Agenda item

The priority leads will present their logic models for their new priority areas following the replacement of the ‘six’ do priorities, along with a verbal update of the newly established subgroup of the Health and Wellbeing Board that is a merge of the JICB and ISOC.

The Consultant in Public Health introduced the item and invited colleagues to highlight the key points for the four identified priority themes. It was noted that the focus on the Boards priorities had not reduced the importance of the others. There were originally 19 priorities in the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the workshop had identified 4 for further focus, including childhood immunisation; healthy weight; hypertension prevention and case finding; and mental health and wellbeing related to social inclusion and supportive networks. The annual report would continue to provide updates on all priorities.

As part of updates on the 4 priorities it was noted that:

Childhood immunisations:

·       There had been a decline in uptake over the last decade, and rising cases of infectious disease. Uptake across the city had varied.

·       Recent publication of national vaccination strategy, with a move to the ICB holding more responsibility. However, this had been delayed until 2025 as NHS England indicated some systems were not ready which was disappointing as the local ICB felt ready.

·       Vaccinations are key to supporting the NHS through the winter.

·       Targets are pregnant women, children and young people. Educating parents help uptake but issues have been identified around access for working parents and better convenience could help through pop up vaccination facilities.

·       The practises with the lowest uptake had been identified and work has been ongoing with them.

·       More babies are being born than health professionals have the capacity to vaccinate so more nurses are being trained to vaccinate.

·       A super vaccinator shift occurred in August, providing an additional 1000 vaccinations.

·       The roving health care unit continued to be used to enable more vaccinations and build confidence. Funding is due to end later this year, but the ICB is looking to procure it on a longer-term basis.

·       NHS England funding had been used to set up a community street team who help encourage vaccinations and are multi-lingual to engage with different communities.

·       There had been an extensive communications campaign and a vaccine hub wis to be launched to provide information about how to access vaccinations across the life course.

·       Work is occurring in schools and services need to be ready for new and seasonal outbreaks. Still having to use practise level data, all other data is held by NHS England as they still commission the service and there had been difficulty recording KPI for vaccinations due to timescales used.

Hypertension:

·       Life expectancy in Leicester is below the national average with deprivation a key factor. Other risk factors include healthy diet and exercise, smoking, alcohol and obesity.

·       An estimated 24,000 individuals are undiagnosed. A national screening programme was considered inappropriate, but resources are being targeted.

·       3000 monitors have been purchased, 900 for targeted areas.

·       Community pharmacists are increasingly involved in delivering healthcare, can provide opportunistic health checks.

·       Digital transformation in health check services where patients can collaboratively populate their notes.

·       Health checks being offered for 40–74-year-olds who are not thought to have had existing conditions.

·       NHS England grant allowed targeted checks in areas of high incidence which uncovered lots of new cases.

·       A new communications campaign is planned to support medication adherence.

Healthy weight:

·       It is a huge area of work involving various partners, a steering group and action plan. All the work being done could not be reflected in this update, instead this was focused on what the Health and Wellbeing Board could help with.

·       Healthy weight can be a sensitive subject and basic messages need to be shared with a focus on effective promotion of healthy lifestyles. Work includes training work programmes in different workforces and more staff training in Primary Care Networks and joint working.

·       Maternity and social care are priority groups. Targeted focus on pregnant women as there have been higher levels of excess weight in this group. There have been walking programmes, buggy walks, working with leisure centres for them to become lifestyle hubs and training for midwives.

Mental health and wellbeing:

·       Poor mental health as a consequence of poverty and social isolation is high in Leicester.

·       An annual report will show progress from the action plan.

·       Partnership board working with ICB, LPT and VCSE which has looked at work in communities.

·       There are lots of offers available, but they need to be linked together to ensure the offer is not disjointed.

As part of the discussion, it was noted that:

·       An impressive amount of work has been done on the childhood immunisations.

·       Women’s health hubs all have hypertension tests, and the pharmacy programme is allowing people who wouldn’t normally see a GP to be seen.

·       Nationally, the focus of hypertension is those aged over 50, whereas Leicester has gone beyond to look at the cohort of those in their 40’s.

·       There is no focus on children, young people or residents in care home in healthy weight. This is despite Leicester’s childhood obesity levels being one of the worst.

·       Engaging children needs to be addressed along with a focused session on the food plan for healthy weight.

·       There has been lots of work with younger age groups on healthy weight but this has not been reflected here.

·       Mental health cafes have been really well received in the communities. Outcome measures need to be demonstrated, as well as the potential impact to communities and areas to attract funding. VAL had been working with organisations to address sustainability.

·       It would be good to see qualitative data such as focus groups, feedback or case studies or quality reviews to see how services have impacted individuals to promote interventions.

It was noted that the logic models will be monitored and evolved. Two subgroups of Health and Wellbeing Board had merged and meet monthly to receive updates that will be reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board. 

Agreed:

·       The report was noted.

·       The Board to receive regular updates on the priorities.

·       Comments from discussion to be considered.