Agenda item

Report of Gail Quinton, Executive Director of People

The Board considered a report of Gail Quinton, Executive Director of People concerning the two day visit by the peer review team held on 5^th and 6^th January, 2016, to deliver the Health in All Policies peer support pilot programme.  The main purpose of this programme was assist the Council to accelerate the good progress made to date on addressing the wider determinants of health and to maximise the impact of all policies and services in keeping people healthy and tackling health inequalities. A copy of the letter sent to Martin Reeves and Councillor Lucas outlining the findings and recommendations of the peer review team was set out at an appendix to the report.

The headline questions used during the visit were:

·  Does the Council have a clear vision and ambition for health and Wellbeing?

·  How well does the Council enable others to improve health?

·  Is the Council making a sustainable impact on health outcomes?

·  Is the Council using its resources to best effect to improve health?

Background documents and questionnaire responses were reviewed prior to the visit, with a number of interviews and workshops being held with elected members, employees and representatives of the partner organisations during the two day period.

The recommendations from the Peer Review Team were:

1) Capitalise on the renewed energy in the Health and Wellbeing Board to work with partners to:

a) ensure the revised Health and Wellbeing Strategy is the vehicle that pulls together into one place coherently the outcomes required for Coventry to be a Marmot Exemplar and Top Ten City

b) clarify how the role and purpose of boards and the relationship between them can best achieve the priorities in the strategy

c) to ensure a space is being created for partners to have ongoing and difficult discussions including those relating to their role in investment in upstream prevention

2) Ensure that Council strategies and plans all have a clear link to the ambition for the city with a consistency of language to help mainstream and embed public health considerations throughout all aspects of the Council’s work

3) Ensure health needs are taken into account when decisions are being made and that approaches are adopted to reconcile situations where priorities are directly competing

4) Embed the Marmot principles explicitly into service planning processes ensuring there is a focus on prevention and keeping people well, and wherever possible demonstrate where services are offering a positive return on investment in prevention

5) Provide all Councillors with regular data and insight on health outcomes in their area to enhance their leadership role within communities, supporting them to become health champions so they can play their part in reducing health inequalities

6) Maximise the benefit of voluntary sector commissioning by providing mechanisms that enable services to signpost to each other e.g. by hosting networking sessions and facilitating workshops on the services provided.

The report referred to current update of the strategy that was taking on board the Council’s ambition to be a Top Ten City and the Marmot agenda and the work to reframe the role of the Board to take forward the strategy. In addition the Council was committed to ensuring that as strategies and plans were developed and refreshed these would be linked to the new Health and Well-being strategy. Also the Insight Team had developed ward profiles for all Councillors to provide information on the health and well-being of constituents. 

RESOLVED that, having considered the recommendations arising from the Health in All Policies Peer Review visit, the actions that need to be taken to support their implementation be approved.