Agenda item

The Deputy City Mayor to outline the current work of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Deputy City Mayor gave a verbal update outlining the current work of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Deputy City Mayor stated:-

a)         There remained an invitation for a representative of the Commission to attend all Board meetings.

b)         The Board’s focus in next few months would be to:-

i)          Develop and publish the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  The current Strategy expires in 2016 and needed to be updated and re-published.  Although the republished strategy would set out the priorities for 2016-19, the Board also wanted to set out their vision for the health and wellbeing of the city for the next 20-25 years.  The Board were working on establishing sensible milestones and priorities for themes involving healthy children, healthy lifestyles, healthy minds and aging well in Leicester.

            The Board recognised that there was now a substantial evidence base on the health and wellbeing of citizens and this should be used to shape a bold and adventurous Strategy for the future.  The Strategy should encompass more imaginative use of assets such as economic and social capital, green spaces and community and voluntary assets.

            There would be a period of public engagement to underpin and shape the strategy towards the end of the year.

ii)         Leading the development of the Live/Work Leicester Campaign

            The Board were taking the lead role in developing the joint campaign involving the Council, health partners and other interested parties such as the Leicester Child Improvement Board to address the shortage of skilled workers in children’s services and social care, GPs, and NHS staff in primary care.

            The aim was to produce a coherent approach amongst all partners to positively promote Leicester as a vibrant place in which to live and work.  Leicester had a good medical school but there were currently a large number of vacancies in the East Midlands Training Programme for GPs. 

            The Commission’s eventual outcomes on the scrutiny review of the ‘Primary Care Workforce’ would be welcomed by the Board.

c)         The Board’s role had been evolving since it was formally established in April 2013.  The challenges posed by the health system were constantly changing and emerging.   The Board regularly signed off Better Care Together assurance reports which had previously been carried out elsewhere.

Following questions from Member, the Deputy City Mayor commented that:-

a)         The Board’s role in relation to the BCT strategy was largely that of a strategic oversight and to provide one of a number of public arena where these issues could be discussed.  The Board also had a role in relation to receiving assurances and to questioning the proposals, although the Board were mindful that they did not have a scrutiny role.  The Better Care Together Board now met in public and this also provided a level of public scrutiny of the development of the Better Care Together proposals.

b)         The Chair of the Commission and the Deputy City Mayor would discuss their respective roles in order to avoid duplication of effort in relation to the sign off of the pre-business case prior to consultation on the BCT proposals.

c)         The Better Care Together Programme Director had responded positively to the comments made at the last Commission meeting and the Chair’s subsequent letter in relation to encouraging partners to be more open and transparent in providing information.  The Board had resisted private briefings on the programme; preferring to receive public reports and updates. 

d)         It was appropriate for the scrutiny commissions/committees in Leicester Leicestershire and Rutland to scrutinise the BCT proposals when the consultation process started later in the year.  He supported a collaborative approach to joint scrutiny of the proposals as the programme included an interdependency of proposals for health service in both the City and the County.  He considered that scrutiny’s role was to look at specific parts within the programme and the consultation process to be satisfied that the programme was heading in the right general direction and was responding to the challenges being faced by the health economy. 

e)         The strategy would encompass proposals for addressing health inequalities within different ethnic groups based upon the wealth of evidence from various health and wellbeing surveys.

f)          It was hoped to have the draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy prepared by February 2016 and views of the Commission would be welcomed.

g)         The Board would have performance indicators for initiatives in the new strategy and would take ownership of ‘recovery plans’ for areas of concern or poor performance.  These reports were considered in public at Board meetings.   

Richard Morris, Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), commented that the BCT Programme Director had been unable to answer some of the Members’ questions in full at the last meeting; as they related to specific details in the proposals which had not been approved for consultation by the CCG.  The CCG had indicated that any information that would be available to the public through a Freedom of Information request should always be provided in public meetings.      

The Chair thanked the Deputy City Mayor for the informative update in the Board’s work.

AGREED:

1)    That the Deputy City Mayor’s support for joint scrutiny be welcomed.

2)    That the Commission receive a further report when the Draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy was available for consultation.

3)    That the Chair and the Deputy City Mayor meet to discuss protocols for the respective roles of the Commission and the Board to avoid duplication in considering the Better Care Together Programme.

4)    That the Commission nominate a member to attend meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

5)    That the Deputy City Mayor presents regular updates on the Board’s work to future Commission meetings.                

The Deputy City Mayor left the meeting at this point.