Agenda and minutes

It was noted that apologies for absence were received from Ben Bee, Ruw Abeyratne, Rob Howard and Katherine Packham.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed at the meeting.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed at the meeting.  No such declarations were received.

The Minutes of the previous meeting of the Board held on 25^th September 2025 are attached and the Board is asked to confirm them as a correct record.

The Chair highlighted that the minutes from the meeting held on 25th September 2025  were included in the agenda pack and asked Members to confirm whether they were an accurate record. 

AGREED:

• It was agreed that the minutes for the meeting on 25th September 2025 were a correct record.

The Chair is invited to make any announcements as they see fit.

The Chair highlighted the recent opening of 4 additional beds at a local hospice, which was welcomed as positive news. However, it was noted that concerns had been raised by residents about other available beds that were not currently being funded. The Chair asked that further consideration be given to understanding why these beds were not funded by the Integrated Care Board and invited members to reflect on how they could contribute to this work.

The Chair also raised concerns following a recent visit to Leicester Prison and in light of inspection and national reports on the health of people in prison. It was noted that many individuals entered custody with existing health conditions and that healthcare outcomes during and after imprisonment were poor. The Chair stated that people in prison should receive the same standard of healthcare as the wider population and that delays in accessing treatment were a serious concern.

The Chair asked whether enough was being done locally to address the health needs of people who were in prison or had recently been released. It was proposed that further work be coordinated by public health officers and that this issue be brought back to the Board for further consideration. The Chair also suggested that clarification was needed on commissioning responsibilities for healthcare in Leicester Prison, including potential engagement with NHS England.

The Chair to invite questions from members of the public.

It was noted that no questions were received.

A representative of First Step Leicester will attend the meeting to highlight the work of the First Step project.   

The current CEO and her newly appointed successor of the First Step Project gave a verbal update on the First Step Project:

• The project supported male survivors of rape and sexual abuse from ages 13 and over in the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland area. The project also offered online support via Teams and Zoom to men outside of LLR as it was highlighted that there were only 7 male survivors centres in the UK. They were a small organisation who had 16 Counsellors and 5 part-time staff.
• Up to 26 weeks of counselling was offered, with clients who ranged from young adults up to people in their seventies. In many cases, it was the first time these men had spoken about their experiences which often happened during childhood. They also offered up to 12 weeks of therapeutic emotional support for men who for whatever reason, were unable to take up the counselling. Another service offered was support and counselling for secondary survivors of sexual abuse, such as family and friends of survivors. A further support group was offered to former clients who have been through the First Step Project, so they could talk with other survivors and keep in contact with the project. They also offered 12 weeks of Counselling to prisoners at HMP Stocken in Rutland, support was also offered at Leicester prison. However, this offer was withdrawn as it became no longer safe for the counsellor to go into that environment due to prison staff shortages at Leicester Prison.
•  The challenges which the First Step Project was facing were detailed. It was explained that the charity was receiving multiple inappropriate referrals from the primary care sector which was affecting the charity and members of the public. There were numerous cases of men being signposted to the First Step Project from the Primary Care Sector who in some cases, had attempted suicide in the previous 24 hours. While it was acknowledged that the Primary Care Sector was facing a lot of pressures and that the First Step Project would be happy to help where they can, it was commented that inappropriate referrals were doing more harm than good. The charity did not have the capacity to support men in such a vulnerable condition.   

Comments:

• Members raised questions about the referrals being received by the charity from the Primary Care Sector and whether they thought this was a knee jerk reaction from the health service. In response, it was commented by the CEOs that it appeared to be a tick box exercise by the triage team of the Mental Health Crisis unit. It appeared that they simply checked if a patient had a history of sexual abuse and then signposted them to the charity without assessing if that was appropriate. As mentioned in the presentation, they were contacted by men who in the previous 24 hours had attempted suicide and had been in contact with the Bradgate Unit. It became so frequent an occurrence that the charity developed a prepared  ...  view the full minutes text for item 155.

Overview of the alliance and the work they are doing across LLR, including developing a structure to support CYP with SEND.

The Director for LLR Send and Inclusion Alliance gave a presentation on the Change Partnership Programme. The following was noted:

