Agenda item

To receive a joint report from the Directors of Adults and Health, Public Health, and City Development which provides an overview of outcomes and service performance related to the council and city priorities within the Scrutiny Board’s remit.

The Directors of Adults and Health, Public Health and City Development submitted a joint report that presented an overview of outcomes and service performance related to the council priorities and services within the Scrutiny Board’s remit.

The following were in attendance:

·  Councillor F Venner - Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships

·  Cath Roff - Director of Adults and Health

·  Victoria Eaton - Director of Public Health

·  Kathryn Ingold - Chief Officer / Consultant in Public Health 

·  Steve Baker - Head of Active Leeds

·  Peter Storrie - Head of Service, Intelligence & Policy

The Director of Public Health introduced the headline performance issues relating to Public Health as set out in the report, noting that some of the data covered the initial period of the Coronavirus pandemic which will inform a review of how Covid affected some of the key measures. The data reinforced the need to monitor performance in respect of the life expectancy and ill health indicators and the widening inequality gap between the Leeds average and most deprived areas.

The Director of Adult Social Care highlighted that the impact of Covid on Adults and Social Care data was shown for the first time in this report - a number of PIs were not collected during this period and there had been a reduction in admissions to Care Homes. CQC ratings had dropped during this reporting period, although prior to this, the Authority had been at a good point performance wise.

The Head of Active Leeds provided a precis of the inactivity rates which showed that levels of inactivity were not much worse than before the pandemic, with residents accessing fitness wherever they could; including walking or cycling for exercise and utilising on-line encouragement which supported physical activity. Leeds’ inactivity rates had remained stable, whereas nationally there had been a 2% increase. Noting that reduced access to facilities had a major impact on younger people and BAME residents, the service had identified an area of work to undertake with Public Health colleagues.

The Board discussed the following:

·  The impact of poverty on health inequalities and how families on lower incomes could be further supported to make healthier lifestyle choices.

·  Accessibility to Leisure Centres, with Members acknowledging that while centres had remained open, some had restrictions due to staffing issues. Additionally, the Board noted a comment expressing thanks to the community users of the Mandela Centre who had been displaced to other centres and leisure facility providers whilst the Mandela Centre was used as a Covid-19 testing centre.

·  Inspection outcomes, with Members being advised that no allowance had been made for the impact of Covid-19 on all services by the Care Quality Commission as part of its assessment process.

·  Delayed Transfers of Care, where it was reported that approximately 293 patients were in hospital with no reason to reside. It was highlighted that although hospitals were managing, the situation remains challenging with every available space being used. It was noted that the opening of the Nightingale Surge Hub at St James’s would also help to provide additional capacity.

·  Workforce issues, with Members being advised that a shortage of staff had led to a number of Home Care agencies scaling back the amount of time spent with clients, as well as the Care Home sector struggling to accommodate new placements due to workforce issues.

·  General vaccination uptake, where it was reported that at Christmas there were 100,000 residents over the age of 12 who had not had the vaccine, of them 35,000 were adults in the vulnerable categories 1-9 (over the age of 50 or clinically extremely vulnerable).  It was noted that a breakdown of the figures would be provided to Board members.

·  Vaccination update in the BAME communities, with Members being advised that recent efforts had resulted in 31,000 BAME residents receiving a vaccine in the week prior to Christmas 2021, with 3,000 of them receiving their first vaccine, although it was noted that there were variations in uptake across the BAME community with the Gypsy & Roma and the Chinese communities having the lowest uptake.

·  The impact of mandatory vaccinations for NHS staff from April, with Members being advised that this could bring additional pressures at a time when every health and care worker is needed and the sector is also competing with other employers/sectors who are offering more attractive pay and benefits.

·  Addressing the impact on elective care patients in terms of reducing waiting times for elective surgery, with the Board expressing a wish to explore this in more detail at a future meeting.

In conclusion the Chair thanked the officers for the performance update and for their continued hard work.

RESOLVED - That the contents of the report and appendices, along with Members comments, be noted.