Agenda item

The Director of Public Health to submit a report providing an update in Oral Health in Leicester. 

The Director of Public Health submitted a report providing an update in Oral Health in Leicester.  Tiffany Burch, Specialty Registrar Public Health, presented the report and responded to members questions.

During the presentation of the report the following comments were noted:-

a)         Since the introduction of the Oral Health Promotion Strategy 2014-17, the Council had made dramatic improvements in the oral health of 5 year olds.  The intention of the strategy was to see a 10% increase in the number of 5 year olds who were decay free by 2019.  At the time the strategy was launched, the Council had the worst performance in the county.  Dental health survey results released by Public Health England in May 2016 showed an 8% improvement in just 2 years moving the Council from bottom to 4^th worst performer in country.  The scale of the improvements would normally be expected to take much longer to achieve.  It was hoped that the initial target of 10% improvement would be achieved when the next survey results were released in 2017.

b)         The Council had received an award from the Royal Society of Public Health for its programme of oral health improvement and the Chief Dental Officer was also looking at how the Leicester model could be fed into a national programme.

c)         18 primary schools, 84 nursery and playgroups and I special school were now participating in the Supervised Brushing programme.

d)         50,000 Oral Health Resources Packs (free toothbrushes and toothpaste) had been distributed in the last two years by schools, Health Visitors, Family Nurses Partnership and Travelling Families Team.

e)         The supervised toothbrushing pilot for special schools carried out at Ellesmere College had now been completed and the Happy Teeth Happy Smiles Team were using the success of the pilot to roll out the programme to other special schools.

f)          4 dental practices have received the Happy Teeth Happy Smiles accreditation with a further practice close to accreditation.

g)         Staff were working with the Leicester Pharmaceutical Committee to incorporate oral health in the Healthy Living Pharmacy Accreditation Scheme.

h)        The use of social media had been found to be highly successful and would continue to be used.

Members welcomed the improvement achieved in such a relatively short space of time and made the following suggestions to continue the good progress made:-

a)         The Oral Health Resource Pack could be included in the food bank distribution.

b)         Consideration should be given to running Supervised Toothbrushing at Community Centres during school holiday periods so that parents can be involved with their children.

c)         Consider attending a street party for children being organised in Highfields on 12 August 2017.

d)         Consider contacting working men’s clubs in the city as most club committees work with families and encourage them to use the clubs.

The Chair commented that she hoped there would be no budget cuts to oral health budget as it needed to be increased by inflation to keep on track.  It was important to maintain funding as significant improvements had been made but there was still much more to achieve.

AGREED:

That the report be received and all staff involved be congratulated in helping to make the considerable improvements the oral health of 5 year olds in such a relatively short timescale.