South Tyneside COVID 19 Health Protection Board: Terms of reference

Published 18th March 2021 An appendix of the South Tyneside Outbreak Management Plan

Terms of reference

18th March 2021: Published on
18th March 2021: Plan approved by COVID-19 Leadership Board on

Background

As part of the Covid 19 recovery strategy the Government has instructed Local Councils to develop and outbreak management plan to support the NHS Test and Trace process. The Local Outbreak management plan will respond to local outbreaks within complex settings, notified to the Council through the local Health Protection escalation process via an alert system into the single point of contact email address: COVID@southtyneside.gov.uk alongside notification to the Director of Public Health.

These terms of reference outline the leadership responsibilities of South Tyneside, led by Council supported by its partners in the ensuring South Tyneside residents carry out their civic duty, to comply with the rules in response to tackling this pandemic.

Public Health England (PHE)

PHE is responsible for the overall leadership and coordination of the health protection response to individual cases and outbreaks of COVID-19.

Director of Public Health

Under Section 30 of the Health and Social Care Act (2012) [Section 30] the Director of Public Health (DPH) is responsible for the LA contribution to health protection, including planning for and responding to incidents that present a threat to the public’s health e.g. COVID-19.

Other DPH functions relevant to communicable disease management include:

“be the person who elected members and senior officers look to for leadership, expertise and advice on a range of issues, from outbreaks of disease and emergency preparedness through to improving local people’s health and concerns around access to health services”

Environmental Health Team

The local authority environmental health team have a key role in the investigation of the source of infection in relation to both individual cases, and outbreaks, of notifiable diseases. They also have a role in relation to securing improvements if the LA is the enforcing authority. This role is carried out in liaison with Public Health England, and where appropriate, the Director of Public Health.

Covid 19 Outbreak Management Plan

The COVID-19 outbreak management plan is developed using 7 key elements, which identify key groups that are at increased risk to be the source of an outbreak such as schools, care homes and workplaces, therefore other colleagues across the Council, and the wider infection prevention control system will form part of the management board to provide their expertise to support the advice, planning and actions needed to develop and implement the outbreak management plan, and to provide information, advice and guidance to the operational outbreak control team(s).

Purpose

The purpose of the COVID-19 Health Protection Board is:

To provide public health specialist knowledge, advice and intelligence to develop and implement the local outbreak management plan with a range of key partners across the system, as well as overseeing the management of the setting specific Outbreak Control Teams.
Deliver advisory and executive functions as described in “Guiding Principles for Effective Management of COVID-19 at a Local Level” (PHE and ADPH, May 2020).
To provide technical and professional advice to the Covid Leadership Board and the Outbreak control team(s).
To liaise with Public Health England.
To lead the development of the outbreak management plan.

Aim

To provide specialist health protection advice building on existing health protection plans to identify and contain outbreaks and protect the public’s health in South Tyneside through the development of a local outbreak management plan, to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19. An essential function of the plan will be implementing key actions required to manage an outbreak, mitigating wider impact of Covid 19 on the local population.

Objectives

The Health Protection Board will:

Lead the planning and implementation the Outbreak Management plan.
To provide technical and professional advice to the Covid Leadership Board and the Outbreak control team(s).
To establish and co-ordinate the management of the Outbreak control teams, including the mobilisation of testing and tracing resources.
Support the implementation of the local Standard operating procedures for outbreak response within schools and care homes.
To identify and action the use of the government grant to support the implementation of the local outbreak management plan.
Establish a daily Operational Response Core Team that will receive and act on the daily data shared by the PHE Health Protection Team.

Membership

Tom Hall: Director of Public Health, South Tyneside Council
Jeanette Scott: Executive Director of Nursing - Quality and Patient Safety, South Tyneside CCG
Stuart Wright: Head of Environment, South Tyneside Council
Anne Moore: Deputy Director of Nursing and Director of Infection Prevention and Control, Cumbria N’Land T&W NHS
Kirstie Hesketh: Head of Quality and Patient safety, South Tyneside CCG
Phil Baker: Chief Inspector Harm Reduction & Inte, Northumbria Police
Dr. Gayle Dolan: Consultant in Communicable Disease Control, Public Health England
Paula Phillips: Public Health Strategic Manager, South Tyneside Council
Anna Christie: Knowledge and Intelligence Lead, South Tyneside Council/PHE
Samantha Start: Senior Public Health Practitioner, South Tyneside Council
James Maughan: Operations Manager-Resilience, South Tyneside Council
Joanne Chastney: Operations Manager-Environmental Health, South Tyneside Council
David Burton: Sergeant Community Engagement, Northumbria Police
Austin O’Malley: Operations Support Manager, N,land Tyne & Wear FT
Natalie Johnson: Senior Press Officer, South Tyneside Council
Gemma Davison: Senior Marketing Officer, South Tyneside Council
Graeme Grieg: Senior Public Health Practitioner, South Tyneside Council
Steven Carter: Senior Public Health Practitioner, South Tyneside Council
Joe Jasperse: Public Health Speciality Registrar, South Tyneside Council
Ali Boon-Chandler: Senior Health Protection Practitioner NE, Public Health England
David Stobbs: Neighbourhood Sergeant, Northumbria Police

Frequency

The Health Protection Board will meet twice weekly initially, with administration support provided by the Council. Meetings will take place via video conferencing initially and will be reviewed regularly.

Governance

The COVID-19 Health Protection Board will report to the Covid 19 Leadership Board, providing updates on key issues, learning and epidemiology. A written report will be provided to summarise the learning from the outbreaks.