Agenda item
Audit Commission Review of addressing Health Inequalities in Brent
The Audit Commission has completed a report into Health Inequalities in Brent. This will be presented to the Health Select Committee for comments.
Minutes:
Cathy Tyson (Assistant Director of Policy and Regeneration) introduced a report, written by the Audit Commission, which documented the findings of the Audit Commission’s review into how health inequalities were being tackled by the Council and its partners. She informed the committee that the Audit Commission project was composed of two stages. This review, she explained, had been the first stage of the project. She commented that whilst at borough level the overall health of the population was consistent with the national average, there were areas in the borough where residents were experiencing significant health inequalities.
Cathy Tyson highlighted the key strengths that were identified in the Audit Commission’s review, which included the commitment of partners to tackling health inequalities, the quality of the joint strategic needs assessment and the high level of commitment to performance managing health inequalities. She also brought to the committee’s attention the key areas of development that had been identified by the Audit Commission.
Cathy Tyson informed the committee that the second stage of the project was to carry out development work on an agreed local priority. She stated that, following discussion with the Audit Commission, partners had agreed that the local priority would be how to increase the levels of physical activity in adults. She explained that there had been a big improvement in getting young people involved in physical activity, but that more work was needed to be done to improve the participation of adults.
In the discussion which followed, it was noted that whilst there were a lot of positive aspects to the report, there were areas which needed to improve. The committee asked whether there were lessons Brent could learn from other areas in the country. In response, Neil Sands (Audit Commission) explained that as health inequalities were caused by a multitude of factors, it was difficult to find one area which was doing everything successfully. Instead, he argued that they had discovered that there were pockets of good practice and that there were many ways to be successful. He added that it was important that the Audit Commission was not too prescriptive because of the importance of local circumstances. He empathised that there was a need to ensure that a strong, sustainable and consistent approach was used to tackle health inequalities.
It was noted by the committee that one of the areas for development, identified in the review, was to ensure that the Health Select Committee maintained the effective consideration of health inequalities. It was asked, therefore, whether the committee’s work programme would reflect this. In response, Cathy Tyson stated that the committee’s work programme would reflect this. Neil Sands commented that it was important for scrutiny to look at key indicators to ensure that a focus on the key areas was maintained.
Following on from an enquiry as to what would happen next, Cathy Tyson explained that the next part of the project would be to look at improving the level of physical activity in adults. She stated that a meeting of the group, who would be looking at physical activity, would be convened. She stated that they would then be in a position to report back to the Health Select Committee in 3-4 months time with some proposals. She commented that it was hard to significantly improve participation in physical activity without investment and that this aspect was being looked at. A concern was raised by a member of the committee that obesity was one of the biggest health challenges that the borough faced and that more work was needed to be carried out to reduce obesity. It was noted that in order to tackle obesity, activities which did not just take place in sports centres, such as walking and cycling, needed to be promoted. In response, Cathy Tyson stated that there was a programme pilot being undertaken called MEND, which was a combined diet and exercise programme that was aimed at the whole family. She also highlighted the walk programmes which took place in the borough. Following a question about measuring the outcomes, she explained that success for the MEND programme and the walk programmes was recorded based on how many complete the programmes.
RESOLVED:-
i) that the findings of the Audit Commission’s review of health inequalities in Brent and the partnership arrangements in place for tackling these issues within the borough be noted;
ii) that the committee receives a report in February 2010 on the work being done to increase physical activity carried out by adults in Brent, which forms the second part of the Audit Commission’s work.
Supporting documents: