Gwent Public Services Board

5th Business Meeting – 13:30pm Thursday 29th September 2022

Notes of Meeting

 

Present:

 

Name

Organisation represented

Huw Jakeway (HJ) - Chair

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWF&RS) – Chair for the meeting

Claire Germain (CG)

Welsh Government

Nick McClain (NM)

Gwent Police

Cllr Debbie Harvey (Cllr DH)

Newport City Council

Cllr Anthony Hunt (Cllr AH)

Torfaen County Borough Council

Nicola Prygodzicz (NP)

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Sian Curley (SC)

Office of Police and Crime Commissioner

Cllr Sean Morgan (Cllr SM)

Caerphilly County Borough Council

Steve Morgan (StM)

Natural Resources Wales

Ann Lloyd (ALl)

Chair ABUHB

Anne Evans (AE)

Torfaen Voluntary Alliance

Howard Toplis (HT)

Tai Calon Community Housing Ltd

Cllr Stephen Thomas (Cllr ST)

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

Stephen Tiley (ST)

Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations (GAVO)

Dr Sarah Aitken (Dr SA)

Dir Public Health and Strategic Partnerships, (ABUHB)

Amanda Lewis (AL)

National Probation Service

Beverly Owen (BO)

Newport City Council

Paul Matthews (PM)

Monmouthshire County Council

Damien McCann (DM)

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

Christina Harrhy (CH)

Caerphilly CBC

Jeff Cuthbert (JC)

Office of Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC)

Steve Morgan (SM)

Natural Resources Wales

Cllr Mary Ann Brocklesby (Cllr MAB)

Monmouthshire County Council

Louise Bright (LB)

University of South Wales

In Attendance:

Kathryn Peters (KP)

Caerphilly CBC

Sharran Lloyd (SL)

Monmouthshire CC

Rhys Cornwall (RC)

Newport CC

Lyndon Puddy (LP)

Torfaen CBC

Sarah Tipping (ST)

Torfaen CBC

Richard Jones (RJ)

Monmouthshire CC

Lyndon Puddy (LP)

Torfaen CBC

Andrew Parker (AP)

Blaenau Gwent CBC

Kate Williams (KW)

Torfaen CBC

Rachel Rawlings (RR)

Monmouthshire CC

Sarah King (SK)

Blaenau Gwent CBC

Eryl Powell (EP)

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Heather Delonnette (HD)

Caerphilly CBC

Abigail Barton (AB)

Monmouthshire CC (Comms officer)

Steve Honeywill (SH)

Torfaen CBC

David Arnold (DA)

Blaenau Gwent CBC

Paul Massey (PMa)

Caerphilly CBC

 

Apologies:

Cllr Jane Mudd (Cllr JM)

Newport City Council

Pam Kelly (PK)

Gwent Police

Cllr Steve Bradwick (Cllr SB)

South Wales Fire & Rescue Service

Maureen Howell (MH)

Welsh Government

Glyn Jones (GJ)

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Stephen Vickers (SV)

Torfaen County Borough Council

Sarah Simmonds (SSi)

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

 

0.     Welcome, Introductions and Apologies

 

Vice-Chair Huw Jakeway had agreed to Chair the meeting since a substantive Chair had not yet been agreed by the PSB. The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting, especially Louise Bright who would now be representing University South Wales in place of Dr Ben Calvert. He also congratulated Nicola Prygodzicz on her appointment as CEO of ABUHB and now as member of the PSB, having taken over from Glyn Jones. The Chair also thanked Abigail Barton from Monmouthshire CC who would be live tweeting about the meeting from the Gwent PSB Twitter account. Apologies have been recorded in the table above.

 

1.     Update on Appointment of Chair

 

The Chair explained that members had previously been invited to put themselves forward for consideration for becoming the Chair of the PSB, or to nominate one of their fellow PSB members. He announced that Leader of Caerphilly CBC, Cllr Sean Morgan was the only member to be nominated. The Chair therefore asked all members if anyone opposed Cllr Morgan as Chair of the PSB and none were put forward. It was therefore carried that Cllr Sean Morgan would be Chair of the Gwent PSB and agreed that he would take over as Chair from the next meeting in December. The Vice Chair congratulated Cllr Morgan who said that he was pleased to be taking on the responsibility.

