Agenda item

To present a progress update report from the development group of activity so far and agreement of next stages.

Reports published 31 March 2021.

Dr Melanie Smith (Director of Public Health, Brent Council) introduced the update, explaining that the Board was due to refresh the strategy the previous year but that following the pandemic the Board had agreed it needed to fundamentally rewrite and review the strategy to focus on health inequalities, which had not been caused by Covid but were exacerbated and highlighted by Covid. She advised that reworking the strategy during a pandemic had been challenging and she commended health colleagues for the time they had been able to devote to it. Progress was not as fast as they would like but she hoped the agenda of the evening’s meeting demonstrated that colleagues were fundamentally reviewing the ways of working as a system and working with communities, being much clearer about the response to health inequalities and she felt they had set the groundwork for a really good strategy. In relation to the report, Dr Melanie Smith highlighted the following:

·         The Board heard that the team had reviewed what was known about need in Brent and done consultation through Healthwatch and Brent Health Matters. As a result of that engagement the strategy would have a much bigger focus on the greater determinates of health with an ambition to be broader than the previous strategy which focused on health and social care services. This had been echoed in the consultation findings where residents recognised the complex interplay of factors that determined their health and gave rise to health inequalities. The consultation also found that there was a desire from residents to focus on the needs of children and young people, particularly regarding mental health, wellbeing and mental illness.

·         Emerging areas of focus for the strategy included ensuring everyone was able to make healthy choices, and making the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone. There would be a greater focus on healthy and sustainable communities and places and there would be a greater role for prevention of ill health, including prevention of mental illness and the promotion of mental wellbeing. This would be done in the context of recovery from Covid through the system and workforce.

·         The strategy aimed to make much better use of data to ensure services were meeting the needs of all residents, with a need for a greater focus on consistent recording and use of ethnicity data, examining differences in access and outcomes by deprivation and an explicit focus on the needs of particular groups, including those with additional needs. There was a need to work with those who were using services and also reach out to those who were not using services, to allow them to influence how the services develop.

·         The paper proposed the strategy was framed around a number of areas as outlined in the report, which the Board was asked to comment on and subsequent to those comments the work would be taken forward to the next phase.

The Chair thanked Dr Melanie Smith for the introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following issues raised:

·         The Board noted the synergies between the Climate Emergency Strategy, Black Community Action Plan, Poverty Commission findings and the Borough Plan with this work and wanted to see where this work fit in to the NHS planning process. The Board did not want to underestimate the impact of issues around housing, physical activity and active travel. Councillor McLennan (Deputy Leader, Brent Council) highlighted that all these strategies were framed by the Borough Plan and fit into each other, therefore cross-fertilisation across the strategies and embedding these right across the authority was important, as well as how it fed into the NHS. Councillor Neil Nerva (Lead Member for Public Health, Culture and Leisure) suggested health inequalities could be picked up as a long term objective for Cabinet, and felt there was a need to carry members on the journey through member development and engagement.

·         The Board noted the importance of educators and parental guidance and support and the assets within the community.

RESOLVED:

i)              To note the achievements so far in the development of the strategy.

ii)             To agree the emerging areas of focus.

iii)           To agree how the Board might interact with other key delivery programmes to assure itself of delivery in key areas, such as the Poverty Commission delivery plan.

iv)           To agree the next phase of consultation.