Agenda and minutes

Venue: Diamond Rooms 1 and 2 - Council House. View directions

Contact: Suzanne Bennett/Liz Knight, Governance Services - Telephone: 024 7697 2299/2644  E-mail:  suzanne.bennett@coventry.gov.uk/liz.knight@coventry.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

56.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

The Committee noted that Councillor L Bigham was a member of the West Midlands Air Quality Committee

57.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 237 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 16 March, 2022 were agreed and signed as a true record.

 

There were no matters arising.

58.

Coventry & Warwickshire Health Inequalities Strategic Plan pdf icon PDF 585 KB

Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing

 

Councillors K Caan and G Hayre, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

Minutes:

The Committee considered a Briefing Note of the Director of Heath and Well-Being, together with a presentation at the meeting, which outlined the Coventry and Warwickshire Health Inequalities Strategic Plan, which is required to be provided by the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System (ICS) to NHS England.

 

The Plan must depict a locally agree strategic approach for addressing health inequalities within 5 nationally determined clinical priorities and must be led by the Local Director of Public Health and owned by decision making bodies within the developing ICS. A programme of engagement was currently underway with partners and key NHS workstreams to develop the Plan and the Plan had been considered by the Health and Well-Being Board at their meeting on 4 April, 2022.

 

The Plan must apply the national “Core 20+5” model, with action to improve access and outcomes for people living in the most deprived areas (Core 20: most deprived fifth of the population) and for locally determined priority population groups (“+” groups) across the 5 clinical areas. Recommended local priority “+” groups for Coventry are transient communities and people on long-term sickness benefits. The Local Plan will build on existing work which aims to embed consideration of and action on health inequalities in all we do and shift how we work with local communities.

 

The Briefing Note covered:-

 

·  Progress to date

·  Health inequalities in Coventry

·  Local Priority Population Groups:-

§  Transient communities

§  Refugees/migrants

§  Asylum seekers

§  Gypsies/Travellers

§  People who are experiencing homelessness

§  People on long-term sickness benefits

·  Next Steps and timescales

 

The Committee asked questions, sought assurances and made comments on a number of issues including:-

 

·  Partnership working on aspects of the Plan including air quality and planning

·  How the Plan will be scrutinised in the future and the need for the Plan to have measurable objectives

·  The role of the Director of Health and Well Being in dealing with health inequalities

·  How the Director works with partners in the NHS and can be a conduit in relation to raising Members’ issues and concerns with NHS partners

·  Concerns regarding current access to primary care, particularly in relation to the accessibility of GP appointments

·  Applying a One Coventry approach to work being undertaken in relation to health equalities

·  The possibility of using volunteers in sports related activities to encourage public participation

·   The importance of living in a clean and tidy environment

 

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:-

 

1)  Notes the requirements for a Coventry and Warwickshire Health Inequalities Strategic Plan

 

2)  Supports the recommended local priority population groups for the strategic plan (covering transient communities and people on long-term sickness benefits)

 

3)  Requests that the following additional Recommendations be forwarded to the appropriate Cabinet Member/officer as part of the development of the Plan:-

 

  i.  That air quality targets have measurable, interim targets

 

  ii.  That the protection of green spaces is considered as part of the Planning process

 

  iii.  That the public health aspect in relation to the approval of hot food takeaways be considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

59.

Consultation Process pdf icon PDF 477 KB

Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing

 

Councillor G Duggins, Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

Minutes:

The Committee considered a Briefing Note of the Director of Health and Well-Being, together with a presentation at the meeting, which outlined the current consultation process and activities used in the promotion of consultations.

The Insight Engagement Team provides an oversight and advisory role across the Council and works with service area leads to ensure that methods used are fit for purpose, that the Council seeks to engage with people that are most affected and involve stakeholders with an interest in the outcomes. A Consultation Plan Template was appended to the Briefing Note.

There is a dedicated Engagement Manager for Regeneration, Highway, and Air Quality schemes who is involved throughout the duration of the project and is a member of the Project Teams. A consultation process document was also appended to the report.  Additionally, there is a Children’s Champion who focuses on consultations with young people.

All consultations involve working closely with the Community Resilience and Engagement and the Communications teams, as well as the service areas themselves. Discussions are held outlining possible online promotion, offline promotion, and community network engagement opportunities. In the case of large-scale citywide consultations, communication/engagement action plans are produced.

The Briefing Note indicated that whilst every endeavour is made to promote all consultation/engagement opportunities as widely as possible, there is no guarantee that people will want to engage and take part.

 

The presentation covered:-

 

  The principles of consultation

  Dynamic dialogue between individuals or groups

  Genuine exchange of views with the objective of influencing and informing decisions, policies, or programmes of action

  NB: There is a decision to be made and opportunity to influence this 

  Engagement

  Actions or processes undertaken to establish effective relationships with individuals or groups so that more specific interactions can then take place

  Aim is to foster effective relationships.

 

  Consultation is undertaken to give stakeholders a genuine opportunity to influence the Council’s decision making and the follow apply:

  Consult when there is a legitimate expectation to do so

  Consult before taking decisions when proposals are still at a formative stage

  Provide enough information for intelligent consideration

  Allow enough time for responses to be made

  Decision makers to consciously consider the findings 

 

·  Information relating to “Lets Talk Coventry” – the Council’s engagement platform which hosts all consultations

 

·  How the Insight Team provide guidance and support to service areas to ensure that there are both offline/online mechanisms opportunities to enable the public to participate in consultations

 

·  Areas identified for improvement:-

  Continue to work to ensure consistency of approach to consultation across all Council departments through supporting best practice

  Consistently share findings and intelligence from consultations both internally and with partners if appropriate

  Improve feedback mechanisms: “you said, we did”

  Mobilise wide range of internal and partner networks to promote consultations as appropriate

 

The Committee asked questions, sought assurances, received answers and made comments on a number of issues including:-

 

  How best to change the perception  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

60.

Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee Outstanding Issues and Work Programme 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 278 KB

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which detailed the Work Programme and Outstanding issues for the current Municipal year.

 

The Committee noted that outstanding issues would be carried forward to the next Municipal year.

 

RESOLVED  that skip/ pavement crossings/highway licensing be included on the Work Programme for the appropriate Board for 2022/23.

61.

Any Other Items of Public Business

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

Minutes:

There were no other items of urgent public business.