To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the joint meeting with the Adult Social Care and Communities Scrutiny Committee.

45.1           Members received an update from the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) on matters discussed at the joint meeting with the Adult Social Care and Communities Scrutiny Committee on 30 July 2019.

45.2          The Council’s representative on the HOSC explained that the main topic of discussion at the previous meeting of the HOSC had been in relation to the merge of Gloucestershire Care Services with the 2gether Trust and the joint meeting on 30 July 2019 had been arranged to look at the workforce plan and how implementation would affect staff.  Members had considered recruitment initiatives and it had been noted there was a national shortage of learning disability nurses so consideration was being given to alternatives in adult social care such as apprenticeships, traineeships or joining a sector routeway.  Specific reference had been made to the ‘Proud to Care’ scheme which was being promoted to raise the profile of the caring sector.  It had been emphasised that staff were the major asset to any service and the importance of their health and wellbeing was recognised.  She explained that retention of staff was a significant problem with 55% of qualified nurses starting their careers with the NHS but then moving away very quickly.  It was also noted that the ‘Our Gloucestershire’ leadership programme had been commissioned by the Gloucestershire NHS Strategic Transformation Partnership.  The programme consisted of four bodies - Gloucestershire Hospital Foundation Trust; 2gether NHS Foundation Trust; Gloucestershire Care Services; and Gloucestershire County Council – and aimed to support leaders to work across all four.  The final item of business was in relation to Brexit with particular focus on staff without a British passport who were being asked to have their work status ratified; EU staff were being encouraged to have a “settled” status.

45.3          The Council’s representative went on to explain that a HOSC workshop had been held on 4 September 2019 to give an opportunity to learn more about the effects of merging the two trusts and the care for patients; however, this had been very poorly attended which was disappointing given that the request had come from Members.  Plans for the merger had first been announced in September 2017 and the new organisation would be formed by 1 October 2019.  Benefits to the service user would include improved parity of care, for example, people suffering from bi-polar disorder were likely to die 15-20 years earlier on average largely due to the difficulty in accessing services; an increased understanding of co-morbidity; and increased focus on community health, wellbeing and prevention services.  Examples of some of the Trusts’ work were shared to illustrate the benefits of the new merged service and presentations were given by the four teams which comprised the Intensive Health Outreach Team: the Perinatal Team (for people with mental health issues around pregnancy) which was working more jointly with midwives and health visitors to establish better communication networks; the Integrated Dementia Team – where all professionals were now co-located to work more proactively with carers and people with dementia to avoid emergency admissions to the Hospitals Trust; and the Rapid Response Team – Integrated Mental Health and Physical Health Services – which aimed to respond within four hours and provide an advance level of treatment at home.

45.4           A Member queried whether nurses leaving the NHS tended to come back as agency workers and the Council’s representative indicated that was the case with many choosing to retire, take their pension and then go back as an agency worker.  The Chair thanked the Council’s representative for her update, which had been circulated to the Committee prior to the meeting, and it was subsequently

RESOLVED          That the Gloucestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee Update be NOTED.