Agenda item

Briefing note of Anna Hargrave, Chief Strategy Officer, South Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

Members of the Education and Children’s Scrutiny Board (2) have been invited to attend along with Councillors P Seaman and B Gittins, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor K Maton, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, and Councillors K Caan and R Ali, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport.

The Board considered a briefing note and presentation of Anna Hargrave, South Warwickshire CCG, which provided an introduction to the Coventry and Warwickshire Maternity and Child Health Programme prior to a more detailed presentation on the engagement that had taken place as part of the programme. Councillors P Seaman and B Gittins, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Education and Young People attended the meeting for the consideration of this item along with Councillors J Blundell and K Sandhu and Mrs S Hanson and K Jones, all Members of the Education and Children’s Scrutiny Board (2).

The briefing note indicated that maternity and child health services had been chosen for review since improving the health and welfare of mothers and their children was the best way to a healthier population, as well as the best way to achieve a fairer society for the future by improving health and tackling inequalities in childhood, where some groups had difficulties accessing the support they needed. In addition, there were changes in local demographic and population trends. There was an acknowledgement that despite all the good work happening across Coventry and Warwickshire to deliver maternity and child health services, there was always more that could be done to make these services better.

The briefing note set out the following goals for the review:

i) Give everyone the best start in life by putting a greater focus on supporting mothers, babies and their families before, during and following birth;

ii) Help mothers stop smoking during pregnancy and support families to stop smoking in the home;

iii) Support mothers and families to be happy and healthy and reduce the number of women suffering from perinatal mental health issues, as well as support those in their wider family such as their partner, whilst providing better support to those that do find themselves with mental health issues;

iv) Reduce the inequalities and challenges some of our population face in access to, availability of and quality of services;

v) Reduce the number of infants, children and young people dying prematurely;

vi) Tackle childhood obesity, poverty, abuse and neglect, and improve health outcomes.

It was the intention to engage with local people and gather feedback to help create a set of desirable criteria and draft outcomes. To date almost 1,000 people had been spoken to about their experience of maternity and child health services, what was important to them, what worked well and what they would like to see improved. Support had been provided by a number of local community and voluntary sector organisations, parent and toddler groups, refugee centres and children’s centres. Additional engagement had been undertaken with seldom heard groups to ensure work was as robust and inclusive as possible.

The presentation highlighted the following ambition:

‘Our vision is to work together, across Health and Social Care, to develop and deliver joined-up services commissioned for babies, children, young people and their families. To ensure they are safe, accessible, responsive to individual needs, promote independence and are sustainable for the future.’ 

Further information was provided on the reasons for the focus on maternity and child health along with details of Phase 1 Engagement which was a listening exercise as follows

Stage 1 – co-creation events with local families

Stage 2 -online survey aimed at expectant parents and parents/ carers of 0-5

Stage 3 – interviews with frontline staff and community and voluntary sector.

Phase 2 was a second round of engagement to check and challenge.

The members present questioned the representative on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Further details on the drivers behind the review and was resource the main issue

·  The numbers of service users

·  A request for Infant mortality and support for families be considered at a future meeting

·  The reasons behind the increasing numbers of complex births

·  What was the end strategy for the goals of the programme

·  Had consideration been given to the higher risks associated with domestic violence

·  The involvement of refugee and migrant women in the consultation.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The content of the briefing note be noted and the direction of travel be supported.

(2) A briefing note be circulated to members providing:

(i) Confirmation on the consultation undertaken with refugees and migrants

(ii) Information on the number of service users

(3) Infant mortality and support for families be considered at a future meeting in the new municipal year

(4) An update report on the Maternity and Child Health Programme be submitted to a future meeting of the Board in October 2020.