Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing

The Board considered a briefing note and presentation of Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing which presented the Director of Public Heath’s Annual Report 2020-2021, ‘Connecting through Covid-19 – Making a difference by working together in unprecedented times’. A copy of the report was set out at an appendix to the briefing note. Councillor M Mutton, Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Councillor G Hayre, Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport attended the meeting for the consideration of this item along with Councillor P Seaman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People.

The report focused on the value of relationships and connecting with people and communities. It offered a reflection on the city’s approach to engagement and working with communities through the pandemic and demonstrated how this had shaped the Covid-19 response, recovery and ongoing defence.

The briefing note highlighted that the One Coventry approach and values had been at the heart of the way the Council had worked. The pandemic had shone a light on the engrained health inequalities that existed in Coventry. Covid-19 had led to 682 deaths in the City by September 2021 and caused long-term health problems which affected the day-to-day activities for thousands of residents. The Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions had disrupted the daily lives of all 379,000 Coventry residents. The Director’s report brought together data that showed the impact of Covid-19 and provided an overview of the Council's strategy on communications and engagement. It demonstrated how services and the Council’s response was guided by community-led activity. 

As residents learnt to live with Covid, the report offered recommendations for improvement and future practice. These recommendations augmented and looked to consolidate the good practice that had taken place over the last 12 months. The pandemic had required a different approach to be taken to engagement which had heavily relied upon true partnership working in an unprecedented way. The Board noted that the relationships built during the pandemic, laid firm foundations for future growth and joint work.

The report also provided an update on the progress made on the recommendations in the 2019-20 report ‘Resetting our Wellbeing’.

The report set out the following five recommendations:

i) Harness the work of the Community Messengers approach established during our Covid-19 response, as an ongoing method of working with communities and a central component of engagement for public health and wider programmes.

ii) Build on the engagement structures created and strengthened during the pandemic such as the Places of Worship and Community Centre Network, and grass-roots community organisations who were funded to support COVID-19 response efforts. Further understand the reach of these community organisations and networks to enable the targeting of work in areas with limited availability of community resource.

iii) Strengthen the existing relationships with GPs, other health professionals and those working with populations at higher risk of a range of poorer health outcomes due to inequality, deprivation, ethnicity and underlying health conditions – building upon the work started through the Vaccinating Coventry Programme.

iv) Embed the partnership approach to maintaining local Covid-19 defence, led by Coventry City Council’s Public Health working collaboratively with UK Health Security Agency and in partnership with the wider Council and ‘One Coventry’ partners. Embed the partnership approach to maintaining local Covid-19 defence, led by Coventry City Council’s Public Health working collaboratively with UK Health Security Agency and in partnership with the wider Council and ‘One Coventry’ partners.

v) Establish strong Covid-19 recovery workstreams with ‘One Coventry’ partners and communities to embed a robust and coherent recovery for the City, with the aim of building a better future for all.

The briefing note provided examples of some of the work that was currently underway to support the achievement of the report’s recommendations including a menu of legacy ideas from the excellent engagement work which was being explored with the community messengers; and building on engagement structures with work starting on mapping and explaining the reach of community organisations and community groups across the city. Work was ongoing on a web-based system to store the information.

The presentation provided an overview of the report and gave the Board an update on the impact of Covid 19 in the city from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. An Impact A-Z of Covid was set out. The presentation also highlighted the population health approach to the Covid-19 defence and detailed the focus on engagement and work with the local communities including the community messengers. The Board were updated on sharing good practice and guidance; outbreak management; engagement with the vulnerable cohorts; support to schools and early years; and vaccinating the city.

Members questioned the officers on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Support for the excellent report

·  Support for all the successful partnership working

·  Concerns about the lack of availability of GP appointments and the need to notify patients of the option of getting a GP referral to the pharmacy for some prescribed medications

·  The need to communicate what other support could be provided by pharmacies

·  What was the current position for receiving support from health visitors

·  Concerns about the impact on A and E arising from the lack of GP appointments

·  What was being done to counter the negative messages around Covid vaccinations and boosters

·  Would new vaccines be needed to deal with new strains of Covid-19

·  Information on the Covid recovery, including what was being done to protect the most vulnerable

The Chair, Councillor Clifford, referred to the Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, who was about to leave the City Council. The Board placed on record their thanks and appreciation to Liz for all her work undertaken during her time as the city’s Director of Public Health and wished her well for the future.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The progress on recommendations from the 2019-2020 Director of Public Health’s Annual report be noted.

(2) The findings from the 2020-2021 Director of Public Health’s Annual report be noted.

(3) The recommendations from the 2020-2021 Director of Public Health’s Annual report be endorsed.

(4) The work of health visitors in the city, including the impacts of Covid on the service, to be considered at a future meeting.

(5) Engagement be undertaken with colleagues at Coventry and Warwickshire CCG regarding communications to residents about the support that can be provided by local pharmacists following referrals from GPs.