• The Alliance branding and identity had been co-produced with local young people and that there were 5 strategic alliances in place.
• A co production lead for children and young people had been appointed, with links into a regional young people forum.
• A report produced by young researchers had been published for young people, parents and carers.
• The Local Inclusion Support Offer is a multi-disciplinary approach to bridge the gap between specialist and mainstream provision
• The Alliance had been formed from the national Change Partnership Programme, which commenced in September 2023.
• The first 2 years of the programme focused on the local area, with the current phase moving towards sustaining and embedding work beyond the end of the programme in March.
• The Local Inclusion Offer was outlined, with a focus on supporting children and young people with special educational needs to remain in mainstream education wherever possible.
• It was reported that a significant amount of testing and learning had taken place, with support in place to continue this work after the programme concluded.
• An overview of the change programme and the Local Inclusion Offer was provided. Key elements included the existing specialist teacher service in the city and a strong focus on alternative provision.
• Partnership working for neurodiversity support was highlighted, alongside a universal support offer for every child.
• It was noted that almost 1000 children had been supported and diverted away from specialist services.
• There was a particular focus on early years and pre-primary provision.
• Community inclusion work was outlined, with similarities noted to other local programmes focused on inclusive practice.
• Work had taken place within local communities to better understand and strengthen the role of the voluntary and community sector.
• Social prescribing for 14 to 18 year olds had been tested, with a particular focus on key trigger points for neurodivergent children.
• Consideration was being given to expanding the social prescribing role to include children and young people as part of a general offer.
• Strong links were reported with the Families First Programme and Family Hubs, with work underway to integrate services more effectively.
• Frustration around navigating the system was acknowledged as a key priority.
• Commissioning for the programme had been aligned, with no additional funding available.
• It was noted that supported services were working well across age boundaries.
• Priorities had been informed through local inclusion plans, local research with children and young people and work undertaken by health partners.
• A data dashboard had been developed to bring together intelligence and improve understanding of need.
• Seven key priority areas had been identified, which included Mental health, particularly for children below the CAMHS threshold and the impact of mental health on school attendance.
• Information, advice and support, highlighted through the local SEND inspection and the need to align local authority and health advice.
• Coordination and navigation of services.
• Preparing for adulthood, including post 16 pathways and learning to be shared  ...  view the full minutes text for item 156.

Presentation covering where we are now and work being undertaken.

The Head of Immunisations and Screening for the ICB submitted a presentation on the current vaccine and immunisation rate in LLR:

·       The ICB was not currently a commissioner of vaccines but was due to be by April 2027. The ICB was preparing for the delegation of commissioning responsibilities and increasing uptake of vaccinations in the city across the whole age board by incorporating the lessons learned during Covid.

·       An uptake in the Maternal Pertussis was seen. The dip in uptake following the Covid period was gradually reduced from its nadir in 2023 by several projects to boost engagement with the community. These projects included clinical phone calls and text messages to unvaccinated women, a community pharmacy pilot, a roving healthcare unit who offered vaccines, stabilised staffing levels and bookable appointments at hospital sites.  

·       For the last decade there was a decline in uptake of children’s vaccination and the City was falling below the World Health Organisation goal of 95% vaccine coverage for children. The 2024-2025 data was a lot more positive and indicated an upward trajectory in vaccine uptake. It was commented by the Head of Immunisation and Screening that the current operational data which was not currently published was showing even more improvement.

·       LPT introduced their e-consent forms for school vaccines and there was an increase in uptake in school children being seen. There was also an increase in contacting parents whose children are eligible and an attempt to standardise the contact methods and attempts across the GP practices.  Feedback was collected from parents about the language of the form to make the information less technical and more accessible to the public.

·       The LLR Vaccine Hub website had 22,000 views in the past 12 months and the ‘Walk in Immunisation Finder’ which details the location of local walk-in clinics saw 9,700 hits since October 2025.

·       Strategic priorities of the service were to secure sustainable funding that specifically targets health inequalities as well as improve on the two key doctrines of allocating efficiently and universal proportionalism. Embed vaccination into the NHS prevention plan, expand the community outreach and engagement, prepare for commissioning responsibilities and optimise opportunities for NHS reorganisation.  

·       Overall, it was stated that LLR is in a better situation than most others in the midlands and was above the regional and national averages. This year’s winter vaccination campaign saw a much higher profile awareness campaign in the media and the ICB senior leadership, which helped to increase uptake. Areas for improvement were increasing vaccine rates among pregnant women, the clinically vulnerable and those who were eligible for the RSV vaccine.

Comments:

·       Members enquired about the maternal RSV vaccines and what the potential risks were if the vaccine wasn’t administered. It was explained that by not taking the vaccine, mothers were exposing their child to respiratory viruses when they were born. A further question was raised by members about the possible legal implications of not vaccinating children and were there any laws about child endangerment regarding this. In response, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 157.

Overview of the alliance and the work they are doing across LLR. Including developing a structure to support CYP with SEND.

The Deputy Director of Public Health presented a report on Leicester’s Whole System Approach to Health Weight:

