Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from the following Board Members: Paul Bentley, Integrated Care Board (ICB) Representative, Councillor Gary Etheridge and Donna Marriott, Assistant Director Child Social Care, Medway Council.

With respect to invited attendees, apologies for absence were received from Jayne Black (Chief Executive, Medway NHS Foundation Trust.

To approve the record of the meeting held on  17 November 2022.

The record of the meeting held on 17 November 2022 was agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct.

There were none.

Condolences were extended to the family of Helen Jones Assistant Director Partnership Commissioning.

Members are invited to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in accordance with the Member Code of Conduct. Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 4.

Disclosable pecuniary interests

There were none.

Other significant interests (OSIs)

There were none.

Other interests

There were none.

This report introduces the Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board’s (KMSAB) Annual Report for April 2021–March 2022. The Annual Report sets out the responsibilities and structure of the Board and details how the multi-agency partnership delivered against its priorities for the year.  The report also provides information pertaining to Safeguarding Adults Reviews and safeguarding activity information.

The Independent Chair, Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board introduced the annual report which detailed the multiagency delivery of priorities for the year.

The following was highlighted:

• This was an independent Board, and the report summarised all the work done in conjunction with partners over the last 12 months.
• In the last 12 months, 59 workshops had taken place which were attended by over 638 delegates.
• Since 2016 there had been a year-on-year increase of safeguarding adult reviews, and this was due to increased awareness of the reporting process by professionals as well as the public.
• There had been notable emerging trends in the area of self-neglect.
• There was increased concern regarding issues of crime experienced by vulnerable adults and those with learning disabilities as their experiences were being under reported and under recorded.

Members of the Board then raised a number of questions and comments which included:

The format of the action plan which was easy to read was welcomed and it was a document format that others could learn from.

The Board was commended for their response and efforts to the Ukraine Crisis.

Raising Awareness – reassurance was sought on the ability of the public to recognise and raise safeguarding issue and it was asked what was being done to increase public awareness. The Independent Chair responded that everyone had a responsibility to raise safeguarding concerns. The increase in referrals evidenced increased awareness of what could be deemed as safeguarding. There was information on partners websites and the Boards’ website on how to make contact but more work was needed on empowerment through awareness to increase people’s confidence in reporting incidences and concerns. The voluntary agencies in Medway were instrumental in the work taking in promotion of awareness in the community.

The Assistant Director Adult Social Care added that there had been a 21% increase in the last year of SAR reporting with referrals received from a broad range of people which included partners, professionals, and the public. Progress continued to be made and this was encouraging.

Placements in Medway – a concern was raised on the strain on services due to placement of families in Medway. The Assistant Director Adult Social Care provided assurance that when someone was placed in Medway that had care support needs, the placing authority retained responsibility of the care support. In the event that a safeguarding concern was raised for that person, Medway had a statutory responsibility to investigate the concern.

Model of Best Practice – in response to a question on whether a model of best practice was followed that supported adults through the investigation process, the Independent Chair said that work needed to be done to bring together different Boards who all were focused on various aspects of the safeguarding process. Discussions needed to continue to take place on what could be done better to improve processes and experiences of residents. The Assistant Director Adult Social Care added that Adult Social Care was on a journey to improve integration through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 613.

Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) are under a duty to produce a Community Safety Plan to formulate and implement a strategy to reduce crime and disorder, combat substance misuse and reduce re-offending. This report provides information on the Plan, which forms part of the Council’s Policy Framework, to cover the period from 2020 to 2024, and specifically the refreshed Action Plan for the coming year.

Councillor Adrian Gulvin introduced the report which provided information on the Plan which forms part of the Council’s Policy Framework and the refreshed Action Plan for the coming year.

The Board was informed that Medway had received £500,000 in funding which had been used to increase safety in public spaces. In response to community feedback that girls and women felt vulnerable at night, improvements had been made to lighting in town centres and by cutting back foliage. The Safe Space scheme launched in Rochester High Street which enabled women and girls to seek refuge in shops should they feel in danger in a town centre had now been rolled out across Chatham and Gillingham.

Members then made the following comments:

• The increased work on prevent agenda was commendable.
• Officers and the police were to be congratulated for their responsiveness to local issues and it was reassuring that issues were being dealt with appropriately.
• The additional support to target issues with town centre car parks was welcomed and a good example of multiagency working.

Decision

The Board noted the report.

