Agenda and minutes

The Chair introduced Members and officers at the meeting

Councillors Hyde and Khondoker. Apologies for having to leave the meeting early from Councillor Clarke and Turan and lateness from Councillors Burgess and Chowdhury

None

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

 (b)Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out

  duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

 (c)Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body

 in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

 (d)Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

 (e)Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

 (f)Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have

  a beneficial interest.

 (g)Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

None

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 16 July 2020 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions

None

Christine Lehmann, Health and Adult Social Care gave a presentation on PPS in Islington to the Committee, during which the following main points were made –

PPE in Islington

·       1.49 million total PPS items distributed to date

·       £596.76K estimated total cost

·       Approximately £110.59 PPE cost per service user

·       PPE and the BECC have been supplying 20% of Islington’s ASC average required PPE per week based on modelled PPE need

·       A complex and dynamic situation with multiple tiers and supply routes including the London Resilience Forums, North London Central Partnership and national Government through the Department of Health and Social Care

·       Problems with supply February/March and the PPE team brought together and developed a system to engage with providers gathering information in order to support and respond. In April created the reporting, monitoring and ordering process for the whole of the ASC PPE delivery system in partnership with the BECC

·       ASC PPE team made up of colleagues from the ASC contracts team, project management team, Public Health performance/strategists, in-house team, re-deployees across the Council. New communication channels were established to focus on immediate need and a contacts list developed to identify providers outside of commissioned services. First priority was to ensure the safety and continued support of residents and the care staff working with them. Initially the PPE team directly procured from suppliers, transferring to the BECC team with ACS PPE team consulting on quantities and PPE items needed for stock. In May/June engaged with other Councils to ascertain the proportionality of PPE requests from providers, and created dashboard with NCL/4C to report on actual usage and project costs in line with national/regional modelled demand. July onwards local processes embedded, supply beginning to stabilise, 4C is expanding to support the other NCL boroughs based on Islington’s work to date, Department of Health and Social Care PPE portal is launched

·       Providers – 155 services in total – wide range of external and internal services including care agencies, care homes, mental health and learning disabilities teams, occupational health, direct payments recipients and their carers, supported living, in house-bridging and discharge services, self-funders and private based Islington service users. Good supplier and user feedback

·       Despite many challenges able to respond quickly to meet need and develop robust systems

·       It was noted that Islington now had an adequate supply of PPE in event of a second wave of the pandemic. In addition the DPH also had a stock of available supplies

·       Members expressed concern that the Government did not have an adequate supply of PPE in place at the start of the pandemic

·       Noted that two thirds of PPE had been distributed to domiciliary care providers

·       In response to a question it was stated that home care providers had given assurances that they had adequate supplies of PPE for staff, however they could approach the Council in the event of shortages. The relationship with providers was good

Update – COVID 19 Adult Social Care response

Stephen Taylor, Health and Adult Social Care was present and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 174.

Julie Billett, Director of Public Health outlined the report

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         As of 27 August there are a total of 654 laboratory confirmed cases in Islington. As of 09 September there were 724 cases, and that this increase is in line with London and national increases. This is a matter of concern however at present the new cases are mainly younger people aged 18-29, and there had been no increases in hospitalisation as yet

·         The average number of new daily cases peaked from 29 March-4 April at 17 cases

·         The number of new cases per day has been declining since mid-April

·         Over the last 2 weeks the average number of new daily cases has increased slightly, however testing has increased dramatically

·         A total of 153 deaths in Islington have been recorded up to 14 August COVID related. There have been no deaths due to COVID 19 in Islington since the week commencing 25 July

·         Contact tracing – between 28 May when test and trace service began and up to 23 August there have been 114 cases who had been in close contact with 435 contacts and 79% of cases have been successfully contacted, his has now increased to 186 cases with a success rate of 77% and 585 contacts with a

·         Key challenges – not sure what next few months over Autumn and Winter will mean for COVID 19, worst case scenarios need to be factored in, these could include rolling regional and local surge in cases, or a broadly controlled national and regional epidemic. Under both these scenarios national and international examples generally indicate that minority ethnic groups and particularly people in poor employment conditions, overcrowded conditions and excluded groups will likely be disproportionately impacted and affected

·         Key actions August 2020-March 2021 – Implementation of a population wide and targeted communications and engagement plan, targeted preventative work with higher risk settings, maximising home care resilience and infection prevention and control, effective public health data and surveillance systems, effective public health data and surveillance systems, increasing accessibility and engagement with testing and contact tracing, working with NHS to maximise influenza vaccination take up, and programme of exercising and testing plans

·         It was noted that the local contact tracing system is being developed and this will sit alongside the national contact tracing system, however as Islington was not a priority area in terms of increase in cases this may not happen for a number of weeks

·         It was noted that residents were being facilitated with regard to testing, however there are currently there were issues with regard to capacity. Work is taking place to provide a testing site in the borough

·         In response to a question it was stated that schools had been provided with a limited number of test kits and these could be replenished if necessary

The Chair thanked Julie Billett for attending

Rebecca Kingsnorth, Assistant Director of Primary Care, Islington CCG, Alex Smith NCL CCG Islington and Imogen Bloor GP were present at the meeting and outlined the report

During discussion of the report the following main points were made –

·       It was noted that GP’s were open for business although during COVID had increased the use of remote appointments and this was likely to continue. There is a need to communicate to residents the message that GP’s were available

·       With regard to the closure of the walk in centre, there had been engagement with the public, however following COVID the proposed service model did not fit given the introduction of the new GP contract, and the CCG had had to find 30% savings due to a financial defecit

·       In response to a question as to whether Camden and Islington, who had historically had a financial surplus, were subsidising other NCL boroughs who had deficits it was stated that Islington had a financial deficit of £14m and therefore savings had had to be made. However, it was noted that as part of the NCL CCG constitution there is a commitment that from the Governing Body that it would not disinvest from the 2019/20 financial baseline in each borough for primary care and mental health services, and that this was not time limited

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted

The Chair thanked Rebecca Kingsnorth, Imogen Blair and Alex Smith for attending

RESOLVED:

The Committee were informed by Councillor Burgess that she would be standing down as Executive Member Health and Social Care and that this was her last meeting of the Committee

(a)  That the Committee thank Councillor Burgess for her work as Executive Member Health and Social Care and the contribution that she has made to the work of the Committee and health and social care in Islington

(b)  That the work programme be noted