2.     Notes and Matters Arising from the meeting of the Gwent PSB on 7th December 2021

 

All action points from the previous meeting had been completed or on the agenda for this meeting and the note was approved by the Board. Regarding the action from paragraph 9 (Circulate revised Terms of Reference (ToRs) for comment by PSB), PMa explained that three revisions had been made altogether and circulated for any further comment to the PSB. The changes were to:

 

·       incorporate transparency and openness. It was noted that recordings of future meetings of PSB would be made available on YouTube with a link from the Gwent PSB website

·       make it clear that all PSB members play an equal part in proceedings and have equal voting rights (except for the Well-being Assessment/Plan where only statutory members may vote)

·       add the Gwent Marmot Region Leadership Group] as a sub group of PSB

 

No further changes had been requested and so it was agreed that PSB had approved the updated version. Action: PMa to circulate a “clean” version of the revised ToRs to PSB members and to load a link to the recordings of meetings from the Gwent PSB website starting from the 15 December 2022 PSB meeting

 

3.     Draft Well-being Plan

 

LP introduced the draft consultation paper (plus appendices) on the Well-being Plan for Gwent. He acknowledged the significant amount of work across the partnership and engagement groups in drafting the document. He also explained that it had been written with the overarching Marmot principles in mind to ensure the consultation and plan was developed within the previously agreed approach taken by the PSB.

 

The draft Well-being (WB) Plan drew on the evidence from the WB Assessment and identified three themes via the response analysis. The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner’s also provided advice and this was included as an appendix to the report. The proposed objectives in the draft were further refined within the consultation draft and presented to the PSB as follows:

 

·       Objective 1 - We want to create a fair and equitable Gwent for all

·       Objective 2 - We want to create a Gwent that has friendly, safe and confident communities

·       Objective 3 - We want to create a Gwent where the natural environment is protected and enhanced.

The statutory 12 week consultation period on the draft Well-being Plan would begin on 1st October and end on 31st December 2022. The Engagement Sub-Group had identified several methods of consultation across each of the regions of Gwent with any local needs being tailored accordingly. The consultation would help inform and refine the Well-being plan prior to formal approval through statutory bodies in February and March. As the next meeting of the PSB was in March 2023, there would not be enough time to have completed all the required amendments so an additional meeting would need to be arranged for the statutory members of the PSB to formally agree the plan in April 2022.

 

Comments

 

The Chair thanked the Team for all the hard work in putting the draft plan together and invited comments and questions from members. JC congratulated the team and wanted the plan to make reference to the impact of the Cost of Living Crisis and Ukraine War. ST also congratulated the team on a well-written document and how the Marmot principles had linked to the objectives. He commented on the Community Cohesion objective (#2) in that it read as if the Building Communities Trust was the “go-to” organisation for consultation when this should be the CVVs generally. He would consider whether any suggested amendments were needed and contact the drafting team if necessary

 

StM also recognised the hard work put in by the team. He suggested that it could be amended slightly to recognise the cross-cutting nature of the themes. And; in the first paragraph on the final page in reference to the differences between Local Delivery Groups, PSB partners should also Co-produce and deliver together where possible to achieve the objectives; and on Objective #3 there should be a comma between food and transport in step 5.

 

Cllr MAB thanked the team and agreed that the objectives needed to be cross-cutting but should be clear about how this should be done. She acknowledged that the document was meant to facilitate discussion and supported the fact that the Marmot principles would be firmly embedded in the organising structure for the final plan which would ensure that the objectives were truly cross-cutting. NP agreed with Cllr MAB regarding the Marmot principles. She felt it needed to go further in objective #1 in identifying the cause of child poverty and not just the impact as it also needed to include tackling child abuse in the steps. She would also like to see anti-social behaviour and crime tackled in objective #2 although this could be discussed further during the consultation.

 

LP responded that they expected to see the plan change during the consultation and was grateful for the feedback. He said that the plan was developed following the response analysis phase and that the document had been structured according to advice from Welsh Government and the Future Generations Commissioner and was a statutory requirement. But the document would evolve over the five year life of the plan.

