This item had previously been presented to this committee on 1 December 2015 and 16 February 2016 by NHS Public Health England and had provided members with background information on the Learning Disability Health Checks Enhanced Service (DES) agreement, performance and actions within Thurrock.

Jane Itangata, Head of Mental Health Commissioning, Thurrock NHS Clinical Commissioning Group presented the report and stated that NHS England were responsible for commissioning the directed enhanced services that are linked to national priorities and agreements. The opportunity to provide Learning Disability Health Checks under the directed enhanced service was offered to all general practitioners contract holders across the Midlands and the East.

Following a recent consultation with stakeholders in Thurrock it had been identified that there were significant concerns about the completeness and quality of health checks to improve the quality and coverage of health checks in Thurrock.

On this basis, Members were informed that from 1 April 2016, the Clinical Commissioning Group had entered into co-commissioning arrangements with NHS Public Health England to deliver the Learning Disability Health Checks. This meant that an alternative service would be in place to undertake health checks for people who cannot access these from their general practitioner surgeries.

Jane Itangata stated that work with Thurrock Lifestyle Solutions was being undertaken to identify the quality of the checks and to date the number of learning disability health checks collated so far was 58.

The Chair stated her disappointment that no updated figures were available for Members and that evidence gathering was not getting any better.

Mandy Ansell stated that not having access to the data collections her team had to manually collate the information and that in the first year there had been an increase in the volume of health checks undertaken. Patients should now be given the choice of offering to either attend their general practitioners or an alternative location, for example hubs, which were available week days and weekends and HealthWatch would be spreading the word.

The Chair stated that if NHS England would not allow the data to be seen, could this be obtained via requests under the Freedom of Information Act to extract the information required.

Councillor Snell asked if there had been any improved willingness to undertake the learning disability checks. Mandy Ansell stated that a couple of practices had positively shown to undertaking more checks and that the Aveley practice was a good example of that.

Councillor Watkins asked for evidence that the KPIs were being carried out to standard. Jane Itangata stated that they worked on a defined service specification to which the primary care development team used as a guide. Health Action Plans had now been implemented which would identify what checks had been done.

Kim James stated her concern that the needs of all should be met including those that live in communities that did not receive the service and for those that required further referrals or blood test results to ensure that they were all picked up.

Mandy Ansell stated that this was a valid point and would take this action back to her team.

Ian Wake stated that Jane Itangata had done an excellent job but was still angry on the poor performance over the last 6 months and that the team were still having to manually collate the data which should be available automatically was unacceptable.

The Chair asked Jane Itangata and Mandy Ansell if sending a letter to NHS England from the Chair and Members of the Committee would help to support the work undertaken and the frustrations of not being able to retrieve the required data. Both agreed that a letter would be most welcome.

RESOLVED

1.         The Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the progress made on the work plan to improve the quality and uptake of health checks by people with Learning Disabilities in Thurrock.

2.         That the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Education and Health, Councillor Halden, would write to NHS England to express their disappointment on the unavailability of the Learning Disability Check data.