Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Offices, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1BN. View directions

Contact: Madeleine Shopland  Democratic & Electoral Services Specialist

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman

To elect a Chairman for the 2021-2022 municipal year.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That Councillor Charles Margetts be elected as Chairman of the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board for the 2021-22 municipal year.

2.

Appointment of Vice Chairman

To appoint a Vice Chairman for the 2021-22 municipal year.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That Dr Debbie Milligan be appointed as Vice Chairman of the Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board for the 2021-22 municipal year.

 

3.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were submitted from Steve Moore, Meradin Peachey and Martin Sloan.

4.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 392 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 March 2021.

 

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Board on 11 March 2021 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

At the request of the Chairman, Ingrid Slade provided an update on Covid surge testing.  The case rate for Wokingham was 91.7.  The South East rate had increased to 33 and the England rate had increased above 50.  The rate was also rising in Reading, Bracknell Forest and Slough.  The positivity rate was also rising locally. 

 

Following the identification of Delta variation cases not associated with travel, surge testing was being undertaken in Bulmershe and Whitegates, Norreys, Wescott and Evendons of all those over 12 years old who lived, worked or attended secondary school, in these wards.  There was a postcode checker available on the Council’s website for people to identify if this applied to them. 

 

The Board was reminded that the PCR tests should be taken even if the individual was fully vaccinated or undertaking regular lateral flow tests.  The testing sites were listed on the Council’s website.  Door knocking was being undertaken in the relevant wards to advise and encourage people to get tested.  Tests were being distributed to all schools and businesses in the area and support was being provided to vulnerable residents within the surge testing areas.  Uptake so far had been good.  It was noted that clear variant results would not be seen for at least 2 weeks.

5.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

6.

Public Question Time

To answer any public questions

 

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

 

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this Board.

 

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Board or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

.

7.

Member Question Time

To answer any member questions

Minutes:

There were no Member questions.

 

8.

Strategy into Action pdf icon PDF 138 KB

To consider the Strategy into Action.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board considered the Strategy into Action update.

 

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

 

·       The existing Wokingham Wellbeing strategy needed to be rolled forwards for a couple of months.  The Board was asked to note the proposed Berkshire West Strategy.

·       It was proposed that a series of workshops be held throughout the summer to work through each of the priorities in more detail to produce a plan for Wokingham going forward.  It was intended that this plan be signed off in September.

·       Ingrid Slade commented that the Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy was a high-level strategy across all three local authorities which highlighted 5 key priorities.  It had been in development since April 2019.  For each priority current work relating to the priority would be identified.  Specific local priorities under the overarching strategic priority and key partners would also be identified.

·       Ingrid Slade outlined the development plan.

·       Partnerships would take ownership of the delivery of the priorities and would report bi-monthly on their progress to the Wellbeing Board.  It was anticipated that relevant stakeholders would be involved in the delivery.

·       Councillor Hare was pleased to note the exploration of a universal approach for children, and the importance of that in Early Years.  He was also pleased to note the preventative work.

·       Katie Summers questioned whether an Equality Impact Assessment had been undertaken.  The vaccination programme had identified some issues regarding how individuals from deprived areas, different ethnicities, those from the Gypsy and Romany traveller community, and those with disabilities, were supported.  Ingrid Slade commented that tackling health inequality was at the heart of what they did and needed to be a focus when looking at all the priorities.

·       Katie Summers indicated that she had done some work on what the overarching population gross would be.  There was likely to be a population gap in the 21-49 year olds so there also needed to be a focus on workforce and how new workforce could be brought in and the strategy delivered.

 

RESOLVED:  That

 

1)    the development plan for the Strategy into Action section of the Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy be reviewed and noted.

 

2)    further input from Board members on this development plan be invited.

 

3)     Board members be invited to participate in the workshops as part of the development of the Strategy into Action.

 

4)    the plan of reporting against the Wellbeing Board Strategic priorities be noted.

 

5)     the current draft of the Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy be noted.

9.

Wokingham Integrated Partnership Update and end of year BCF reporting pdf icon PDF 263 KB

To receive a presentation on the Wokingham Integrated Partnership Update and end of year BCF reporting.

Minutes:

The Board were updated on the Wokingham Integrated Partnership and end of year reporting.

 

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

 

·       Each year there was a requirement to report to NHS England with regards to the Better Care Fund.  The Annual Return had been submitted but had been much shorter as this year did not have a formal submitted BCF Plan.

·       A plan had been agreed locally and a Section 75 had been completed to appropriately share the funds between the Council and the CCG.