 

SA was in the process of writing to the Director of Public Health annual report, structuring it on the Marmot principles. It was helpful in being able to identify what would have to be done. She would share the report with the Well-being Plan team to see how the plan might be structured following the consultation.

 

The PSB were asked to consider three recommendations

 

Recommendations:

·       to approve the draft Well-being Plan for statutory consultation between 1st October and 31st December

·       to agree that the draft Well-being Plan can subsequently be sent to the statutory recipients set out at 4.2 of the paper

·       agree to identify a date in mid-April to sign off the final Well-being Plan for publication. –

 

The PSB agreed to each of the recommendations above, subject to any relevant amendments being made following the above comments from PSB members

 

Action1: PMa to contact members to arrange a suitable date in April to agree the final Well-being Plan

Action2: HD to adjust the narrative in the Well-being Plan according to the above comments before publishing for consultation on 1st October.

 

4.     Update on Gwent: Marmot Region     

 

Dr SA introduced her paper updating PSB members on progress in developing a Marmot Region in Gwent. Highlights included: the Leadership Group meeting for the first time, chaired by Paul Matthews; a launch event with Sir Michael Marmot was planned for 21st October in Newport; Five Stakeholder events in each Gwent county were being organised for November, combining the Well-being Plan and Marmot consultations in a single event. PSB members were invited and to nominate who else they would like to attend.

 

Cllr ST said he was unavailable but would send a representative. PM said that the plan was to develop the bridge between the Well-being Plan and Marmot as a delivery mechanism. Committing to being a Marmot region would have a profound effect on organisations adopting this and the event on 21st October was a good opportunity to become more familiar with Marmot.

 

The Chair asked if the PSB membership on the Marmot Group was appropriate to which the response was that any PSB member who wished to be involved was welcome.

 

Dr SA said that the Public Health Wales team was available to help partners organisations make Marmot relevant for themselves and take to relevant groups. They would produce the annual report that could be fed through each organisation whilst waiting for the Well-being Plan to be finalised.

 

5.     Update on the response to humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

 

KP gave a comprehensive verbal update on behalf of the Gwent Humanitarian Leadership Group. The full report is attached as annex A to the minutes below.

 

There was one action: AUBHB said that the transport contract to take arrivals to the testing centre for screening appointments and chest X-rays ends at the end of October. The Civil Contingencies Lead asked whether PSB organisations would be able to help provide capacity.

Action: PSB members to consider what assistance they could provide in transporting arrivals to the testing centre

 

6.     Developing a Regional Scrutiny   

 

SK updated members on progress towards a Regional Scrutiny Committee for the PSB. The item covered proposed next steps and presented six recommendations for consideration by the PSB:

 

Recommendations

·       Recommendation 1 – Operating Organisation

BGCBC is the lead organisation to facilitate committee support, with each other statutory partner organisation to identify a liaison Single Point of Conduct (SPOC) to interact with lead organisation.

 

·       Recommendation 2 – Resourcing Committee Support

Each statutory partner excl. BGCBC, who will provide support in-kind) provides a nominal financial contribution to support the development and operation of the scrutiny committee. An estimated total cost of £15k would mean £2,140 for each statutory organisation and is based on existing models in place for CCRCD scrutiny processes, hosted by RCTCBC.

 

·       Recommendation 3 – Identifying Membership

2 LA elected member are identified by each of the 5 LAs, and an additional one representative from the following partner organisations (note these cannot be officers of the organisations):

                The Fire and Rescue Authority

                Third Sector

                Health Board Member

                NRW

 

·       Recommendation 4: Timeframe for Regional Scrutiny

Regional Scrutiny to commence from 2023, with:

 

                Initial Six Months (Jan to June 2023) - Training for identified members in Jan/Feb 2023, an initial formal meeting of the committee in March/April to scrutinise the final draft well-being plan, and report back recommendations to Gwent PSB

                Following Six Months (July to December 2023)

                Regional Scrutiny will follow a forward work programme, with meetings being aligned to the Gwent PSB meeting cycle to allow for effective interaction between the committee and PSB.

