Agenda item

The Chairman informed the Committee that she wished to bring an urgent item to the attention of the Committee following a referral from Barnet’s Health and Wellbeing Board on the issue of poor childhood immunisation rates in Barnet. 

The Chairman noted that Barnet Council’s Director of Children’s Services, the Clinical Commissioning Group Chairman and the Director of Public Health had sent a joint letter to NHS England on 1 April 2016 expressing their concern and frustration in relation to this issue but that they had not received a response.

The Chairman invited Councillor Helena Hart, Chairman of Barnet Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB), Mr. Chris Munday, Director of Children’s Services and Dr. Andrew Howe, Director of Public Health (Barnet and Harrow Councils), to the table.

The Committee noted that the issue of immunisation rates for Barnet had previously been referred from the HWBB to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee in December 2014, when, at the time, NHS England had given assurance that reported childhood immunisation rates in Barnet were not an accurate reflection of immunisation uptake in the Borough.  The Committee were informed by NHS England that a Task and Finish Group had been established to ensure the transfer or immunisation data to the new data system, “System One”

The Chairman informed the Committee that when considering that item, the Committee had amended a recommendation as set out in the report considered by the Committee on the evening, as below:

Recommendation 3: That the Committee will continue to seek assurance is satisfied that appropriate governance arrangements are in place within NHS England in relation to immunisations to protect the health of people in Barnet and to this effect requests an update report in March 2015 to inform on the progress of the Task and Finish Group

The Committee noted that the above amendment was carried and became the substantive item, which was then subsequently approved by the Committee. 

The Chairman noted that on March 2015, the Committee received the requested report from NHS England on the work of the Task and Finish Group and that NHS England advised that the recent data on immunisations was more positive, although there was more work to be done around immunisations, particularly in relation to five year olds for MMR.

Councillor Helena Hart addressed the Committee.  Councillor Hart expressed her thanks to the Chairman for taking the referral as an urgent item and commented that the issue of childhood immunisations had warranted concerted action at the Health and Wellbeing Board.  The Committee noted that there had been continual low reporting rates of child immunisations and that the issue had been going on for two years. 

The Committee noted that the HWBB had a discussion on the issue at their meeting on 10 March 2016 and that they had requested a full report and action plan from NHS England.  Councillor Hart noted that the Officers from NHSE in attendance at the Health and Wellbeing Board had commented that there was no need for concern because there had not been any outbreaks.  The Committee noted that the HWBB had taken exception to this and felt that it was an inadequate and inappropriately complacent response.      

Mr. Munday informed the Committee that the lack of information on immunisation uptake was a significant and worrying issue for Barnet.  The Committee noted that NHS England had advised that they had audited 20 General Practices but that the details of those audits had not been made available. The Committee also noted that there are a total of 62 Practices across Barnet and so therefore two thirds had not been audited.  Mr. Munday informed the Committee that as the Statutory Director of Children’s Service, he was extremely concerned about the performance of NHS England in relation to childhood immunisations. 

Dr. Howe noted that there had been no progress on the data, although NHS England had repeatedly insisted that it was a data problem rather than a lack of immunisation uptake.  Dr. Howe also expressed concern at NHS England’s performance in relation to tri-borough immunisation. 

The Chairman, who had attended the HWBB meeting, expressed concern at NHS England’s lack of professionalism when dealing with the issue.  The Chairman advised the Committee that she wished to refer the issue to the Secretary of State for Health and sought the Committee’s support in doing so. 

A Member of the Committee put on record his agreement with this action and suggested that the letter should make the point that NHS England should be taking the issue much more seriously. 

A Member questioned if NHS England were responsible for the whole range of childhood immunisations.  Dr. Howe informed the Committee that they were and expressed concern about recent cases of Measles being reported which he said was very worrying.

The Chairman suggested to the Committee that she draft a letter to the Secretary of State on the issue which could then be circulated to Members of the Committee.  The Committee agreed with this action.

RESOLVED that the Committee expresses their concern at the poor rates of childhood immunisation in Barnet by NHS England and that the Committee refers the matter to the Secretary of State for Health.