Agenda item

The Director of Public Health to submit a report providing an update on the progress Children’s and Young People’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for 2016.

The Director of Public Health submitted a report providing an update on the progress Children’s and Young People’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for 2016.

 

The Director of Public Health gave an overview presentation in which the following was noted:-

 

a)         The JSNA presented a series of challenges to services for children and young people in the city.  Not only were a number of key services provided by the Council and the NHS currently undergoing substantial reconfiguration and restructuring; but the data collected in the JSNA identified the key health outcomes for children.  The changing demographics of children and young people in the City also presented challenges to proving services for these emerging needs.

 

b)         The JSNA did not make specific recommendations for service change but provided data and evidence for key health outcomes for children.  The JSNA was used by public service, voluntary and community organisations and those bidding for funding to provide children’s services, as it provided a digest of children’s health issues in city. 

 

c)         In addition to the JSNA, a children and young people’s survey was currently being undertaken in the city in both primary and secondary schools and with those children who were home schooled  The survey aimed to seek young people’s views on how they viewed their own health and wellbeing and the services they would like to see provided.  The report of the findings of the survey should be available in the next few months and then discussions would be held with young people to see how the survey results could influence future service provision.

 

d)         The data collected in the JSNA could change quickly and it had been decided to move away from large printed documents to a web based document.  This would allow it to be updated and refreshed frequently with new information and links to nationally collected data and the data collected routinely in the council.  The web page can be found at www.leicester.gov.uk/JSNA  and the list of topics on the page are:-

•    Demographic profile of Children and Young People in Leicester

•    Pre-birth to early life

•    Early years (0-4 years)

•    School years (5-19 years)

•    Young Adulthood (20-24 years)

•    Mental Health of Children and Young People

•    Looked After Children

•    Youth Offenders

•    Other Vulnerable groups (including Female Genital Mutilation, Child Sexual Exploitation and Gypsy & Traveller Children)

 

For each topic there will be

•           A summary on a web-page

•           A link to a fuller briefing (printable PDF)

 

Both the summary and the briefing would contain links to further information

 

e)         The Health and Wellbeing Strategy – Closing the Gap would be updated from the JSNA and Board members were encouraged to share the JSNA within their own organisations and with partners.  There was useful data on youth offenders and on some of the big issues facing children and young people; such as female genital mutilation, child sexual exploitation and gypsy and travellers children.  Although these were small groups they had complicated health needs.

 

f)          The JSNA Programme Board had been working closely with the Children’s Trust Board and the Leicester City Children’s Safeguarding Board

 

g)         One item of note emerging from the JSNA was the huge change in the demographics within the city; with a big expansion of children and young people within the population.  From 2005 to 2015 there had been a 25% increase in number of children aged 0-5 years old, which was double the rate of increase in the rest of country.  There had also been a 12.5% increase in the 0 -25 years old age range which was above the national average.  This had put huge pressures on services and would continue to do so in future years.  There was now some stabilisation of the number of women of child bearing age.  Services would need to plan for the future demands for services for older children as they progressed through the system.

 

h)        There was still a large gap in life expectancy from birth for the city compared with the national average and there were variations of life expectancy across different parts of city.  Given future pressures on resources, it would be necessary to target those areas with the highest need.   Diabetes continued to rise in the city so it would be important to ensure children and young people enjoyed good health for the future.

 

i)          The recommendations of the JSNA had recently been discussed at the Children’s Board and they were currently out for consultation.  These recommendations would be circulated to Board members for comment.   These included:-

•           0 to 19 Year Olds

•           20 to 24 Year Olds

•           Mental Health

•           Looked After Children

•           Youth Offending

•           Female Genital Mutilation

•           Child Sexual Exploitation

•           Gypsies and Travellers      

 

j)          Other emerging issues were:-

 

·         That the city was still below the national average for expectant mothers being seen within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; so there were some challenges for ante-natal services to improve the situation.

 

·         It was also important to keep a focus on those initiatives which were currently performing well such as immunisation and vaccinations and breastfeeding initiatives to maintain good performance.

