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Sent on behalf of NHS Basildon and Brentwood, NHS Castle Point and Rochford, NHS Mid Essex, NHS Southend and NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)

Welcome to the latest edition of our patient and community representatives bulletin.  We have been working closely with the Mid and South Essex CCGs’ Patient and Pubic Involvement (PPI) Lay Members to ensure we adopt a consistent approach to patient and public engagement across the system as we move into a “reset and recovery” phase.

This means taking health and care services forward, determining which changes should remain and which need further review. Working with our communities as part of that recovery work is vital.

In this bulletin (follow a link to go straight to each section):

Introduction from our PPI Lay Members Patient Participation Groups go virtual Impact of COVID-19 in mid and south Essex CCGs’ Board meetings get a virtual restart Reset and recovery of normal NHS services My Care Record in mid and south Essex Local outbreak plans Supporting care home residents and staff Reducing care home residents' isolation Care Homes Brochure and hubs Tool to support care home outbreak tracking Health and care Engagement Framework

Virtual Views survey initial findings Insight into pandemic communications Coronavirus resource pages for families Summer newsletters for residents Healthwatch Essex Information Services Link Workers in your GP surgery video Flu vaccination campaign 2020/21 Changes to shielding arrangements Mask-wearing/face-covering in shops Test and Trace update Current social distancing guidance More info on pandemic health and care

Introduction to the bulletin from our PPI Lay Members

It may seem like a while ago that we were all in touch so we just wanted to make sure that we are

all aware of the different ways we can continue communicating and engaging. Although we are living in very challenging times, the pandemic has forced us all to communicate differently and think about how we go about our business.

Technology and online interactions have made it possible to keep in contact, to have discussions and make decisions that would have otherwise have been delayed but it has also become apparent that many people have missed human contact.

There is nothing better than face-to-face listening and discussion to understand people’s emotions around and experience of a subject. However, until we get back to a ‘safe’ environment without the novel coronavirus infection risk, we need to take this opportunity to understand the opportunities presented by the online world.

The Communications and Engagement teams working across the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership are working tirelessly to ensure that you, our patients and public, receive as much accurate information as possible.

As we reflect and move forward, we look forward to embracing a mix of communications with our residents, patient and community groups that balance the new and those that worked well prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are investigating how we can support ‘virtual’ patient involvement in the form of video meetings and calls as a new way of involving you in our work, and how far meeting in public will be possible and beneficial in the future.

Please let us know if you have a story of how communication through technology has had an impact for you in these past 15 weeks, and look after yourselves!

Janis GibsonLay Member, Castle Point and Rochford / Southend CCGs

Alan HudsonLay Member, Thurrock CCG

Gil JonesLay Member, Basildon and Brentwood CCG

Nathalie WrightLay Member, Mid Essex CCG

Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) go virtual

National NHS guidance still states that GP practices do not need to hold PPG meetings during the pandemic, but as we continue working towards a new ‘normal’ many PPGs will be looking to restart their meetings – and a few have already done so.

Central Surgery (Southchurch, Southend) held its first virtual PPG Meeting on 13 July and have asked to share their experience of going virtual, plus some of the topics they discussed at their meeting.

Chris Gasper, a PPG member at Central Surgery, said: “Our Practice Manager made all the arrangements and all we had to do was click within the email she sent to access Microsoft Teams. There was no need to load the programme.”

To see what the Central Surgery's PPG meeting discussed, view the notes via the button below.

Impact of COVID-19 in mid and south Essex

The health analytics team at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (which has run Basildon, Broomfield and Southend Hospitals since 1 April this year) have shared the latest data on the impact of COVID-19 at the hospital sites.

As of 15 July, there have sadly been 749 deaths of patients from COVID-19 in Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (not including community providers) since the start of the pandemic

As of 21 July, the number of patients being cared for with COVID-19 in mid and south Essex hospitals is 29

NHS 111 calls referred to A&E are at pre-COVID-19 levels A&E attendances have been increasing since late April and are now around 93% of pre-

COVID-19 levels, although there is variation between the hospital sites.

Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership (MSEHCP) update

CCGs’ Governing Body meetings get a virtual restart

The Mid and South Essex CCGs' Governing Body meetings in public restarted virtually last week, offering people a chance to see the meeting and ask questions online through their web browser to maintain social distancing.

