCG had undertaken between December 2016 and April 2017 and attention was drawn to the summary of the key findings.
The key challenges presented by the Local Maternity System were engagement from all stakeholders; the workforce implications as a result of the need to offer choice to mothers regarding place of birth and continuity of care; establishing community hubs and the financial implications; implementing the recommendations of the Neonatal Service Review; and digital platform development.
The presentation concluded with the next steps for the work stream which included further service user and stakeholder engagement; the submission of the Local Transformation Plan to NHS England by 30th October 2017; and the CCGs working alongside the LMS and establishing a Strategic Commissioning Programme Board to identify critical success factors and desired outcomes to transform maternity and paediatric services by 2020/21.
Members raised a number of issues in response to the presentation and responses were provided, matters raised included:
· A significant concern that the information provided in the presentation did not include all the information requested by the Chair, Councillor Gannon – an explanation for this was given at the start of the consideration of this item
· The details to be included in the submission to NHS England by the end of the month
· Whether there had been any financial costing or workforce figures yet
· A request for details relating to deadlines and submissions required by NHS England
· Clarification for the representatives present about the reduction in children’s centres and community hubs in the city
· An explanation of the intention to merge data from the four separate organisations
· Further information about the payment system
· What was being done to ensure that pregnant women were aware of the dangers of alcohol and smoking
· The importance of sharing information with the Board as the work stream was progressed.
RESOLVED that:
(1) The contents of the presentation on the maternity and paediatric update be noted.
(2) The submission to be sent to NHS England by 30th October, 2017 to be circulated to members of the Board as soon as it has been approved by STP governance structures.
(3) To ensure effective scrutiny of the maternity and paediatric workstream, information on the finances and the workforce to be made available at future appropriate meetings of the Board.