Agenda and minutes

One nomination had been received for the position of Chair.

AGREED – That Councillor Mary Foy (Gateshead Council) be appointed to the position of Chair.

One nomination had been received for the position of Vice Chair.

AGREED – That Councillor Wendy Taylor (Newcastle City Council) be appointed to

                    the position of Vice Chair.

Councillor Wendy Taylor (Newcastle City Council) declared an interest as an employee of Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Councillors Bell and Grayson (North Tyneside), Councillors Armstrong and Watson (Northumberland) and Councillor Huntley (South Tyneside)

The Joint Committee is asked to agree the attached constitution and terms of reference.

AGREED – That the attached constitution and terms of reference for the Joint

                   Committee be approved.

Item attached. Mark Adams Joint Lead for Combined Cumbria and NE STP and Caroline Latta, North East Commissioning Support will provide the Joint Health STP OSC with a presentation on the above.

The Joint Committee was advised that the draft STP was published in November 2017 and a twelve week engagement programme on the draft was carried out.

The North East is one of the highest performing regions in the country and the aim is to have high quality hospital and specialist care and address the gaps in the Five Year Forward View.

The draft STP had identified gaps relating to the need to scale up existing health prevention work and the need to work collaboratively to improve the quality of care.

In particular there was a need to focus on out of hospital care and provide care closer to home. The need to close the financial gap was also identified as a key priority.

The Joint Committee was advised that the feedback received showed strong support for work to tackle health inequalities and queries had been received on how public health could be funded to progress this.

A major theme emerging from the engagement exercise related to workforce and centred around the issue of the ageing GP workforce and shortages of mid - grade doctors and the impact on nursing burseries and the need to retain staff. There had been questions around how these issues could be tackled and in relation to seven day working and how this might impact on the role of carers.

Another key theme related to access to services particularly in rural areas such as Durham and Northumberland and a strong theme in Durham had been around the fact that it was split across two differing STPs.

In addition, it was highlighted that the STP was very focused on health rather than social care issues and there were issues raised as to how local authorities were going to be involved in the plan and how the financial costings outlined in the plan were going to be achieved. A major theme in the feedback was around how the financial gap would be achieved.

Feedback from the engagement exercise also highlighted that there had been the expectation that there would be a significantly greater level of detail in the plan than is currently there, particularly around how the needs of certain groups would be looked at /met.

There was also feedback from some parties who felt that they should have been involved in drawing up the plan.

The Joint Committee was advised that when the STP goes out for formal consultation liaison will take place with local authorities to ensure the formal consultation is as wide as possible.

Councillor Mendelson highlighted that she was aware that the Ambulance Service and Pharmacy Services had raised concerns that they had not been involved in drawing up the STP and the proposed delivery method. Concerns had also been raised around accountability and the structure for delivering this and it was considered that this needed to be spelt out more clearly.

The Joint Committee was advised that the plan is currently at a very high level and there is a need to provide  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Alan Foster and Mark Adams, Joint Leads for Combined Cumbria and NE STP will provide the Joint Health STP OSC with a presentation on the above.

The Joint Committee was informed that when the STP plan / vision was put together this was done in a technical way. Consideration was given to three areas; how the health and wellbeing of patients can be improved; the quality of services and available funding. Within the STP footprint there is still a considerable amount of deprivation issues in terms of public and patient health and the aim is to narrow the gap. However there is an identified £641m funding gap by 2021. However, there is potential for this gap to be even higher as the demand for health services keeps rising and funding for these services is staying relatively flat.

The Joint Committee was advised that the plan predominantly sets out the work which is already taking place across the STP footprint which in general terms falls under three headings. The first is around how we can scale up prevention work and help people to have healthier lifestyles and become fitter. The second is around out of hospital collaborations to develop different services such as the Vanguard Care Homes Initiative in Gateshead. The third area is focused on how we get NHS staff in hospitals to work together in different ways. Previously trusts have been set up to work as competitive organisations. This approach has not been helpful in relation to funding issues. The aim now is to encourage trusts to look at how they can work together instead.

There is a focus on these three areas across the STP with different variations and work is taking place across prevention, urgent care, cancer, pathology and workforce which is one of the biggest.

The Joint Committee was advised that there is a really good track record of joint working in the North East and this has meant that some of the workstreams across the STP areas have been in place for some time eg Digital and Urgent Care.

The STP added other workstreams such as how the big Foundation trusts are working together to tackle issues such as workforce, pathology and prevention. Other workstreams have been put in place to take things forward on a task and finish basis so that learning can be disseminated to all CCG areas and to look at how it is possible to deliver more in terms of support services for patients.

The Joint Committee was advised that in terms of decision making across the region, governance arrangements are in their infancy and there is a need to understand how the three STPs will work together as all three STPs will need to work across the fourteen different workstreams.  Draft proposals are being considered in relation to an Accountable Care Partnership and local delivery partnership / models linked closely to local Health and Wellbeing Boards.

Alan stated that the key point was around a changing emphasis away from competition to collaboration with Foundation Trusts working more together and developing networks of clinicians working across the patch so that they can support services and keep  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Chair invited the Joint Committee to highlight those areas of work which it would like to receive progress updates on going forwards.

The Joint Committee identified that it would be useful to have updates on Prevention, Urgent Care and Workforce at future meetings as well as information about the role of Accountable Care Organisations. The Joint Committee also identified that it would also be useful to invite other organisations such as Healthwatch to participate in future meetings.

AGREED        (i) That the Joint Committee receive a progress update on the

     Prevention Workstream at its next meeting in January 2018.

(ii) That the Joint Committee also receive progress updates on Urgent

Care and Workforce at future meetings as well as information about the role of Accountable Care Organisations.

To be confirmed.

Membership

Gateshead Council

Councillor M Foy

Councillor L Caffrey

Councillor P Maughan

Newcastle CC

Councillor W Taylor

Councillor F Mendelson

Councillor A Schofield

North Tyneside Council

Cllr G Bell

Cllr I Grayson

Cllr Margaret Hall

Northumberland CC

Cllr E Armstrong

Councillor L Simpson

Councillor J Watson

South Tyneside Council

Councillor W Flynn

Councillor A Hetherington

Councillor A Huntley

Durham CC

Councillor J Robinson

Councillor M Davinson

Councillor O Temple

Sunderland CC

Councillor J Heron

Councillor K Chequer

Councillor C Leadbitter

AGREED                    That the next meeting of the Joint Committee be held on 15

                                    January 2018 at 10.30am at Gateshead Civic Centre.