Download Central PPG 13/7/20 notes

Until face to face meetings are safe, all CCG Governing Body meetings will be held virtually, and initial attendance figures suggested more people were able to take part online than attended in person before the pandemic.

If you would like to know what was discussed, papers brought to our Governing Bodies can be found on the CCGs’ websites:

Basildon and Brentwood CCG Mid Essex CCG Southend CCG and Castle Point and Rochford CCG Governing Body in Common Thurrock CCG

If you were able to join one of the Governing Body meetings last week or have views on virtual meetings, we would appreciate it if you would complete a feedback survey to help us understand how effective you feel they are. Please also share the link with your networks where you can.

The survey should take less than five minutes to complete, all responses are anonymous and you can take part via the button below or on a smartphone by scanning the QR code, right.

Reset and recovery of normal NHS services in our area

As the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership moves into the Reset and Recovery phase of the pandemic response, community providers are reviewing their positions and revising the status of their services.

Where we commission a service, our providers are now accepting appropriate referrals into those classed as "essential" and "partial". They are not at this time accepting referrals into suspended services but plan to review that position regularly and will look to identify solutions to the particular challenges those service areas present.

The providers have included information on their websites, along with contact details for further information. You can visit each site using the buttons below and a separate colour-coded list of Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock community services is available here.

Feedback survey on Mid and South Essex CCGs' virtual Board meetings

Separately, sexual health services in Essex, Southend and Thurrock have also reintroduced a wide range of integrated services. The links below offer more information:

Essex sexual health service Southend sexual health service Thurrock sexual health service

Community ultrasound services have also restarted in a number of new locations – the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership lists these ultrasound locations on our website.

My Care Record in mid and south Essex

‘My Care Record’ is a big project to support information sharing between health and care services across our region. Key benefits of My Care Record include:

Better co-ordinated and seamless care Quicker diagnosis and treatment Less paperwork and less repetition Fewer unnecessary clinical tests More accurate prescriptions Better health and care planning More time to spend on clinical care

Community health service status for

Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock

Community health service status for Castle

Point, Rochford and Southend

Community health service status for

Braintree, Chelmsford and Maldon

You can object to your record being shared between services. To do this, speak to the person delivering care to you at each organisation such as your GP, specialist or social worker. It is important to understand that not allowing access to your information may affect the quality of the care you receive.

In many situations it is necessary to share information between services to deliver care. However, it may be possible to request that specific or sensitive information is not made available. There may also be some situations where information still needs to be made available. For example, there may be a concern about an individual’s safety. You can find out more from My Care Record website.

We have a range of materials to support this project including easy read and translated resources. If you would be interested in helping us promote this project or would like any further information please contact us on meccg.incident.essex.comms@nhs.net.

Local Outbreak Control Plans

On 22 May 2020 the Government announced that as part of its national strategy to reduce COVID-19 infections it would expect every area in England to create a Local Outbreak Control Plan by the end of June. We are working alongside our local partner authorities, agencies, stakeholders and voluntary sector partners to keep our communities safe.

You can read more about the local outbreak plans for managing COVID-19 by visiting these sites: Essex COVID 19 Local Outbreak Plan Thurrock COVID 19 Outbreak Control Plan Southend-on-Sea Local Outbreak Control Plan

Supporting care home residents and staff during the pandemic

The Mid and South Essex CCGs have been working with our care homes to keep the people living and working there safe and well during COVID-19. We recently had an opportunity to meet staff at Langley Lodge, Westcliff, who shared their experiences of looking after residents during the pandemic. You can watch a film about this by selecting the image below.

Introducing Facebook Portals into care homes to help reduce residents' isolation

The Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership has made strong progress in getting local care homes NHSmail addresses to make information sharing simpler and more secure. This progress was recognised by NHS England, who offered a place to our area in a pilot scheme they are running with Facebook to address the potential increase in isolation and loneliness for care home residents during the pandemic.

Many have struggled to interact and socialise with friends and family outside of their homes, especially during lockdown. So each CCG area in mid and south Essex received 50 Facebook Portal units which were distributed to local care homes and hospices. These devices work like a mobile phone and enable secure video calls to be made through WhatsApp of Facebook Messenger accounts.

Outcomes from the pilot scheme will be analysed by NHS England later in the year, but so far care homes have told us how beneficial it has been to them and their residents to aid communication, reduce isolation and improve people’s quality of life.

Care home brochure and hubs

During the early stages of the pandemic we came together as a Health and Care Partnership to support our care homes and domiciliary care providers.

