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Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting will be held remotely. View directions

Contact: Simon Trevaskis
02087266000  Email: simon.trevaskis@croydon.gov.uk

Note: Members of the Public are able to view the meeting at the following link - https://webcasting.croydon.gov.uk/ 

Items
No. Item

8/21

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

 

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

 

9/21

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

 

10/21

Update on the Croydon Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic pdf icon PDF 4 MB

For the Sub-Committee to receive an update on the ongoing response in Croydon to the Covid-19 Pandemic, including progress made on the vaccination programme. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee was provided with a number of presentations on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Croydon for its consideration.  Copies of the presentations delivered at the meeting can be found along with the agenda papers on the Council’s website at the following link:-

https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=168&MId=2163&Ver=4

In addition to the information provided in the slides, the following points were noted:-

·      The Director of Public Health thanked everyone for adhering to the lockdown, which had led to the infection rate in Croydon reducing significantly. The seven day infection rate currently stood at 48.4 infections per 100,000 people in Croydon compared to a rate of approximately 250 infections per 100,000 at the peak of the pandemic.

·      Going forward, it was possible that there would continue to be different variations of the covid-19 virus. With the two recent surge testing programmes in New Addington and Fieldway linked to the South African variant. There had also been surge testing in South Norwood and Thornton Heath as a precaution following a case of the Brazilian variant. It was likely that surge testing would be the way forward for the longer term management of covid-19 outbreaks.

·      The health system in Croydon had seen a declining rate of covid-19 infections, with 74 in-patients at the Croydon University Hospital since the start of March. The hospital had cared for approximately 2,500 covid patients since the start of the outbreak, with 580 lives lost.

·      The hospital continued to manage its non-covid care, with two thirds of its wards now covid free. Both urgent and cancer care had been maintained throughout the pandemic, and the focus was now turning to non-urgent care.

·      Regarding the vaccination programme, it was confirmed that a different approach would be needed to target young people. The approach would need to be nuanced and informed by people from that cohort. Targeted work was underway to dispel some of the myths that had arisen around the vaccine such as its effect on fertility. Thanks was given to local faith leaders for helping to dispel these myths.

·      The Social Care team had been working seven days a week to provide support with hospital discharging throughout the pandemic. At the same time work had continued on its business as usual, with waiting lists remaining stable. There were some outstanding reviews to be completed, but these were in the process of being picked up.  The service was now starting to focus on its roadmap for the recovery of services such as Active Lives, Dementia Day Services and Extra Care Housing.

·      Mental Health services had continued to run throughout the pandemic and a mental health summit had been held on 8 March.

·      It was confirmed that most front line council workers had now been vaccinated.

Following the presentation, the Sub-Committee was provided the opportunity to question those in attendance on the information provided. The first question raised concerned the difficulty for residents in obtaining lateral flow tests, with a request for an update on the local availability of these  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10/21

11/21

Croydon's Autism Strategy 2021-24 pdf icon PDF 112 KB

For the Sub-Committee to consider an early draft of Croydon’s Autism Strategy 2021-24, with a view to providing feedback that can be taken into account during the preparation of the final version.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee was asked to review a draft of the Council’s forthcoming Autism Strategy, with a view to making suggestions that could be incorporated into the final version, due to be considered by the Cabinet later in the year. Members of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee had also been invited to participate in the meeting for this item, given the all-age approach of the strategy.

The Council’s Autism Champion, Councillor Jerry Fitzpatrick, introduced the report to the Sub-Committee, during which it was noted that due to the current circumstances created by the pandemic, there was concern within the autistic community in the borough about their ability to access health and care plans. There was also a concern about the financial challenges facing the Council and whether this would result in care packages being cut or current care receivers no longer meeting the threshold for support.

There was a national issue on the collection of data around autism which meant it was difficult to get a true picture of the number of people who were autistic, as adults would not be registered as autistic unless they qualified for care.

The Autism Strategy was an important step forward for the Council as it was essential that responsibility was taken at the centre of organisation. The Council needed to be able to allocate resources as it was able to do so to support the community, but it was recognised that it was unlikely there would be significant resources available at the present time given the Council’s financial challenges.

A number of external participants had been invited to participate in the meeting of the Sub-Committee to share their experience of autism support in the borough. The first person to address the meeting was Nicky Selwyn, who was Co-Chair of the Autism Partnership Board. The Sub-Committee was advised that the strategy was long overdue and had involved over 500 people inputting into its creation. There was good level of engagement in the work of the Board from the partners and representation from the autistic community. The strategy had been developed with the autistic community and was reflective of their needs and priorities. Once the strategy was agreed there would be a SMART action plan to underpin its delivery, allowing progress to be tracked.

The second speaker was Glenice Lake, who spoke to the Sub-Committee about the challenges she had faced as the mother of two autistic children in Croydon. This included examples of traumatic experiences involving the use of restraint, which had been caused by a lack of understanding of how best to support someone with autism. It was hoped the strategy would help to address some of these issues and ensure that a wider level of support was available for the autistic community.

The third speaker was Ema Jones, who advised that she had been diagnosed as autistic at 30.  In particular it was highlighted that the reason why not as many women as men were diagnosed as autistic was due to testing being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11/21

12/21

Update from Healthwatch Croydon

For the Sub-Committee to receive an update on the activities of the Healthwatch Croydon, from the Healthwatch Croydon Manager, Gordon Kay.

Minutes:

The Healthwatch Croydon Co-optee on the Sub-Committee, Gordon Kay, provided an update on their latest activities. It was confirmed that Healthwatch had recently published a report on Shielding, was finalising a report on care homes, and was developing a report on the access to dentistry in the borough.

It was advised that concern had been raised about the change in ownership of three GP hubs in Croydon and how this change had arisen. The Chair of the Sub-Committee confirmed that he had written to the South West London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to ask for further information on this issue. It was agreed that the response would be shared with the other members of the Sub-Committee. 

It was confirmed that assurance had been given that the relationship with the surgeries would not change and the present senior management would continue as the operational management of the services.  It was agreed by the Sub-Committee that they would like to keep a watching brief on this change to ensure there was no undue impact upon the patients of the surgeries involved.

 

13/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

Minutes:

This motion was not required.