 

·       Recommendation 5 – Agree Draft Terms of Reference

Agree the Draft Terms of Reference for the Regional PSB Scrutiny Committee, to include other key recommendations from June meeting (appendix 2) i.e.:

                Voting:  One vote per organisation (regardless of number of members).

                Chairs and Vice Chairs to be identified at the first meeting of the Committee. BGCBC to make formal nomination for Chair to aid the inception of the process as the lead organisation.

                Meeting arrangements as previously included e.g. key issues for hybrid meetings, with physical location for all meeting being General Offices, Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent.

                Quorum status of each local authority area to be represented,

 

·       Recommendation 6 – Evaluation Approach

Agree that the arrangements set out for implementing and operating the Regional Scrutiny Committee are reviewed after one calendar year

 

StM supported all the recommendations. Re Recommendation #1, NRW would find it difficult to provide cover on the scrutiny committee because of capacity (having to cover the 15 PSBs in Wales). However, would seek guidance from the NRW Chair the following day on the possibility of providing one for Gwent as it was a merged PSB.

Action: StM to confirm with SK whether NRW could provide a representative on the Scrutiny committee but also consider other ways of contributing to their work

 

ST - Under recommendation #3, GAVO were happy to provide a representative on the Scrutiny Committee.

 

ALl explained that Health boards were unitary boards and assumed that non-executive members were needed for scrutiny committee. And regarding the Terms of Reference (ToR) queried why overview and scrutiny function was only on behalf of the Local Authorities. SK replied that the PSB Scrutiny Committee would be on behalf of all the PSB Statutory Bodies.

 

AL said that she had many commitments as her role also covered Gwent so she would not be able to form part of the scrutiny committee but could possibly contribute in other ways. SK replied that she would consider alternative ways for PSB members who could not participate in scrutiny committees to contribute in other ways.

 

HJ said that SWF&R would try to provide two members for the scrutiny committee given that SWF&R covered the five local authority areas and suggested that other PSB members who could not provide a permanent member for scrutiny committee could be invited to some meetings.

 

CG said that the ToR wording was correct in saying that the duty as set out in the Act was that it was the Local Authorities collectively discharging their duty which would be on behalf of Local Authorities rather than all PSB members.

 

PSB members were asked to vote on whether they accepted the recommendations and the results were as follows:

 

·       Recommendation 1 – All supported

·       Recommendation 2 – All supported although RC would like to see what the actual cost for Blaenau Gwent CBC’s “in kind” support of the Scrutiny Committee amounted to. SK said that the costings was based on the CCR budgeting model but the costs of BGCBC would become more apparent once the committee was up and running. This would then be reviewed at a later date.

·       Recommendations 2 – All supported although SM was still due to report NRW’s position the following day and ST would like the membership to ensure that it was politically balanced.

·       Recommendation 4 – All supported

·       Recommendation 5 – All supported (again subject to GAVO and NRW to check availability)

·       Recommendation 6 – All supported

 

7.     Progress Update: Executive briefing Gwent Community Safety Review

 

KW provided an update on progress achieved so far by the Community Safety Review Group. The Gwent wide Community Safety workshop with multi-agencies in June had highlighted the many complexities involved. The Working Group is now in the process of developing a framework, timeline and workplan. Further discussions would be held with the chairs of the other regional boards to inform the review. The Working Group will bring back the findings from the next few months to the next PSB meeting and provide recommendations on next steps.

 

As Chair of the Area Planning Board, SA wanted to know where “prevention” would sit within the response structures such as the three adverse childhood experiences –. KW reiterated the great complexities of all the regional bodies and their responsibilities for Community Safety not being referenced and welcomed suggestions for recommendations to be included in the review from all PSB members.

 

JC was unsure as to how the Gwent Police and OPCC were linked into the review. KW said that both organisations had been closely involved in the previous workshop and were represented on the Working Group.

 

CG said that a wider review on the partnership landscape in 2020 concluded with recommendations should be driven locally which was also supported by Welsh Govt. The Minister for Finance and LG would be meeting soon with PSB Chairs and looking at progress and how PSBs could be supported.

