Agenda item

Trish Armstrong-Child, Chief Executive Officer, Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust; Jackie Moran, Director of Integration & Transformation, West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group; and Anna Collins, PH5.0 Consulting, were welcomed to the meeting.

The report presented explained that the process to gather views and experiences about local health and care services to help shape how they could be delivered in the future for the people of West Lancashire, Southport and Formby had begun. This was being led by a partnership of NHS organisations in these areas known as the Shaping Care Together programme. This was a listening exercise and not a formal consultation. The programme was at an early stage and no decisions had been made. The committee was also given a presentation on the programme.

The programme's vision was to ensure that care would be integrated with other services so that when patients went home they were supported by the services they needed. It was also to make sure that people only accessed the most appropriate services when they needed to and that services were accessible and effective with skilled staff available to meet their needs.

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need to think differently about delivering services and provided an opportunity to trial new ways of providing care, such as digitally.

One of the challenges for the programme was the issues with workforce recruitment and retention. Another challenge was the growing demand for NHS services in and out of hospital. There were financial issues regarding maintaining some services and increasing levels of long-term conditions in the area.

One of the key areas of focus for the programme was services for children, including those with complex needs.

From Winter 2020, the programme had entered its 'Listening Phase,' which focused on engagement with the public as the first step to improving care services. Beginning in January 2021, members of the public were asked to get involved with the programme via a dedicated website or telephone line. In the near future, virtual workshops and discussion groups would be organised.

An external communications team had been advising the programme to ensure that every possible and effective means of communicating with the public was explored. Monthly Board meetings were also held to review the programme's progress.

The following comments, suggestions and questions were noted:

·  The Lancashire Parents and Carers Group were an active voice in the area for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and should be approached for their views on the programme.

·  Approaching schools and consulting with head teachers and school council groups was also suggested. Members were informed that there was now a recently formed council of head teachers across West Lancashire which the local NHS had been engaging with.

·  With the help of Healthwatch Lancashire and the Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) a child friendly version of the briefing document was currently being developed as well as hosting workshops to help obtain the views  of the children and young people.

·  Consideration was being given to how the Trust could access resources from other providers or even establish shared roles across providers to help alleviate recruitment issues. The Trust was small by comparison with other University or Teaching Hospitals in the area and in some cases had limited workforce when covering two sites. In particular some services only had one or two doctors employed which could have adverse effects on provision if there were absences for any given reason.

·  West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group had been working with West Lancashire College to encourage young people to enter the NHS as a vocation.

·  The restoration and recovery of the NHS from the pandemic would help to inform how services could be delivered in the future.

·  It was acknowledged that more younger people in West Lancashire were turning up at A&E by comparison with other parts of Lancashire and that this was probably an indication that there wasn't sufficient service provision out of hospital for children that needed to be developed. An increase in younger people in crisis was also observed after the first wave of the pandemic.

·  A number of areas to engage and seek views of children and young people were suggested. These included:

-  Facebook and running polls

-  Liaising with Parent and Carer Groups

-  Lancashire County Council Corporate Parenting Board

-  Foster Parents

-  School Councils

-  Lancashire County Council Youth Council

-  Local newspapers

-  Doctors' surgeries and dentists

-  Sports and football clubs

·  Some of these various channels of engagement were already being  looked at and young people were being encouraged to share their stories and experiences. The local NHS was also considering how to encourage young people to create their own content (user generated content) such as videos and to share them via current social media platforms. The intention being to share their experiences and stories.

·  Having a competition between schools might encourage young people to take part in sharing their experiences. This could be uploaded to the Lancashire Schools' Portal for circulation. The timing of this would need further consideration.

Resolved: That the report on the progress of the Shaping Care Together programme be noted.