Agenda and minutes

Councillor Dale Grounds declared a Non-Registrable Interest in respect of agenda item 4 (Vaccination Programme).  His interest arose from the fact that he had been volunteering and assisting the NHS vaccination programme at the Ashfield Health Village since its commencment at the start of 2021.

RESOLVED

that the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 27 July 2021, be

received and approved as a correct record.

The Chairman welcomed everyone present to the meeting and introduced Rosa Waddingham, Chief Nurse and David Ainsworth, Mid Notts Locality Director from the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).  The guests were in attendance to deliver a presentational update to Members regarding implementation of the vaccination programme.

David Ainsworth and Rosa Waddington briefly explained their role within the CCG and their responsibilities for ensuring delivery of the Covid-19 vaccination within Nottinghamshire whilst bringing all elements of the programme together.  They took the opportunity to thanks Ashfield District Council and the Chief Executive, Theresa Hodgkinson for all the support they had received with delivery of the programme thus far and were of the belief that the Council had been absolutely instrumental in ensuring take up within Ashfield.

Phase 1 and 2 Programme Reflections

To endeavour to give the Panel some background to the current position, phases 1 and 2 of the programme had been reviewed by the Mid Notts Health Oversight Group, supported by Ashfield partners, and the following reflections had been established:

·       Positive engagement with community and religious leaders particularly Gypsy, Roma and traveller communities and acknowledgement of the sterling work undertake by certain community leaders (leafleting, busting myths and encouraging vaccinations)

·       Substantial support from wider partners, community champions and local volunteers

·       The need for venues and pop-up clinics to be trusted places, particularly for deprived communities

·       Ability for the mobile clinic/vaccination bus to be flexible with its timetable and visit areas with low take up in a short planning window

·       The need for direct engagement and bespoke appointments for particularly vulnerable cohorts i.e. protected time for learning disabilities

·       Acknowledgement of support from local employers i.e. vaccination activity seen at Amazon.

Over 87,600 Ashfield residents had now received their two vaccination doses and this achievement had been very much due to the following:

·       Making every contact count from maternity focus across pharmacy, to health visitors, midwives and all other health care professionals

·       The use of targeted vaccination materials including ‘EasyRead’ invitation letters for Learning Disabilities and autism and a focused local approach for dementia sufferers

·       Excellent partnership working with all health, social care, local government, police and wider partnerships broadcasting a consistent vaccination message

·       Practice-based clinics at local surgeries for those who could not travel and needed a familiar setting

·       A continuous level of community safety support with a consistent approach to anti-vaccination activity and ongoing support from police colleagues.

Vaccination Take Up Rates

Members received information regarding take up for Ashfield residents in all areas of the District and it was acknowledged that walk-in centres were now encouraging younger adults to receive their vaccinations.  The take up within Ashfield had been pleasing overall and over 90% of the over 50s and the vulnerable were now vaccinated.

It was noted however that vaccination rates were lower (and under 70%) in the following wards and all assistance to increase these rates would continue to be appreciated:

Greenwood and Summit

Abbey Hill

Leamington

Sutton Central and New Cross.

Booster Programme

Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP.7

The Service Manager for Scrutiny and Democratic Services presented the Panel with a draft 2021/22 Covid Recovery Scrutiny Panel Workplan and emphasised the fact that the Panel’s remit had now shifted to recovery as opposed to the initial ‘response’ to the Covid pandemic back in 2020.

Members acknowledged that the Workplan needed to remain flexible in light of the ever changing national picture regarding recovery from the pandemic and to enable Members to swiftly respond to changing situations as they arose.

The Panel had expressed their desire to speak to local businesses and the voluntary sector, one year on, to have insight into how people and organisations were coping in the current, ever evolving, Covid landscape and to see what support might be available from the Council to assist with any transition or growth.  It was suggested that this ‘informative two-way session’ might be better served in a more informal environment through a Working Group as opposed to a formal Panel meeting.  Members agreed with this course of action.

The Scrutiny Research Officer also suggested that a form of questionnaire could be circulated to local businesses to get some feedback in relation to their recovery experiences.  It was also mooted that an exercise to evaluate what other local authorities were doing to aid recovery for their local economies would be useful to the Panel’s future deliberations.

The Director of Legal and Governance (and Monitoring Officer) advised the Panel that the Local Government Associations (LGA) has arranged a visit, albeit virtually, to the Council during December 2021 to enable Peer Members and Chief Executives to ascertain how the Council had been planning for Covid recovery, what had already been done and how this compared to other local authorities.

It was hoped that the work of the Covid Scrutiny Panel would be demonstrated to the LGA Peer Group and once the visit was completed, the LGA were intending to give reflection and feedback on what had been ascertained and also offer some pointers for future direction.  It would therefore be useful to schedule an item for a future meeting of this Panel to enable officers to report the outcomes from the LGA to Members.

Additionally, Members were informed that the Sports and Leisure Management Group (SLM and ‘Everyone Active’) who had just taken over management of the Council’s leisure contract for the next 10 years, had recently given a presentation to management in relation to their focus on health and leisure recovery following the pandemic.

The presentation was inspirational and had charted attendance levels throughout the pandemic and outlined the organisation’s aspirational community programmes which included activities for children, food programmes and support for mental health.  It would again be useful for the Panel to receive a similar presentation from them at some point during the next 12 months to gain further understanding of their work and to continue to forge good working relationships with the Council’s leisure providers in respect of post-Covid recovery.

RESOLVED

that the following Covid Recovery Scrutiny Panel  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP.8