 

The Chair thanked the Working Group for their work and suggested that there was still an opportunity to feed into the Well-being Plan, particularly prevention. He also wondered where the statutory duty on serious violence sat. KW explained that all statutory duties were being considered in the review and how the statutory duties would be carried out. This would also include looking at resourcing. SA said that SW Fire & Rescue had already addressed prevention and this needed to be replicated on a wider basis.

 

8.     Cost of Living Crisis

 

LP introduced the paper that was designed to open the discussion on how the PSB could help improve the coordination and communication between partners to support citizens and business with the cost of living crisis. He thanked the authors, SB and Richard Lewis

 

The report incorporated a lot of current data on the crisis as well as implications. And it also included several references to the individual work that was taking place amongst the partner organisations to help in cost of living support, particularly for more vulnerable communities.

 

The rapid rise in inflation, the cost of fuel and utilities coupled with other ongoing factors such as the recovery from covid, global fuel demand and Brexit was having detrimental impacts that adversely affected disadvantaged areas the most. And this would only help to widen the inequalities gap. The report highlighted some significant areas of impact to those households’ abilities to maintain the essentials and thus the resulting need for further help from public services.

 

Recommendation:

 

The PSB was asked whether (through GSWAG) it could take collective action to pool advice and organise assistance services on a Gwent wide basis to help mitigate some of the impacts around the cost of living crisis.

 

SA felt that the first real challenge for the PSB was how to make a more immediate impact. She posed the question of how the PSB could help provide support for community based staff and a central resource of information. JC anticipated that certain types of crime were likely to increase and there were already signs that this was happening where people participated in “low-level” crime who had always previously been very law-abiding. He thought it was important that all public services were aware of this and to treat instances with some empathy. It was also more likely that smaller traders were less able to cope than, for example larger supermarkets.

 

DH agreed that people should be treated with empathy and that a one-stop link to information and a one-page information sheet could be made available for the public. HT found a lot of the information in the paper useful and said that Housing Associations had been making preparations for the last 6 months and would like to contribute to the PSB’s efforts in providing support and sharing advice.

 

CH thought that the public needed to be aware of what advice and support was available – and then to make access to that support as quick and simple as possible. The PSB also needed to avoid duplicating effort and for example, get the advice to the public via various means such as through GP surgeries etc.

 

NP was supportive of the proposals but wasn’t sure that this would be enough and so should explore what more could be done to help those most adversely affected - working together should make a greater difference. Cllr MAB said that every local authority was doing its best to provide help and advice and also thought that they should be careful not to duplicate effort. And the PSB should look to try and fill any gaps, where possible. She felt that mapping all the detail at a regional level may not always be appropriate since some localised response was more appropriate and information needed to be more targeted at the right areas.

 

SA asked how the most vulnerable and in need were being reached. People’s health was affected by lower temperatures and so those at being treated at home, for example needing equipment would have higher energy bills. She also asked if there was a hardship fund available for such people or whether it was an income-based assessment.

 

Cllr ST agreed that a lot of mapping work was being carried out by local authorities but needed to be careful not to over-complicate things for the public.

 

LP was grateful for the feedback and suggestions and agreed that it was important to avoid duplication, take regard of regional and local circumstances and reduce the complexity of the advice and support.

 

Action: It was agreed that GSWAG would undertake further coordination work on support and report back at the next meeting but also to provide updates to the PSB in the meantime.

 

9.     AOB

 

SC informed members regarding the Knife Angel Sculpture which was to be sited in Friars Walk, Newport during November. The 27ft sculpture was a memorial made from 100,000 seized knives and used to spread a message of anti-violence and anti-aggression within communities. She encouraged attendees to help promote the initiative and get involved where possible in, for example, school visits, youth and community engagement events and campaigns. For more information see the website:

https://www.britishironworkcentre.co.uk/the-knife-angel-official/ .