The Health and Social Care Act, 2022, requires Integrated Care Partnerships (i.e., the Joint Committee consisting of Medway Council, Kent County Council (KCC) and the Kent and Medway NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB)) to prepare a strategy setting out how the assessed needs in relation to its area are to be met. On 29 July 2022, the department of health published guidance detailing how integrated care systems should create an integrated care strategy. There is a requirement for an interim strategy to be published by December 2022. The Inequalities Prevention and Population Health Committee (IPPHC) of the Kent and Medway ICB has been tasked with developing the Integrated Care Strategy. This IPPHC has established a steering group, chaired by the ICB Chief Strategy Officer, supported by the Directors of Public Health for Medway and Kent, to produce the strategy for Kent and Medway. The aim is to deliver a concise high-level strategy document circa 50 pages in length, that identifies the key issues for Kent and Medway.

For Medway, the strategy was taken to Cabinet on 13 December for approval. The strategy was also approved by the two other partners (KCC and ICB), prior to publication on 31 December 2022.

The Deputy Director of Public Health introduced the interim strategy. The Board was informed that as part of the social care guidance, it was required that an Integrated Care Strategy be produced and submitted by December 2022. The guidance acknowledged the time constraints and that it would be difficult for extensive engagement to take place prior to the submission deadline.

Following submission of the Interim Strategy, the department would continue engagement throughout the year and an updated Strategy would be produced later in the year.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments which included:

The Interim Strategy referenced a stronger focus on prevention and wider determinants of health.

Sustainable solutions by tackling issues jointly were needed in addressing the needs of residents.

Sharing of learning – as part of the focus to tackle health inequality, it was asked if the system enabled shared learning across services. The Officer said that they were always exploring different ways to ensure that the systems in place benefitted residents. Additionally, on reflecting on the importance of working together to deliver improved outcomes, this innovative approach as outlined in the Strategy provided an opportunity that had not been available in the past.

Safeguarding Adults – it was commented that there was a lack of mention of safeguarding adults in the Strategy and this needed to be addressed. The Deputy Director Public Health said that this was an unintended omission that would be addressed in the updated Strategy.

Decision:

1. The Board noted the report.

2. The Board recommended to officers that the updated strategy included safeguarding adults.

Directors of Public Health (DsPH) have a statutory requirement to produce public health reports. These reports are the DsPH professional statement about the health of the local community.

The 2021-22 report focuses on hypertension and how we can improve the health and wellbeing of residents with improved prevention, early detection and treatment of high blood pressure.

The Director of Public Health introduced the Annual report which focused on hypertension and how improvements could be made to the health and wellbeing of Medway residents through prevention, early detection, and treatment. The Board was informed that Medway was the second highest Local Authority in the SouthEast in early identification and the team, in particular Paul Scott, Katherine Bell and Georgina Crossman were commended for all their effort and hard work. The primary care teams were also commended for their work.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments which included:

It was commented that the report had been very well designed.

Additional Support – concern was raised that due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, people may be in the position of having to make a choice between eating/heating and paying for prescriptions. it was asked if there was additional support in place to assist with this. The Director of Public health acknowledged that this could be a real issue for many families, and it was important to gain clarity on the broader impact of the cost of living crisis. The team was working with the ICB on outreach work and further thought would be given to how the household support fund could be further utilised by people facing challenges.

Accessibility of Blood Pressure monitors – it was asked what could be done to ensure that there were accessible machines in community settings across Medway, to get the community to start thinking about accessing machines and taking more control of testing themselves in ways that were not linked with seeing their GP. The Director of Public Health agreed that this was an ongoing challenge, and it was vital that awareness was raised to get the point across that people could take control of this aspect of their health and that getting their blood pressure checked was not dependant on them seeing their GP.

It was suggested that a team in the community could be used as a tool to conduct testing. The Board was informed that outreach work through the mobile bus which was often in the Pentagon Centre in Chatham with staff who regularly conducted blood pressure checked and fed the data captured directly to individuals GP records. There was now a facility in place to enable monitoring to take place in some pharmacies across Medway.

The Director of Public Health acknowledged that there were barriers that needed to be broken down to improve people’s abilities to conduct their own health checks where appropriate and even more important was ensuring that the infrastructure and systems were in place for the information captured to be recorded on individuals’ medical records.

Decision:

The Board noted the report.

The report advises the Board of the forward work programme for discussion in the light of latest priorities, issues and circumstances. It gives the Board an opportunity to shape and direct the Board’s activities.

The democratic services officer introduced the report and drew members attention to the proposals for the 13 April 2023, meeting of the Board as detailed in the report.

Decision:

1. The Board agreed the work programme as attached at appendix A and the recommendations of the pre-agenda meeting as set out at paragraphs 2.2 to 2.4.
2. The Board agreed that the resource from the training session be made available for new members.