·       It was noted that the national conditions had been met, income and expenditure targets had been matched and the programme had not overspent.

·       A comment on three statements from NHS England had been required.

·       Whilst many Integration Boards had not been meeting as frequently during the pandemic, the WIP had increased the frequency of meetings.

·       The WIP had disagreed with the comment that ‘Our BCF schemes were implemented as planned in 2020/21’.  A very full programme had been planned, which had not all been delivered due to the pandemic.

·       Lewis Willing outlined the challenges including supporting choice during the pandemic.

·       The Board noted some of the work that had been delivered in 2020/21 and work undertaken so far in 2021/22.

·       The Integration Team continued to support the WIP with the response to Covid, including undertaking a pilot to support the Council’s Contract Tracers to contact people from Cohorts 1-9 who had not been vaccinated yet, which had had some success, increasing the uptake in this group by 26% for one GP practice.

·       Councillor Margetts questioned when the MIND Service was likely to launch and was informed that work had already begun with a couple of practices so it was likely to be the end of June/early July.  Staff were currently going through their induction process.

 

RESOLVED:  That the Wokingham Integrated Partnership Update and end of year BCF reporting be noted.

10.

Draft Wokingham Community Safety Strategy 2021-2024 pdf icon PDF 500 KB

To consider the Draft Wokingham Community Safety Strategy 2021-2024

 

Minutes:

The Board received the Draft Wokingham Community Safety Strategy 2021-24.

 

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

 

·       The current Community Safety Strategy was due to finish at the end of June.  The Community Safety Partnership had a statutory duty to produce a Strategy for the Borough which looked at all of the crime and disorder issues and how the key issues would be tackled, including anti social behaviour, drug and alcohol issues and domestic abuse.

·       The Partnership had reviewed the available data considered by the different partners across the last 5 years and established the key priorities.

·       The Board noted the three strategic themes; Listening to the needs and concerns of local residents and taking action; Intervening early and preventing issues escalating and; Working together to protect vulnerable residents.

·       It was noted that different neighbourhoods had different needs and would potentially require different responses.

·       Narinder Brar went on to outline the specific aims of the Strategy.

·       Covid 19 had produced an exceptional set of circumstances and challenges. It had also resulted in dramatically changing and unusual trends.  Notable trends had included a fall in burglary and vehicle crime offences and a rise in domestic violence and anti-social behaviour in residential estates and parks and green spaces.  This would continue to be monitored.

·       A good response had been received to the consultation on the Strategy.

·       Councillor Margetts asked whether the amount of domestic abuses services and funding open to women would the same or greater under the new contract.  Narinder Brar indicated that due to an increased investment as a local authority the proportion available in terms of service amounts would have increased across the Borough.  There would be a greater opportunity to respond to need.

·       Katie Summers asked there had been a surge in the reporting of incidents following Covid.  Narinder Brar stated that whilst it had been anticipated, there had not been a big increase in reporting.  There had been a slight drop in the number of incidents reported to the Police.  However, the level of service use remained consistent.

·       Katie Summers asked if primary care was seeing an increase in those presenting with community safety and domestic abuse issues.  Dr Milligan responded that early in the pandemic an increase in child abuse had been seen.  She commented that sometimes adults found if difficult to view themselves as victims.  There needed to be education and information available about accessing the relevant services, in the different communities.  Narinder Brar indicated that the Domestic Abuse Act had come into force, bringing about a new definition of domestic abuse.  Funding would allow an increase in communication, in different languages and different places.  Covid had enabled the reassessment of social media platforms and accessing people via these means.  Across Thames Valley training had been undertaken in supermarkets and pharmacies about recognising signs of abuse and safe spaces.  Training and information would also be rolled out to hairdressers.

·       Dr Milligan asked whether information from CAB was being used to better  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Annual Report Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board 2020-2021 pdf icon PDF 276 KB

To receive the Annual Report Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board 2020-2021.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board considered the Annual Report Wokingham Borough Wellbeing Board 2020-21.

 

RESOLVED:  That

 

1)              the annual Wellbeing Board report and achievements for 2020/21 be reviewed.

 

2)              the establishment of the three Wellbeing Board Action Groups who will be support the Board to identify the ongoing priorities for 2021/22, be noted.

 

3)              the report be recommended to Council to note.

 

12.

Forward Programme pdf icon PDF 132 KB

To consider the Board’s work programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

Minutes:

The Board considered the forward programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

 

Board members were reminded of the informal workshops that would be held across the summer.

 

RESOLVED:  The forward programme be noted.