10.  Next meeting, draft agenda

 

The next meeting was scheduled for 15th December 2022 @ 13:00pm via MS Teams

 

Draft agenda items were as follows:

 

·       Update on Well-being Plan consultation

·       Marmot Region  update

·       Recommendations of the Community Safety Governance Review

·       the UK Government's 10 Year Drug Strategy "From Harm to Hope" - developing a partnership approach in Gwent

·       Update Ukraine Humanitarian Response

 

 

The Chair thanked all attendees and those who helped draft papers for their contributions and closed the meeting.

Action Summary

 

Agenda Item #

Action detail

Responsible

2

Circulate a “clean” version of the revised ToRs to PSB members and to load a link to the recordings from the Gwent PSB website from the December 2022 PSB meeting

PMa

3 (action1)

Contact members to arrange a suitable date in April to agree the final Well-being Plan

 

PMa

3 (action2)

Adjust the Well-being Plan according to PSB comments before publishing for consultation on 1st October.

HD

5

Consider what assistance could be provided in transporting arrivals from Ukraine to the medical screening centre

All PSB members

6

Confirm with SK whether NRW could provide a representative on the Scrutiny committee but also consider other ways of contributing to their work

StM

8

Undertake further coordination work on support for Cost of Living Crisis and report back at the next meeting but also to provide updates to the PSB in the meantime.

LP/GSWAG

 


 

Annex A – From item 5 above -Update on the response to humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

 

The Gwent Humanitarian Leadership Group has been meeting since the March PSB when the request was made to consider the regional response to the crisis. The group comprises the resettlement leads of the five local authorities, with Wendy Warren- Head of Planning Civil Contingencies and is chaired by Superintendent Mike Richards on behalf of Chief Superintendent Ian Roberts.

 

The group discusses the situational awareness and shares best practice on problems encountered. Where possible the group is striving for a consistent response across the region. However, the workload in each of the five local authority areas varies considerably with three of the five hosting Welcome Centres or hotel populations that have arrived through the Welsh Government Super Sponsor route.

 

The information on numbers of arrivals and people accommodated varies daily with a regular accommodation sitrep provided by Welsh Government. There are a number of all-Wales coordinating mechanisms in place at the strategic level and at the operational level a 2-weekly meeting with WG officials and WLGA. Each organisation on the PSB will be sighted on the numbers of arrivals in their area through their corporate management structures.

 

The all-Wales data platform is now operational with ISPs just being developed. Financial support is now transferring from WG to local authorities with the first claims submitted. The tariff amount, of £10,500 per arrival for those on the Homes for Ukraine hosted scheme is supplemented by additional tariff for school aged children rising from early year at approx. £3.5k to secondary school at approx. £8.7K.

 

In common with all displaced cohorts the primary focus is around housing, finances/benefits, health screening and registrations, school enrolment and training or employment.

 

The super sponsor route, originally intended to support 1000 visas was suspended in July due to the numbers arriving. Arrivals are slowing and contracts in some of the Welcome Centres and Hotels have been extended. There are several projections at lower and higher arrival numbers. In the lower scenario accommodation will not be outstripped by demand; at the higher level demand would outstrip accommodation supply in late December. The significant issue facing agencies are the numbers of arrivals in Welcome Centre and hotel accommodation and the potential for the current hosting arrangements to break down.

 

Various planning contingencies are being used by Welsh Govt but it is clear that the overriding pressure will be on providing more sustainable accommodation. The distribution will be to local authorities, with figures based on population and the numbers already being supported through hosting arrangements.

 

Local host families are supported in their role to help integrate arrivals into the UK with advice and support from resettlement teams and specialist third sector agencies.

 

Not all hosting capacity, identified through expressions of interest has been taken up. The current collaborative focus is on moving people through the system to either hosted arrangements or some other form of transitional accommodation. WG have made available additional transitional accommodation funding for this. The funding is not earmarked exclusively for Ukraine support and is intended to provide accommodation for anyone at risk of homelessness or in unsustainable accommodation. Local authorities are currently working up plans for a mixture of accommodation types to receive arrivals from the Welcome centres and hotels.

 

Ty Magor is the largest Welcome Centre in the region with smaller populations in centres or hotels in Blaenau Gwent and Newport. It will be a challenge to move people out of these arrangements and in some cases there is an anecdotal reluctance from the cohort who may have settled where they are housed. Numbers will be allocated out to each local authority. This is to present hosted arrangements although transitional accommodation will feature over the coming months.

