Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Deputy Director of Public Health, Durham County Council that presented the annual report of the County Durham and Darlington Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Deputy Director and Chair of CDOP gave a detailed presentation that included:

·        The role and purpose of CDOP

·        CDOP Membership

·        CDOP Annual Report 2018/19

·        Categories of Death

·        Key Issues from Child Death Reviews 2018/19

·        Good Practice

·        Developments during 2018/19 – roll into 2019/20

Councillor Gunn thanked the officer for a very detailed presentation and asked if there were any identifiable reasons why 75% of child deaths were male.  The Deputy Director of Public Health explained that there were a lot of risk-taking behaviour and accidents that contributed to this statistic for older males.

The Corporate Director of Adult and Health Services, Durham County Council asked how lessons learnt were shared with other CDOPs.  The Deputy Director of Public Health said that this was not currently done, however a paper had been written for the Department of Public Health Network about the transition work coming through.  It was recognised that there was a gap in this area at present.

Referring to the review of the number of deaths at 60 per year, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer was advised that the scale depended upon the population and that this was the minimum requirement to be reviewed to be fully compliant with national guidance.

Dr Murthy asked what the future would be for the relationship between the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) and Integrated Care System (ICS) and was advised that there were a lot of discussions taking place, to determine the future relationships.  The Chief Clinical Officer, North Durham and DDES CCG confirmed that there was a strong push to have the CCG mergers across the ICP areas including working more closely with South Tyneside and Sunderland.  The Corporate Director of Adult and Health Services added that a lot of work had been carried out, for example tobacco dependency in pregnancy, and suggested that themes could be used at the ICS level.

The Deputy Director of Public Health said that neonatal services were key and that the panel would be looking at the pathway flow outside of the boundaries given.  The Divisional Director of Family Care, City Hospitals Sunderland would take the comments back to the Neonatal network in terms of the ability to deliver more through the local maternity system.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Service, Durham County Council commented that geography often clashed in some areas and he understood the conversations that were taking place with the Tees area to see if work could be carried out jointly.  He suggested that this should be looked at on a larger scale by exploring themes and other systems that already exist.  The Deputy Director of Public Health explained that it was about understanding the different networks and utilising the strong workforce.

The Director of Public Health concluded that the Chair of this Board had wrote previously to the leads for the then Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships asking them to look at modifiable factors and to provide quality surveillance to report back to the board.  She added that this would now be picked up at ICS and the regional level.

Resolved:

(i)           That the content of the annual report and the developments planned for 2019/20 and beyond be noted;

(ii)          That the importance of the work on reducing tobacco dependency in pregnancy as it is a clear modifiable factor in child deaths be noted;

(iii)         That contact be made with other chairs of Health and Wellbeing Boards across the North East to endorse the importance of the regional thematic reviews proposed to be undertaken on:

(i)  Suicide and self-harm;

(ii)Sudden and unexpected deaths in infancy;

(iii)Trauma deaths;

(iv)Neonatal deaths.