Agenda item

Update on the Slough Local Action Plan for Immunisations

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report that provided an update on the Slough Local Action Plan for Immunisations and Screening.

 

Members were informed that historically Slough had some of the lowest uptake of screening and immunisation programmes in the South East of England.  NHS England was responsible for commissioning screening and immunisation programmes in England.  Locally this was co-ordinated and managed across Thames Valley by the Public Health Commissioning Team at NHS England, South East.  Through partnership working some progress had been made in recent years, however considerable challenges remained across the various immunisation and screening programmes. 

 

Slough Public Health was leading on the Local Action Plan tasks in partnership with key stakeholders.  Over the next 18 months the objectives of the Plan were to increase overall immunisation uptake of Slough residents and to reduce inequalities across Slough’s population groups.  Areas of action included: understanding the needs of the population, improving the quality and sharing of data, improving uptake in priority groups and addressing the issue of vaccine hesitancy.

 

A proposal of the Local Action Plan was to host a workshop for partners during October 2019.  The aim of the workshop was to bring key partners and stakeholders from across Slough together to update on the current immunisation position and provide an opportunity for networking and collaboration.  To support events and to raise awareness, the Panel was asked to elect a ‘Panel Champion for Immunisations’.  Councillor Ali was nominated and it was subsequently agreed that he would act as Panel Champion.

 

There was some discussion in relation to awareness raising and overcoming vaccine hesitancy.  The Director of Adults and Communities acknowledged the challenge of countering anti-vaccine messages; nevertheless he highlighted the evidence about the safety of vaccines and the importance of promoting immunisation as a social norm.

 

A Member asked if the uptake of bowel screening in Slough had increased.  In response, the Panel was advised that the number of people being screened had increased but the uptake remained below target.  The current priority was to improve the uptake of immunisations and the next phase of work would be to promote screening.

 

In relation to the Slough Immunisation Action Plan, set out on page 72 in Appendix 1 of the report, Members asked if the following action had been completed: ‘Multi-agency flu planning workshop to enable stakeholders in each locality to identify key actions for inclusion in their local ‘Flu Action Plan’ building on work done in the previous flu session’.  The Public Health Programme Manager agreed to check the status of the action and report back to the Panel.

 

Resolved –

 

(a)  The Panel was satisfied that the proposed Local Action Plan for Immunisations had actions tailored to the needs of Slough and relevant partners to address the relatively lower uptake and health inequalities in immunisation.

 

(b)  Councillor Ali to act as ‘Panel Champion for Immunisations’ to raise community awareness and support events such as the proposed Immunisation Workshop, scheduled for 1st October 2019.

 

(c)  The Panel requested a further six month update on the Local Action Plan for Immunisations (to coincide with the next Annual Screening and Immunisations Report) in January 2020.

 

(d)  The screening element of the Local Action Plan be postponed until January 2010.

 

(e)  The Public Health Programme Manager to check the status of the action, as detailed above and provide a response back to the Panel.

 

Supporting documents: