Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member (Health and Adult Services) who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

The Scrutiny Board received a report and presentation of Councillor Gingell, Cabinet Member, Health and Adult Services concerning the work of the public health programme since public health became the responsibility of the City Council in April, 2013.

The report provided an outline of the main public health delivery areas under the following headings:

·  Marmot/health inequalities

·  Improving the health and well-being

·  Creating healthy places

·  Protecting people’s health

·  Integrating health and care

The paper updated the report ‘Public Health One Year On’ which was attached at an appendix, and had the additional aim of illustrating how bringing public health back to the Council had created more joined up approaches across the Council and its partners to improving health. The Board were informed that this had already resulted in areas of accelerated progress in improving health and well-being outcomes compared to national outcomes although there was still considerable room for improvement in many areas.

The presentation highlighted the main achievements of Public Health which included an improvement in life expectancy at birth; an increase in the number of health checks being undertaken; and initiatives being undertaken to improve the health and well-being of children and older people by acting early, in particular the integrated model of care. The overall picture for the city showed reductions in people’s risky behaviours: being overweight, smoking and drinking. Reference was made to the initiative to make every contact count. Attention was drawn to the work being undertaken in the following areas: workplaces; protecting the health of the public; sexual health; urgent care and integrated neighbourhood teams.

The Board questioned the officers on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Concern about the time lag in data which meant that much performance information related to the time period prior to April 2013 and how the impact of the transfer of responsibilities on health outcomes would be monitored in future

·  Support for integrated model of care which teams had been piloted in Children Centres in Tile Hill and Hillfields and had recently gone live in four new localities 

·  What was being done by Public Health which was better under the local authority than when they had been working for the NHS

·  How effectively Public Health was engaging with the rest of the City Council and ensuring public health priorities were becoming embedded across all of the organisation’s activity

·  Further information on life expectancy rates, in particular a comparison of residents with higher and lower incomes

·  Whether legalising hard drugs would reduce usage levels

·  Using libraries and children centres to enable the Council to work with local communities

·  The measures being undertaken to assist the unemployed

·  Actions that could be taken to improve the poor standards of some privately rented properties which were often located in the priority areas and ways to encourage increased levels of social housing

·  The importance of highlighting the impacts of public health in Cabinet/Cabinet Member reports

·  The issue of life expectancy for people experiencing mental health problems.

RESOLVED that, having considered the deliverables from the public health programme to date:

(1) The Economy, Business and Employment Scrutiny Board (2) Task and Finish Group looking at licensing in the private sector be requested to address public health implications of people living poorer quality housing.

(2) Consideration to be given to ensuring that public health impacts are taken into account in future Cabinet/ Cabinet Member reports.

(3) The Cabinet Member (Health and Adult Services) and the Health and Well-being Board be asked to consider ways in which officers work with (i) private sector landlords to address health inequalities and (ii) the providers of mental health services to help address the difference in life expectancy for people experiencing mental health problems.

(4) Future progress reports to explicitly address the difference in life expectancy for people with mental health problems.