Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Health

Councillor Mal Mutton, Chair of the Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Board (2) and Councillor Ruane, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health concerning her Annual Report for 2015, a copy of which was set out at an appendix to the report. The report was also to be submitted to Cabinet on 24^th November and to the Health and Well-being Board on 7^th December. Councillor Ruane, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Clifford, Deputy Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Services and Councillor M Mutton, Chair of the Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Board (2) attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The report was a statutory report produced each year to inform local people about the health of their community as well as providing necessary information for decision makers in local health services and authorities on health gaps and priorities that needed to be addressed. This year the report focused on the health needs of the 0-19 population within the city covering the life course of a child from conception through to 19 years.

The report had been developed in consultation with stakeholders who provided services for 0-19 year olds in the city. A workshop was held prior to the commencement of the report and the views of parents, school teachers, and representatives from a number of services helped to determine the topic areas and services that were featured.

One of the key Marmot policy objectives was to give every child the best start in life. The report highlighted the benefits of preventing poor health and the importance of intervening early so that a real difference could be made to a child’s life, whatever the circumstances. Improvements were highlighted which included increasing numbers of children being deemed ready for school and reduced numbers of hospital admissions for alcohol and drugs. There was an understanding of what needed to be done to narrow the inequalities gap and exceed expectations. The importance of building resilience was a key theme for both parents and children throughout their childhood.   

Members raised a number of issues arising from the report and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  40% of children were not ready for school, although this figure was better than some other areas, there was still considerable room for improvement

·  How could improvements be measured to ensure early intervention measures were working

·  Support for the format and style of the report and clarification about its distribution

·  Details about the engagement with local schools and what health support was available for pupils

·  Additional information about the measures to address obesity, teenage pregnancy, self-harming and mental health issues

·  The options available to change local environments, for example reducing the numbers of fast food outlets

·  The involvement of Faith groups

·  Any additional measures to support pregnant women to stop smoking

·  How supportive were the Principals and Governing Bodies of Further Education Colleges to reduce the number of NEETs in the city and how are the figures obtained

·  How do we measure successes

·  Further details about the figures relating to individual Wards and concerns that reducing resources were not always focused in the priority areas.

The Chair, Councillor Welsh indicated that issues in the report would be brought back to the Board in individual reports as and when appropriate.

RESOLVED that the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report for 2015 be noted.