• This presentation arose from a previous presentation to the Health and Wellbeing Board on the NHS Healthy Weight Declaration. In said meeting, members requested a deeper look into the wider work being undertaken as part of the Healthy Weight Declaration.
• The project was developed as a preventative service. The goal was to stop people becoming overweight in the first place by changing the system.
•  The initiative was built on 3 key pillars: The first pillar was building a stronger system. This was through embedding healthy weight goals into the infrastructure and strategies. So that the goals of the project were known and striven for.
•  The second was changing the environments to increase opportunity. It was highlighted that society doesn’t make healthy choice easy and therefore work was needed to help combat that. The projects for this pillar were developing more cycle and walking routes to promote exercise as well as work with takeaways to offer heathier options and reduce fat and salt content.
• The final pillar focused on empowering workforces and communities. Training was provided to social care staff about healthy weight, nutrition and healthy conversations programmes. This was combined with outreach to communities to better understand and tackle the root causes behind obesity rates.  
• The excess weight stats for the City were a cause for concern. In the City, 62.8% of adults, 19.3% of reception age children and 39.1% of year 6 age children were classed as living with excess weight. It was commented that for adults and reception age children, the percentages were levelling out which shows progress was being made. However, the figure for year 6 age children was above both the regional and national average and was still increasing year on year.    
• The project was keen to focus on tackling the weight stigma and bias that can put people off from engaging with weight loss services. Focus groups were held in October and December 2025 to help inform the language and communication toolkit of the work. This was with the aim of avoiding the language of blame or lecturing which could be off putting to members of the public.
• In 2018, 23.8% of pregnant women in Leicester at appointments were defined by BMI as living with obesity. Work had been done to help support pregnant women with keeping healthy such as aqua natal and buggy fit classes. There was also myth busting such as the eating for two myth and being unable to do exercise. 
• Projects that were helping keep children healthy were detailed. The HENRY Parenting Programme, for children aged zero to five years old, had proved to be quite successful in Leeds. It was piloted in Leicester with future plans for full adoption of the programme underway. The Leicestershire Nutrition and Diet Service (LNDS) had built on the work of food for life in changing the culture in schools around food. The project targeted areas such as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 158.

Presentation on three-year action plan for CYP. The plan focuses on the following areas:

CYP Voice, Prevention, Digital and Improving Services.

Due to time limitations this item was deferred to the next meeting. It was agreed it would be the first item on the agenda.

The Chief Executive of the LNR and the Chief Medical Officer will provide the Board with an update of the current position.

The Chief Medical Officer from the Integrated Care Board (ICB) gave the board a verbal update on national changes to NHS England and the resulting reduction in running costs for Integrated Care Boards. The following was noted:

·       There had been significant change over recent months, including revised timelines and the need to implement running cost reductions, supported by redundancy resources.

·       Integrated Care Boards had clustered, bringing boards and leadership teams together, while resources and finances remained separate and were allocated based on population.

·       The number of Integrated Care Boards nationally had reduced from 42 to 26, with a cluster arrangement now in place locally alongside a neighbouring system.

·       Executive leadership arrangements for the cluster were outlined, with national appointment processes led by NHS England.

·       Announcements on redundancy had been made, with consultation expected to take place in January.

·       It was acknowledged that this was a difficult period for staff, particularly during winter pressures, but that there was relief in having greater clarity following national announcements.

·       A blueprint document had been produced to reduce duplication and support new ways of working with partner organisations.

·       It was emphasised that the new model would require delivery with a reduced organisational footprint.

·       Reconfiguration work was ongoing, with further financial information expected in the new year.

·       Partners were asked to note the challenging context while maintaining a focus on delivering a safe winter, financial planning for the year ahead, and the longer term 10 year plan.

An update was provided on neighbourhood working across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland by the ICB.

·       It was explained that neighbourhoods were aligned to geographic boundaries, although local alignment had required agreement across partners and had not been straightforward.

·       All partners had committed to this approach, recognising the challenges around funding flows and financial pressures.

·       Members were informed that neighbourhoods aimed to provide access to a wide range of support in one place, spanning health, care and the voluntary and community sector.

·       The Board discussed why neighbourhoods mattered, with a focus on improving population health, strengthening communities and supporting people to stay well for longer.

·       It was highlighted that early intervention needed to start with children and families, noting that many existing services focused on adults.

·       The importance of using hospital services for specialist care only was emphasised.

·       Data was shared showing that life expectancy in the city was lower than in the county and that 2 in 5 children were living with obesity.

·       Members were informed that neighbourhood planning would include health alongside wider determinants of health.

·       Plans were outlined for engagement activity, including workshops in each area towards the end of January involving communities, partner organisations and providers.

·       Engagement with the voluntary and community sector had already begun, including webinars and in person events.

·       It was emphasised that staff training would be critical to ensure awareness of available services and appropriate support for residents.

·       The importance of using population data was highlighted, including understanding patterns of attendance at emergency departments and discharge outcomes.

·       The approach would be evidence  ...  view the full minutes text for item 160.

A standing item around activity at the Leicester Integrated Health and Care Group.

This item was deferred to the next meeting due to officer absence.

To note that meetings have been arranged for the following dates in 2025/2026 which were submitted to the Annual Council in May 2025.  Please add these dates to your diaries.  Diary appointments will be sent to Board Members.

Thursday 5^th March 2026 – 9.30am

Meetings of the Board are scheduled to be held in Meeting Rooms G01 and 2 at City Hall unless stated otherwise on the agenda for the meeting.

The Board noted that future meetings of the Board would be held on the following dates:-

Thursday 5^th March 2026 – 09:30 am

Meetings of the Board are scheduled to be held in Meeting Rooms G01 at City Hall unless stated otherwise on the agenda for the meeting.

With there being no further business, the meeting closed at 12.35pm.