Agenda item

Briefing Note 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 Director of Public Health (DPH) Annual Report – Migrant Health and Wellbeing in Coventry.

The DPH had a statutory responsibility to write an independent annual report and the Local Authority a statutory duty to publish it.  The DPH for Coventry had chosen to focus on their 2^nd annual report on the health and wellbeing of migrants in Coventry.

The report explored longstanding and emerging protective and risk factors influencing migrants’ ability to build new and healthy lives, their confidence in accessing appropriate support and the responsiveness of oxidising provision.  The report recognised the demographic changes in the migrant population that had sometimes been rapid and had brought positive and negative impacts on those forced to make the journey to the UK.  It acknowledged Coventry’s history and longstanding work welcoming migrant communities which offered a solid foundation to build on.

The report had been informed by the needs and experiences of migrant communities in Coventry and addressed different aspects of Migrant Health and Wellbeing including:

·  Why people migrate

·  Refuge, protection and opportunity

·  Understanding migrant communities and groups

·  Health inequalities and vulnerability

·  Migrant community health patterns/trends in Coventry

An overview of the report had been reviewed by the Coventry and Warwickshire ICB and would be shared with the ICB Quality, Safety and Experience Committee on 26 November, with the report being published in early December.

Members of the Board, having considered the Briefing Note and Presentation, asked questions and received information from officers on the following:

·  The gap and transition in migrant service provision between children and adults.

·  How to capture community champions and undertake outreach working in the communities which were more difficult to engage.

·  Partnership working for migrants with qualifications, links were made with the Job Shop, NHS and other partners to help people into meaningful work.

·  Community work relating to vaccination roll out.

·  A student led pilot underway with Warwick University, was enabling students to undertake health checks in the community.

Members of the Board highlighted the prevention aspect of health, the importance of youth health and raising awareness of mental health issues within migrant communities. The Board requested the provision of community champions within migrant communities and that the recommendations in the report would be prioritised, the delivery mechanisms for which would be reviewed and fed back to the Board in 12 months’ time.

RESOLVED that the Health and Wellbeing Board:

The Board agreed to:

1.  Engage community partners in the next phase of the Coventry City Council "Our Coventry" integration programme for newly arrived migrants to deepen activities that address social determinants of health through early, preventative action within communities.

2.  Improve cultural competence across local services by the NHS and local authority working in collaboration to develop culturally sensitive policies and interventions (including information and engagement) that better respects diverse traditions and beliefs.

3.  Strengthen data collection and enhance the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) so that the full picture of migrant health needs is captured (including both quantitative and qualitative sources).

4.  Build research partnerships between Coventry City Council’s Migration team, the Voluntary Sector and the Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration to understand migrant health challenges and asset-based solutions.

5.  Develop the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT) young people’s mental health pilot to incorporate approaches that are trauma-informed, age appropriate and relevant to young people newly arrived in Coventry.

6.  Enhance outreach and support including building on existing community champions networks, deepening links with trusted leaders and regular mapping of community assets.

7.  Leverage innovative technologies to enhance health literacy and service delivery for refuges and asylum seekers, starting with the NHS funded Virtual Reality Project (hosted by George Elliot NHS Trust in partnership with Coventry University, and Coventry City Council).

8.  Strengthen partnership working to deliver improvements in maternity care including building on the specialist refugee and asylum seekers midwife to improve access, quality and cultural competency.

9.  Strengthen partnership working to reduce infant mortality including delivery of joined up early years and parenting support involving the NHS, voluntary sector and local authority.

10.Build on local tailored health protection campaigns to maximise:

a.  uptake of vaccination to align with UK immunisations schedule

b.  Engagement in age or other appropriate screening

c.  Awareness of infectious disease.

11.Build on local specialist support and advocacy for survivors of modern slavery through targeted training for professionals in Coventry on exploitation indicators and rights to care.

12.Explore and expand opportunities for the co-production of local statutory sector strategies and frameworks with migrant groups as part of fostering community ownership and trust in services.

13.Invest in robust translation and interpretation services to ensure that all residents can effectively engage with health programmes (prevention, treatment and care). Measurements of appropriateness to include consistency of arrangements for migrants where English is not a first language and choice. 

14.Schedule a series of asset based deeper dives into sub-groups of migrants with the aim of learning from their experiences to close equalities gaps (e.g. young people, women, older people).

15.Build on the Wellbeing Monitor community engagement project (focussed on Black African Communities) to establish sustainable models of building health literacy and service delivery that supports prevention, earlier diagnosis and treatment.

16.Investigate provision of community champions within migrant communities.

17.Prioritise the recommendations in the report, review the delivery mechanisms for the 15 recommendations and feedback to the Board in 12 months’ time on progress.