To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following Board Members: Councillors N. Emmott and Emsley and Wardle.

Apologies for absence were also received from the following Advisors to the Board: Steve Rumbelow, Mark Widdup, Margaret Parker, Maddy Hubbard.  

Apologies for absence were also submitted by Charlotte Mitchell.

Members are requested to approve the minutes of the meeting held on

22^nd March 2023

Resolved that the minutes of 22^nd March 2023 be agreed as a correct record.

Members are required to declare any disclosable pecuniary, personal or personal and prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests relating to items on this agenda and/or indicate if S106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.   

Dr. A. Bodrul declared a non-pecuniary interest with regards to the items on today’s agenda by virtue of his role in Primary Care.

To determine any items on the agenda, if any, where the public are to be excluded from the meeting.

There were no items for exclusion of press and public.

To determine whether there are any additional items of business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair decides should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business received.

Report to follow

The Board received a report of the Consultant in Public Health and current chair of the Child Death Overview Panel for Oldham, Rochdale and Bury. The report sought to inform of the data concerning child deaths under 18 years, apart from still births, late foetal loss or termination of pregnancy. The data would be relevant to Oldham, Rochdale and Bury and would concern the period between April 2021 and March 2022.

The Assistant Director of Public Health, Rochdale Borough Council, addressed the Board and informed that this report would be presented annually but, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the report for the period 2020/21 could not be brought to the attention of this Board. Therefore, it was included as an appendix to the 2021/22 report which was in the process of being finalised and was presented today as a draft.

The Assistant Director also pointed out that, as the final report would be published, it would be important to give consideration to the process for Child Death Overview in Rochdale.

The report author informed that the Child Death Overview Panel would explore all factors relating the death of the child and their findings would be used to inform future actions and to generate recommendations on behalf of the Panel.

The report author continued informing that between April 2021 and March 2022 there had been 64 notified deaths and 44 Child Death Overview Panel review cases that had been closed in the Oldham, Rochdale and Bury area. However, it had to be noted that deaths reviewed had happened in the previous year. The pandemic had produced a backlog. Oldham had the highest child and infant mortality rate in Greater Manchester; Rochdale held an intermediate position in terms of child and infant mortality rate compared to other local authorities in Greater Manchester.

The report author drew the attention of the Board Members on the fact that child and infant deaths were linked to inequalities in terms of deprivation and ethnicity; the majority of cases reviewed saw children from non-white backgrounds. A similar proportion was seen in the rest of Greater Manchester.

The report author concluded that it was pivotal to continue to work on modifiable causes of mortality and to ensure data collected was accurate. A new process had been introduced to gather more details about child death which would help to produce a more comprehensive analysis. Equally, more resources and increased staffing levels were required. A piece of work had started in GM about how to organise data in a more robust system, with future reports relating to data collected during a three year window to produce a more useful analysis and ability to identify patterns and themes which might be occurring.

Members sought and received clarification on a number of matters such as:

-        Data analysis and their geographical breakdown – The Board was informed that it was possible to link data to street level;

-       Action plan based on this report and accountability of the Child Review Panel –  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

For consideration and discussion

The Board received a joint presentation of the Public Health Specialist, the Public Health Programme Officer and the Commissioning Manager Planned Care on Diabetes, its key issues and what could be done to address these.  

The Assistant Director of Public Health informed that Diabetes was one of the Population’s Health priorities as described in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for the Borough of Rochdale. Today’s presentation was an opportunity for the Board to review actions that Public Health, as part of the Integrated Care Systems, was taking on prevention, early detection, best care, best treatment and education for Diabetes.

The three Officers took turn in outlining the Diabetes narrative, the establishment of a Diabetes Delivery Group and the action plan that had been created to address the issues outlined in the narrative. The Officers continued presenting the five key areas around Diabetes. These were:

-       Prevention, including increasing the uptake of the National Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP);

-       Early detection offer and the introduction of a programme of routine screening of Type 1 Diabetes and local campaign to recognise its symptoms;

-       Best Treatment and Best Care, including increasing the number of specialist diabetes nurses and improving on the number of people receiving the Diabetes Eight Care Processes;

-       Education and increasing the amount of people with diabetes who take up structured education following a diagnosis.

Board Members commented on a number of points such as the importance of intelligence and how the “South Asian” population, more likely to develop type two Diabetes, was a too broader category and the needs to refine the intelligence concerning the various communities and population groups to support their needs in the best possible way.

Board Members also commented on children and Diabetes and how to reach out for those whose parents refused health checks in school.

The Board also stressed the importance of patient involvement, consultation and the Equality Impact Assessment and how these elements needed to be included in the action plan for Diabetes. Board Members agreed that, once the patient’s diagnosis took place, it was crucial to empower the patients to manage their own health conditions with the support of the integrated systems.

Resolved:

1.    That the Board support the approach to addressing Diabetes across the Rochdale Borough;

2.    That the content of the presentation be noted.