Chaired by Sandie Smith (Programme Director) 

Sandie welcomed everyone to the meeting and talked through the updates to the action log.

Action Log

  • Action 21 is now closed as the data project is moving forward.
  • Action 56 The date for the project ideas has been extended into next year.
  • Action 66 Andrea Grobois is going to forward a template for collating information to feed into the ICS Newsletter.
  • Invites to future meetings have been issued to those suggested on action log. (59/63)

Director Update- Sandie

NHS England have given the HA some monies to look at the Quality Assurance Process. There will be 2 workshops next year one in North of patch one South.

31st January it will be in Peterborough and 15th February held in Ely.

Invites and details will be circulated next week. There is an aim to have between 8/10 VCSE organisations at each event and each organisation will be paid £200 to attend. There will be an expectation of some pre reading which Sandie will send out.

NAVCA are helping the Alliance carry out a strategic review. This is being steered by the partnership development group.

Assura Trust have offered £75k to do some pieces of work and the plan is to look at 10 projects across the patch at IN level. The aim will be to use smaller community groups to look at what is needed and what could be done with small pots of money.

Branding– the workshop with Speed has taken place and there has been plenty of feedback and suggestions. It was mentioned that the importance of where the strapline sits is considered and if the word health is taken out could this be represented in the imaging somewhere?

Future procurement -discussions are taking place with the ICB and local authorities and they are trying to align the support for the VCSE sector, working alongside infrastructure organisations. There needs to be more consistency in grants and contracts and procurement processes more streamlined. New procurement rules may give opportunities for improvement.

Statutory partners want to work better together, but it is complicated. It is accepted that there needs to be a joined-up approach to ensure sustainability and acknowledgement that aligning of work will make the monies go further.

So there needs to be from the start of the process clear principles, some removal of bureaucracy/ red tape and to know how to make sure it happens.

The CVSs and Health Alliance can provide a check and challenge. It is helpful for the sector to know from outset what policies etc are needed. Also there should be encouragement for organisations to work together.

Health Inequalities

HCCN The meeting heard from Jan Davis HCCN who have been the recent winners of the Health Inequalities Challenge prize and have joined the Health Alliance. Jan talked about the disconnect between the numbers of people receiving a cancer diagnosis in Huntingdon and those actually receiving additional support. HCCN aim to improve people’s awareness of the support they can offer both with patients and medical professionals and introduce a buddy project where people with lived experience can be trained to support people from the beginning of their cancer service. The slides were shared post meeting.

The Ferry Project- Keith Smith gave the meeting an insight into the work of the Ferry Project working with the homeless people of Wisbech and Fenland.

Keith explained that the GP practice had said that clients were not turning up for appointments- discussions had taken place and it was agreed with a bit of funding that a nurse would visit the project weekly. This has resulted in excellent attendance and a trusting relationship has been built up. The benefits of this are that conditions can be treated earlier thus reducing the need for hospital admissions.

The Ferry Project also run the Queen Mary Centre (QMC) and this sees a lot of community involvement- The CAB is also situated in the building. The QMC also are able to provide essential items to people in need and now have an over 60s lunch club once a week although in the new year this is hoped to be expanded. Slides were shared post meeting.

Jon Bartram- Jon shared some slides with the group and explained about tackling health inequalities and the Core20PLUS 5 approach. There are some big gaps in life expectancy for different areas of the county but particularly for women from Peterborough. Slides were shared post meeting.

Chris Gillings- Chris talked about population health management and shared some slides.

The attendees discussed Jon and Chris’s presentations. As the HA are collecting data is there anything specific that Jon or Chris would like to hear about- it would be good to have a 2 way approach with open conversation.

Staff Support Hub- Dr Angela Kennedy from CPFT. Angela explained that there was an offer for some group work for organisations that have highlighted a need. This could be work on some reflective practice or restorative work. Angela is happy for organisations to contact her for more information. Just to note this is not one to one work but for groups.

AOB

Safeguarding was asked to be added to the next agenda and for the safeguarding statement to be resent so organisations can decide if they wish to sign up to it. Sandie is collating training opportunities.

Julie has said she is raising with ICB the continuation of funding for the HA for next year as Debbie’s contract ends end of March and Sandie June.

 Next Meetings 

17th January 1-3 March Library – Book Here