 

The cohort, in general, and in comparison, to previous humanitarian crises, have arrived with good language skills and an ability to find employment relatively quickly.

 

To that end, for those who arrived to hosted arrangements the LAs are finding ways to support move on to the private rented sector where possible by offering rent support in the first stages e.g. bond and/or first month’s rent using the tariff. This is being agreed across four of the LAs.

 

Recognising that hosting is going on for longer than anyone may have envisaged when offering up a space in their home, and the cost-of-living crisis, the tariff is also being used in some LAs to provide a top-up to the UK government £350 per month thank you payments to £600. The expectation being that this may sustain the hosting arrangements for longer. Early feedback is that this is the case as some hosts were starting to worry about their own family finances and this additional recognition is a welcome relief.

 

This creative use of tariff money follows on from experience gained in settling Syrian and Afghan cohorts which arrive under slightly different schemes run solely by the UK government.

 

Maintaining hosting arrangements is a focus of all teams as we recognise the pressure that will be placed on housing services should they fail.

 

 

Health Response to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees

 

Within the Aneurin Bevan Health Board, the Primary Care and Community Service Division is coordinating the humanitarian workstream and post arrival pathway to meet the health requirements of refugees arriving from Ukraine. The development of the pathway has involved primary care, maternity services, public health nursing, mental health, learning disabilities, CAMHS, specialist TB service, BBV team and radiology.

 

The Health Board response has drawn significantly on support from within Primary Care, specifically the Health Inclusion Service and has received input from specific specialities to accommodate the needs of the response including the paediatric services. The Covid Testing service continues to provide a vital role undertaking the lead for planning and coordinating the day-to-day activity.

 

The initial stage of the post arrival pathway was delivered by the Health Board from Innovation House adjacent to the first Gwent Welcome centre at Ty Magor working in partnership with Monmouthshire County Council. The team continue to use this as a base however when a further Welcome Centre was opened in Blaenau Gwent, the team accessed space in a Health Centre in the local area providing ease of access for individuals from both the Welcome Centre and those living with families in the area.

 

The Health Inclusion Service work with other health care professionals to provide the health checks and screening required.

This includes:

 

·       Initial health check within to respond to any urgent needs

·       Chest X-Ray at a local hospital as part of the health screening for active TB

·       Comprehensive health assessment undertaken (using the “Blue Book” assessment for asylum seekers) either through a home visit or at Innovation House

·       Blood tests at Innovation House as part of the health screening for latent TB and blood borne viruses

·       COVID-19 vaccinations.

 

With GP registration completed at the Welcome Centre or via individual hosts. Following registration ongoing GMS provision is delivered in line with the National Enhance Service - Positive Welcome for People Fleeing War and Persecution in Ukraine. This includes all essential, additional and enhanced GMS services, including:

 

·       vaccinations and immunisations

·       child health surveillance

·       cervical screening services

·       chronic disease management

·       palliative care

·       referral to secondary care

 

Catch up immunisations will be arranged according to the priorities recommended by Public Health Wales and the algorithm for those with unknown or incomplete vaccination status.

 

Throughout the post arrival pathway referrals are made to maternity services, health visiting, mental health, sexual health, therapies and other secondary care specialities as required.

 

The specialist TB service will follow up patients who are positive for active or latent TB in line with the All Wales pathway for the management of refugees at risk of multi-drug resistant TB. Anyone identified with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV will be managed according to existing pathways. PHW AWARe will be notified of any communicable diseases.

 

When the refugees first began to arrive, the full screening service was available two days per week. An appointment system was implemented and now works flexibly depending on the numbers of arrivals. The demand is currently reduced as the Welcome Centres and hotels in use have been filled and individual sponsor settings accommodating families and individuals utilised resulting in less refugees are coming to the Gwent area. As of the 27th September 856 individuals have had the initial health check and blue book assessment completed of the 1,022 people we are aware have come to Gwent. Others are awaiting aspects of the screening or have declined aspects of the screening offered.