Agenda item

[To receive an update on the consultation plan for the re-commissioning of the City’s 0-19 Healthy Child Programme (HCP) by Public Health.]

Ros Jervis, Service Director Health and Wellbeing and Neeraj Malhotra, Consultant in Public Health provided a paper relating to the future commissioning options and proposed engagement and consultation plan for 0-19 Healthy Child Programme services re-design.

The Service Director advised that the paper had previously been considered by Health Scrutiny Panel and that amendments had been made to the pre-consultation engagement process as a result. Health Scrutiny recommended the revised report be added to Scrutiny Board agenda due to the implications for Children, Young People and Families.    

The Service Director advised Scrutiny Board that commissioning responsibility for school nursing and health visiting fall under the Public Health (PH) remit.  School nursing responsibility came in 2013, Health visiting services transferred to PH in October 2015. The services work together to help promote the welfare and safety of all children. She advised that the Council currently has a contract that will expire in July 2017 and that this is a valuable opportunity for PH working with Children’s commissioning services and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to consider future commissioning options and ensure a new service is in place for August 2017.

The Service Director advised that this is an extremely important piece of work to get the best services and that the engagement and consultation plan has to be comprehensive before going out to tender.

The Consultant PH advised that the paper before councillors has been revised and now includes extensive engagement with parents and young people and the different services that interface with the healthy child programme.  She advised that alongside the engagement on the service model, information will be sought on the experiences that are going well with the areas that need improvement.  She advised that Wolverhampton needs a model that works well for Wolverhampton and the consultation will ensure that people have opportunity to shape the service.

In response to questions the Service Director clarified that there has to be a health visiting services but that there does not have to be a school nurse service. The Consultant PH confirmed that the timelines following consultation are that the tender process is scheduled for November 2016, the contract will be awarded in March 2017 and contract mobilisation March to August 2017.

Cllr Peter O’Neill referred to option 1 – the proposal to go out to tender for a single service specification, he highlighted that the Government intends to make all schools academies and asked if there would be any implications for future provision for 0-5 years olds. The Service Director indicated that this would be taken into account when determining the shape of future services.

In response to a request for clarification by Cllr Dr Mike Hardacre the Service Director clarified that there is no statutory requirement to provide school nurses but that PH is mandated to provide certain services.  Cllr Hardacre asked the Service Director to ensure that there would be school nurse provision in secondary schools. She confirmed that that was absolutely the intention.

Cllr Phil Bateman asked for more information about health visitors to Gypsy and Traveller sites and if there were specialist teams assigned. The Consultant PH clarified that it is a health visitor’s role to visit every new born baby within 14 days to assess their needs.  She advised that some contacts do take longer, for example if there are language issues, and the extra time this takes puts pressure on the service.  Information is required from the service on the impact that the changing population is having on the service.  She advised that she would find out about what specialist teams are available.

The Service Director indicated that the most important part is that no vulnerable person or child will slip through the net and every child will get the best possible start in life. 

The Chair welcomed the report and opportunity to comment on the pre-consultation.

Resolved

1.         That Scrutiny Board note the revised proposals for the Engagement and Consultation process.

2.         That the Engagement and Consultation process be endorsed.

3.         That the comments of the Scrutiny Board be taken into consideration in the final version of the process