"Care home hubs" were set up across mid and south Essex, bringing together support from nurses, public health experts, infection control and quality teams to wrap around our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A summary and snapshot of some of the support offered and initiatives can be found in our new Care Home Brochure.

Tool to support outbreak tracking in care homes

As more and more mid and south Essex care homes become COVID-19-free, we made a new tool available to care staff so they could notify clinical hubs in their area of any outbreaks as quickly as possible. This also meant they could get the right support sooner.

The tool is part of the “Capacity Tracker” system already introduced in care homes across our area, available as a website or smartphone app, which allows people working within the Health and Care Partnership to identify which homes need support most and which can safely take people newly discharged from hospital.

Other support for our local care market, including regular online Q&A sessions, newsletters, training and wellbeing support (including tips for wearing personal protective equipment safely during hot weather), continue to be made available.

Engaging with our communities

Patient and Public Engagement Framework

The Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership Board recently approved a system-wide engagement framework as we move into a new phase of the journey to becoming an integrated care system.

As a collective we all engage regularly with thousands of people across the local area to meet our statutory requirements and ensure our residents have a meaningful say in our plans. We have developed this framework to set out our collaborative approach to working with our residents, wider stakeholders and partners using existing good practice to ensure the voice of local people is recognised appropriately at all levels in a consistent way, avoiding duplicated messages and work.

The framework will be the basis of an action plan to deliver on the commitments it outlines and explain the areas where system-wide collaboration will be most beneficial. You can read about our initial system-wide engagement plans on the Health and Care Partnership website and download the framework from the site or from the button below.

Virtual Views survey – initial findings

Over the month of June 2020 we asked residents across mid and south Essex what their experiences were of using health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses were received from 732 people across 14 different ethnic groups. An overview of what people told us was presented to CCG Boards last week and we expect to publish a full report on the findings of this survey and other engagement work within the next couple of months.

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those who took part or helped us to promote the survey.  Select the button below to see a summary infographic of the initial findings.

Insight into CCGs' communications during the pandemic response

The Virtual Views infographic is part of a broader report showing how CCG communications and engagement teams have successfully been working together to ensure consistency in messages about COVID-19 across the Mid and south Essex Health and Care Partnership.

This quarterly Insight report shows the impact of our communications work from the formation of the incident team until the end of June. The five CCGs’ Board meetings received and acknowledged the report last week and you can read it by selecting the button below.

Coronavirus resource pages for families

Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership Engagement Framework

Virtual Views summary infographic

Insight report on CCG joint communications, March-June 2020

We have developed a resource page to help parents, young people and children navigate through information and resources about the coronavirus. These resources cover a range issues as well as the different regulations and guidance introduced to reduce its spread through our communities.

Each CCG has published the resources on its own website. Please share these links widely: Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group Castle Point and Rochford Clinical Commissioning Group Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group Southend Clinical Commissioning Group Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group

Summer newsletters for residents from the Mid and South Essex CCGs

Last month the Mid and South Essex CCGs issued summer editions of their newsletters for residents including advice on staying safe during the summer heat. The newsletters are available online from each CCG's websites which you can get to using the buttons below.

NHS Thurrock CCG Summer 2020 newsletter NHS Mid Essex CCG Summer 2020 newsletter NHS Basildon and Brentwood CCG Summer 2020 newsletter NHS Castle Point and Rochford CCG Summer 2020 newsletter NHS Southend CCG Summer 2020 newsletter

Online access to the Healthwatch Essex Information Service

One of our three Healthwatch partners, covering the Essex County Council footprint, has launched a live chat facility on their website to offer a new way of accessing their Information Service. Residents can confidentially ask Healthwatch Essex advisers questions using the web chat between 10am and 2pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The live chat can be accessed through a web browser on every page of the Healthwatch Essex website. You can visit the Healthwatch Southend and Thurrock pages to find out about health and

care services in those areas.

Raising awareness of social prescribing Link Workers in GP surgeries

The five CCGs have developed a video about the social prescriber’s role as part of an ongoing series explaining the range of health and care professionals who work alongside GPs at practices and in the community. The video also focuses on how these social prescribing "Link Workers" can help people to manage their health and wellbeing. You can view and share this video below and a playlist of all the videos about different roles in GP practice is also available on YouTube.