 

·         Childhood obesity was still an issue and so was the issue of underweight children.  Some elements of these involved ethnicity and work was continuing with schools to try and understand the wider determinants of health which may be involved.

 

·         Good early years and nursery provision so that children were well equipped with social and communication skills before starting school.

 

·         Addressing mental health issues for young children as many experienced anxiety and social behaviour issues.   This involved not only having improved access to services such as CAMHS, but also providing initiatives to making young people more resilient to mental health issues.

 

·         Providing services for the health needs for looked after children and young offenders.

 

Members of Board, in discussing the report and the presentation, made the following comments and observations:-

 

a)         The Council had adopted Sport England’s initiatives in early years to work with schools so that children had physical activity as early as 5 years of age.  1 in 7 children had some form of special needs in education and these issues could be addressed through work with early mums and premature births groups providing advice on smoking and drinking.  The Active Leicester scheme had been launched last year and would strengthen the work with schools to increase health and wellbeing and work with community groups to encourage physical and sporting activity.

 

b)         The Assistant City Mayor Children, Young People and Schools stated that the report had been well received at the Children’s Trust Board in the previous week; especially by the voluntary and community organisations. 

 

c)         The increase in the young population should not be under estimated.  Leicester would need a minimum of 5 new secondary schools in the next 3 years which was a significant impact upon providing day to day services in future years.

 

d)         The Chief Executive, Leicester City CCG felt that the regular updates of data and the maps that showed the different needs in different parts of city were extremely useful in identifying needs for future health planning.

 

e)         Healthwatch, Leicester reported that they were embarking on engaging with the Gypsy and Travellers community in relation to their health needs and would be contacting the Director of Public Health so this work was not carried out in isolation to other initiatives in the future.

 

f)          The Chief Executive of LPT stated that he had been involved recently in meetings to engage with the asylum seekers in the city, currently estimated to be in the region of 130 -150.  They had multiple health needs as a group and should not be overlooked in the work involving vulnerable groups.

 

g)         The effects of the environment and air quality on health and wellbeing could have a higher profile in the JSNA.

 

h)        The Police and Fire Rescue Services  participation in the Braunstone Blues initiative in working with a community need programme had produced a number of beneficial outcomes and there was now an opportunity to use the programme to spread the initiative across city using existing resources in the police and fire services.

 

The Chair commented that it was important to address intergenerational issues such as lifestyle and mental health etc, as the behaviour of adults in being role models to children had an enormous effect.  He welcomed the survey in obtaining the views of young people about health and how they managed their own health needs.  He felt the result of the survey should be seen as being of equal importance as that of empirical data.

 

He also felt that, whilst the change in demographics of the city posed a number of challenges, it also provided a massive opportunity to make changes in the future.  If the work with schools and young people could create a community and a generation of healthy conscious youngsters from a public health view, it could be instrumental in breaking the current generational cycles of poor health.  Other initiatives, such as smoking cessation, had shown the impact that children and young people can have in changing the lifestyle habits of their parents and adults around them.

 

In response to the comments from Board members the Director of Public Health stated that:-

 

a)         She recognised the importance of the opportunities to work with schools.  The ‘sugar tax’ would be a big opportunity as the levy from the tax was being given to schools for physical activity.  Part of the challenge would be to get all schools participating up to the current levels of the best schools.

 

b)         Midwifery services were important in working to address issues such as domestic violence, smoking and especially maternal obesity.  There were intergenerational issues and the importance of parental support in early years and parenting programmes and the support from health visitors would play a vital role in getting the right messages across changing these issues for future generations.

 

c)         The JSNA contained a lot of data about asthma and the link between air quality and asthma was well known.  The work on air quality would be taken on board and incorporated in the JSNA.

 

d)         There was currently no data collected for asylum seekers and this could be looked at in more detail particularly if this group had multiple health issues.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the report be received and that further consideration be given to the recommendations of the JSNA when they are circulated to Board Members.