Agenda and minutes

These were received from Councillors Leadbetter and Westlake, Robert Norley, Dr Virginia Pearson and Martyn Rogers.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 November 2014 were taken as read and signed by the Chair as correct.

The Chair welcomed Tracey Wilson of Action For Blind People to the meeting who explained her work which covered the whole of Devon including work at the RD&E Eye Clinic where she worked alongside nursing and medical staff.

Action for the Blind offered support with day-to-day living, welfare rights, housing issues and managing personal budgets for those who had been diagnosed or had a long term-eye condition. Tailored support was offered in all aspects of life after sight loss and helped to address the emotional impact of sight loss and increase confidence levels. Some 75% of blind people were unemployed and often there were social and health implications particularly isolation. Information was provided on preventing further health difficulties such as advice on avoiding falls in the home and encouraging greater socialisation to combat depression.

Mobility issues outside the home were also addressed with liaison with relevant authorities e.g. Devon County Council regarding lighting, level crossings, paving design, parked cars etc. Councillor Owen stated that he would raise this issue with the Chair of Exeter HATOC. Action for Blind worked closely with the RNIB, the Guide Dogs for the Blind and various sight charities.

Encouraging her client group to participate in physical activities was important and exercises classes both at home and in sports centres were arranged and guiders were needed for those who wished to run/jog/tandem ride. Access to leisure centres was, at times, an issue and an assurance was given that this aspect would be addressed as the new Leisure Centre on the bus station site came forward.

Tracey Wilson welcomed the suggestion of an environmental/access audit of the City Centre, possibly involving use of mobility scooters, as had occurred in Cornwall. She agreed to pursue this suggestion and referred to a similar Guide Dogs for the Blind national campaign.

The Chair thanked Tracey Wilson for attending.

The Chair welcomed Kealy Sherwood, Assistant Director at St Lukes School. The school, a specialist Science and Sports College, had adopted a health and wellbeing agenda, based on the ethos of “Fit to Succeed”. It was a special centre for students with physical disabilities and was designated one of 45 HWB schools nationally. It possessed an elite sports academy programme linked with Exeter City FC, Exeter Gymnastics Academy and Exercise Science Consult Ltd. The aim of the project was to support others from the School Sports Partnership to embed health and wellbeing across their schools. It also managed the community facilities of all five PFI Schools in Exeter.

Specific Health and Wellbeing interventions included breakfast clubs, Families Skills for Health, Girls Active Programme, Healthy Travel Week and Everyone Active Club offering a wide variety of activities. She explained that “Fit to Succeed” was used to enable the school to hear direct from all students on issues, plan interventions and assist with OFSTED inspections.

The school worked with 25 primaries including all those in Exeter with classes at St Lukes or with outreach to schools, all of which had a ring fenced Sports Premium sum of £8,900, centrally funded, to support physical activity. In addition to educational use, St Lukes co-ordinated community use of the five schools, all of which possessed modern high tec facilities with a high demand for the astro turf facilities and the school halls. Further capacity existed for activities such as art, drama, music, use by church groups and on weekends.

There was liaison with Active Exeter and Matt Evans stated that work was progressing on a Leisure Facilities Strategy and Playing Pitch Strategy. Following discussions between the City Council and Active Devon, it had been agreed that an overarching strategy document be developed to articulate the key priorities from the various strands in a single high level document.

The Chair thanked Kealy Sherwood for her presentation.

RESOLVED that a report on the Leisure Facilities Strategy and Playing Pitch Strategy be submitted to the September Board meeting.

Matt Evans updated Members on the work to date of Active Exeter.

Laura Robinson, one of the three community organisers engaged on temporary contracts, was likely to be taken on by Active Devon to support the community engagement process in developing a new Outdoor Fitness Trail (funded by the Alcoa Foundation of Alco Howmet based at Sowton). Cowick Barton Playing Fields and Heavitree Park had been the two options with the former chosen. Councillor Hannaford confirmed that he would encourage the involvement of community groups and suggested the tennis, bowls and croquet clubs as likely participants. He also stated that he would examine the potential of support from the City Council’s HRA fund for the role.

The bid to the Sport England Community Sports Activity Fund on a behaviour change initiative aimed at increasing physical activity in the wider population was progressing. It would target the 30 to 50 year age group. If successful, the funding obtained would be match funded by Public Health money. The deadline for the submission of the bid was 19 April.

RESOLVED that the Board note the report.

The Chair welcomed Tim Golby and Jo Yelland to the meeting who spoke on the delivery of the Integrated Care Exeter Programme. The Programme aimed to look at collaborative ways of working with a view to formulating an integrated care vision for Exeter. It would provide a range of integrated activity in partnership to improve a wide range of health, care and community outcomes. It was developing new care models in partnership between health and social care, other statutory bodies and the voluntary sector.

