Agenda item

The Director of Public Health submits a report to update the Public Health and Health Integration Scrutiny Commission of the progress of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the progress made on the Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy.

The Director of Public Health submitted a report to update the commission on the progress of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the progress made by the Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy. It was noted that:

·       The Health and Wellbeing Board is a statutory board of the Council, that was established under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

·       The forum is for public accountability, all recordings and minutes from the meetings can be accessed via the Councils website.

·       It is a partnership forum, rather than an executive decision-making body, with Members from various organisations that sit on the board. Including Elected Members, NHS partners, ICB representatives, Public Health, the Police and Fire services, members of the Local Authority, the Voluntary Sector and the wider community.

·       A key function of the board was to oversee the Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy, which dictated a range of work that is completed within Public Health and Social Care departments.

·       A key function of the strategy was to outline the approach in reducing health inequalities.

·       The strategy outlined key themes in areas that could be focused on at the time of drafting the strategy and it identified a delivery plan on how the issues could be addressed and be structured into priorities.

·       Within the strategy that has been published to the Councils website, 5 themes had been listed, which were:

o   Healthy Places

o   Healthy Minds

o   Healthy Start

o   Healthy Lives

o   Healthy Ageing

·       Within those 5 priorities there were 19 more tangible goals that had been outlined.

·       In the previous Health and Wellbeing Annual Report, the focus was on 6 key strategic priorities. One for each of the themes and under healthy minds the focus was on 2 areas. They are called due priorities, and they are the actions that were being focused on.

·       In the Healthy Places theme, the focus was on improving access to primary and community health care services. A more tangible outcome of this had been the work on enhanced access services in primary care, which included the Stork Programme for supporting families with newborn babies.

·       The focus on Healthy Lives was focused on increasing early detection of heart and lung disease and cancer in adults. This included work to promote cancer screening and producing videos around cancer screening for people with learning disabilities.

·       Healthy Minds focused on improving access to primary and neighbourhood level mental health services for adults. Work around mental health cafes for adults was still ongoing along with increasing access support for children and young people within schools and more disciplinary approaches.

·       Healthy Ageing was to support residents to age comfortably and confidently.

·       The Pathway 1 discharge to assess and work around effective discharge.

·       The Health and Wellbeing Boards Annual Report is a requirement that was set out in the terms of reference. The report outlines the progress that has been achieved, the strategy and the delivery plan monitoring.

·       The annual report included updates on case studies, the Better Care Fund and proposals for the next 12 months.

·       The Health and Wellbeing Boards current priorities were:

o   Childhood immunisations

o   Hypertension – prevention and case finding

o   Mental health and wellbeing related to social inclusion and supportive networks

o   Healthy weight

In response to comments and questions from members, it was noted that:

·       Work was being completed to support 15 schools to get back in to doing the daily mile. A large number of schools stopped participating during the pandemic and it wasn’t revisited once restrictions were lifted. A lot of evidence had shown the daily mile had helped support concentration and behaviour for children and young people in education.

·       The Mental Health Cafes were working well, a number of them had expanded and the model was being used for a basis for other programmes.

·       Members raised concerns about the Joy Platform. Leicester Partnership Trust coordinate the platform and there was currently a working group considering ways to improve the use of the platform and its functionality. A review of the Joy platform was being conducted by the Leicester Health Integrated Group who are members that attend the Health and Wellbeing Board.

·       The Healthy Minds Strategy was working towards ‘no deaths by suicide’. This was a part of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy. There was acknowledgement that it was realistically, unachievable but it was believed an ambition was what should be strived for.

·       A range of different work was being undertaken to help improve childhood vaccination rates. They were spilt across preschool and school age. The rates of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer had gone down considerably since they were paused in the pandemic due to the fact they were administered in schools. The rates across England had picked up, but Leicester’s had not. A number of different initiatives were in place, including a Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy by NHS England. This had the aim of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040.

·       In Scotland a study showed girls who had received the doses at age 12, showed no cases of cervical cancer when followed over several years.

·       There were a number of reasons that rates had decreased, including schools not wanting to engage or push out the message. Trust and relationships had been affected by the pandemic and the Covid-19 vaccine role out.

·       Work was continuing with individual schools on the school age immunisation programme. They were currently going through a tendering process and there would be a new contract awarded in July 2025 to begin in September 2025.

·       The ICB and Vaccination Team were working on how the messages were being circulated and a roving unit that goes into different places.

·       A letter had been sent to all secondary school Head Teachers from the Director of Public Health and the Principal Education Officer asking if there would attend a working group to look at consent and vaccination rates.

AGREED:

1.     The report and presentation were noted.

2.     More information to be shared with members and schools on supporting schools to complete the daily mile.

3.     Mental Health Cafes to be added to the work programme for the Integrated Care Board to bring.