Helping the local health and care system to keep people safe and well

Flu vaccination campaign 2020/21

In the run up to winter, local health and care partners want to make sure they do everything they can to prevent avoidable illness. Not enough people are taking advantage of a free flu vaccination programme to help protect them and we want to understand what, if anything, we can do differently to make sure the more vulnerable groups are protected from potentially more severe disease.

The health system is still battling the coronavirus and while the flu vaccine will not protect residents

from getting coronavirus, it will reduce flu-related illness and ease stress on health services during this pandemic. The Government is also planning to offer the flu vaccine to more people in the population including everyone over 50.

We are in the process of developing our Flu Communications Plan which focuses on three key objectives:

Inform– to raise awareness of the flu vaccination across key audiences informed by data Educate – tailored messages to help overcome barriers to accepting a vaccination offer Inspire – encourage from staff and wider community to increase uptake

For us to be able to deliver a successful flu plan we need first to understand what barriers exist, why eligible people chose not to have their flu vaccination and ascertain how we can support breaking down some of these barriers.  We will shortly be launching a short survey which seeks to address some of the issues mentioned above.

If you would be interested in helping us conduct this research or if you would like more information regarding the 2020/21 flu campaign please email us on meccg.incident.essex.comms@nhs.net.

Changes to shielding arrangements for people vulnerable to COVID-19

The Government is advising that people in England who have been taking extra precautions ("shielding") to address their extreme vulnerability to COVID-19 do not need to do so at present. Rates of COVID-19 transmission in the community have fallen to a point the Government has recently issued updated guidance on shielding and protecting extremely vulnerable people.

Support for people who wish to continue shielding remains available for people living in Essex through the new Essex Wellbeing Service. People can request help for themselves, refer someone else or volunteer to help through the website or by calling 0300 303 9988. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Thurrock Council list services available to their residents on their websites. (The Better Care Together Thurrock offer has also been shortlisted for "System or Commissioner Led Service Redesign Initiative" at the HSJ Value Awards 2020.)

Clinically extremely vulnerable children can go to school in line with the wider guidance on reopening of mainstream and special schools and other specialist settings.

Government guidance on compulsory mask-wearing/face-covering in shops

We all have a part to play in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and keeping our hospitals and communities safe. The Government issued guidance last month that everyone entering a shop or supermarket must wear a mask covering their nose and mouth. This is a legally enforceable requirement – anyone not wearing a mask may be barred from entering a shop and may be fined up

to £100 if they do go in.

It will not be compulsory for shop workers to wear a mask, though many are already doing so, and everyone is encouraged to wear masks when in other public spaces where social distancing is difficult. There are some exemptions such as for children under 11, people with an illness or disability that makes wearing a mask unfeasible and people supporting someone who relies on lip-reading.

More details are available on the gov.uk website and the Mid and South Essex CCGs have been supporting this change with extensive messaging on our social media channels. If you are in one of the exempt categories, we are also producing materials – badges you can print out or a graphic you can display on your phone – to explain that you do not need to wear a mask. These will be available from our social media channels and websites shortly.

NHS Test and Trace service update

Anyone who hears from Test and Trace that they have been in contact with someone infected by COVID-19 will need to self-isolate for 14 days and not leave home or have any visitors. Other people in the household do not need to self-isolate unless they have symptoms.

Residents who tests positive for coronavirus will also be contacted by Test and Trace. The self-isolation period for people with a positive COVID-19 test is now 10 days. There are further details of the Test and Trace scheme on the NHS website.

Current social distancing guidance

The Government's social distancing is now "one metre plus", meaning separation of 1m is acceptable provided some other form of protection from COVID-19 is also in place. Across the Health and Care Partnership we are urging people to consistently practise social distancing and other mitigations as these have been shown to control the virus.

Further information on health and care services during the pandemic

Other information on health and care services available to residents during the ongoing pandemic response include:

Materials from the PHE Campaign Resources Centre offering information about how to contact your GP, order repeat prescriptions and manage wellbeing without having to leave your house or flat (part of the PHE Health at Home campaign)

Easy Read guidance on health and care services for people with a learning disability Plain English for people with autism and language challenges

A series of videos with British Sign Language interpreters offering similar information

As always, the most up-to-date national guidance about the pandemic is online at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus and www.gov.uk/coronavirus. People should still call 999 in a serious or life-threatening emergency. If they are not sure what help they need, advice is on hand from NHS 111 online or by phoning 111.

Our thanks go out to you, our patient and community representatives, for sharing the vital messages that help to keep us all safe.

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