The ICE project aimed to give residents a better experience of care and health and social care outcomes and deliver care in the most cost effective way. The project would see the creation of a cross-organisational team to provide truly co-ordinated support within communities, with key workers allocated from agencies to ensure that care is co-ordinated by one person and would therefore require just one assessment.

The voluntary sector would play a key role and be developed to facilitate a more integrated response to those at most risk. Others would benefit from support from community based well being networks to deliver alternative and early intervention services designed to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent declining health.

The ICE Board would be a formal strategic partnership of leading public and voluntary sector organisations chaired by Phil Norrey and included representatives from Devon County Council, Exeter City Council, Healthwatch Devon, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, the Ambulance and Fire and Rescue Services, key NHS providers in the City such as the Devon Partnership NHS Trust, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and North Devon Health Care Trust and Age UK Exeter. It was noted that the Chair, Gillian Champion and Karime Hassan, Bob Norley, Virginia Pearson were all members of the Board.

The Programme had already supported innovation and new ways of working through Westbank Community Health and Care, and the Supporting Older People and Reducing Pressure on Hospitals Project. Councillor Hannaford welcomed the work and undertook to ensure the involvement of community groups in his area.

An ICE bid had been successful in securing £1.6m in revenue funding and up to £1.1m of capital receipts from the 2015-16 Transformation Challenge Award Fund (promoted and Funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government).

Although Torbay had been lauded as setting good example of integrated services it was felt that better could be achieved for Exeter. It was now necessary to determine areas to focus on - either specific groups or place based such as a defined geographic area. Sara Gibbs suggested that two potential groups were the frail elderly and the middle age cohort where services could focus on preventable measures.

RESOLVED that the Board:-

1)    endorse the Integrated Care Exeter Programme;

2)    receive regular reports from the Integrated Care Exeter Programme; and

3)    note the successful bid for Transformation Challenge Award funding of up to £2,666 million.

Superintendent Perkin spoke on issues surrounding rough sleeping with reference to the report included on the agenda which had also been discussed at a meeting of the Exeter Board on 15 January 2015 and which detailed the numbers and nature of rough sleepers counted on a specific night at the end of 2014, together with the reasons for the increasing number and potential solutions. Of the 34 rough sleepers, 50% had a local connection to Exeter. The report showed that two were female, 10 believed to have endured mental health issues, six with alcohol issues and two using legal highs and 10 entrenched in rough sleeping. Chris Stocks, Exeter City Council’s Housing Options Manager reported that 90% of those housed in Gabriel House were ex offenders.

Rough sleeping had been a problem for many years in Exeter and was increasing across the country with no easy solution to this complex and challenging problem. As with other urban areas, rough sleepers gravitated to Exeter where there were greater support and opportunities for their lifestyle including health and accommodation resources. As a hub, the City Council did receive additional Central Government grant.

It was becoming more difficult to work with some rough sleepers with an increase in chaotic behaviour. Reductions and changes in service provision and a lack of outreach support in terms of health, mental health and substance misuse workers, was often resulting in non engagement by clients. The Clock Tower surgery was one area where outreach work had dried up although it was understood that this was possibly the result of contract re-negotiation with NHS England.

Superintendent Perkin reported that, although levels of violence were increasing in Plymouth, a similar problem was not apparent in Exeter but there was a need to have regard, as far as possible, to the safety of rough sleepers. A more rigorous approach to discourage City Centre locations could lead to sanctuary being sought in more secluded and dangerous locations.

With a number of different agencies and voluntary bodies involved it was felt that a more systematic approach to working with this population was required. A report was to be submitted to the Exeter Board on this bringing together a number of pieces of work including Making Every Adult Matter, RD&E Hospital Discharge Work, developments in RISE - the adult substance misuse service and the Wat Tyler House Hub. The potential for a single agency/body to be identified to co-ordinate work was suggested. Superintendent Perkin did not feel that this fell readily within the remit of the Community Safety Strategy Group although the need for such a co-ordinating body had been raised with Karime Hassan and Bob Norley. Councillor Owen also undertook to discuss the matter with Bob Norley.

Councillor Hannaford chaired ASBAT and Gillian Champion, Chaired the Exeter Sub Locality New Devon CCG Drug and Alcohol group and it was agreed that Chris Stocks email to her specific case studies in order to provide a scenario of individual circumstances.

Sara Gibbs suggested that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

RESOLVED that the following dates for future meetings be noted:-

Tuesday 14 April 2015                        Tuesday 7July 2015              

Wednesday 2 September 2015          Tuesday 17 November 2015