Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Mrs P Bacon, Mr H Cadd, Mr R Woollard and Sir J Horsbrugh-Porter (Chiltern District Council). Mrs J Puddefoot replaced Mr D Rowlands (Aylesbury Vale District Council) and Mrs J Woolveridge replaced Mrs M Royston (South Bucks District Council).

To declare any personal and prejudicial interests

Mrs W Mallen and Mrs J Woolveridge both declared a personal interest as Members of the Countywide Public Health Strategy Group.

of the meeting held on 7 September 2007 to be confirmed as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 7 September 2007 were agreed as a correct record.

The theme of this month’s meeting is focused around the key public health issues for the population of Buckinghamshire.  This item is designed to provide an overview of the priority areas and their related issues and how agencies are working in partnership to meet agreed targets and deliver outcomes. The information presented will be used as background to inform the Committee’s future Work Programme.

This item focused around the key public health issues for the population of Buckinghamshire. An overview was given of the priority areas and their related issues and how agencies are working in partnership to meet agreed targets and deliver outcomes.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and the Chairman of the Countywide Public Health Strategy Group will provide the Committee with information about the remit of this newly established Group. The Committee will learn of the work the Group has done to date and the priorities it has identified.

Mike Colston Chairman Countywide Public Health Strategy Group

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care attended this Meeting to provide information about the remit of the Countywide Public Health Strategy Group, as he chaired this Group.

He particularly highlighted the following points:-

·        Despite a long history of partnership working around promoting health and wellbeing, there was a gap in countywide multi-agency strategic planning which became even more apparent with the development of the Local Area Agreement. In response to this, officers agreed to set up the Group. The Group was set up a year ago.

·        The Group has agreed the following priorities – Improving health where needed most, Childhood poverty, Obesity and Physical activity, Alcohol, Smoking and Improving the Health of Vulnerable Groups.

·        There was some discussion about how this Group should communicate to this Committee. It was agreed that it would be inappropriate to have a Member of this Committee on the Group, as it was important for the OSC to preserve independence, but it would be possible for an OSC Member to sit as an observer.

·        It was important to liaise over Work Programmes between the OSC and the Group to ensure work was not undertaken on the same area at the same time.

·        The Group previously did not have any dedicated officer support but they were in the process of recruiting an officer.

·        District Council representatives provide regular reports back to their District Council.

·        The Group reports to Cabinet and a Partnership Group for governance arrangements and through the new governance arrangements of the Local Area Agreement.

·        The Group monitors the healthier communities block of the Local Area Agreement.

·        Interviews were currently taking place as part of the Healthier Communities Peer Review.

Mike Colston was thanked for his report. The Committee agreed that the Group should give regular reports to OSC on the work they were undertaking and submit any Action Plans so that they could be monitored by the OSC.

The Director of Public Health, jointly appointed by the County Council and Buckinghamshire Primary Care Trust, will provide an overview of the priority areas for public health. Issues such as obesity, smoking, alcohol misuse and the health of vulnerable groups will be discussed in detail with a view to providing a potential area for review for a future working group.

Dr Jane O’ Grady Director of Public Health

Jane O’Grady gave a presentation on priority areas for public health (which is available on http://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.asp?ID=2357&J=5). The Director of Public Health’s Annual Report is due to be published at the year end. Following discussion the following points were made:-

·        There were a number of surprising statistics, particularly relating to smoking.

·        High flyers/workaholics were discussed with an example of a young person having a stroke at the age of 32. This group often did not access health care or had no time to exercise. Jane O Grady reported that those people who worked at the top of an organisation were usually much healthier than those at the bottom; people were healthier if they were at the top of the social hierarchy.

·        There were concerns about child obesity. Some of these children were difficult to monitor as their parents did not want them to be singled out or stigmatised.

·        A question was asked about nicotine substitutes and whether they could be made stronger to help people who had just given up smoking. In addition whether they could be sold at garages and shops. Jane O Grady reported that she would need to obtain advice on safe levels of nicotine substitutes. A Member suggested advertising the harms of smoking in all smoking shelters.

·        Practice based commissioning was recommended as a possible approach to evaluate, how care was commissioned, what initiatives are given to GPs to engage patients in leading a healthy lifestyle, and how public health issues were dealt with such as smoking and obesity.

·        Different messages needed to be sent to different people. Changing attitudes was important and could be undertaken in different ways e.g advertising. It was difficult to target all areas at once and had to be prioritised.

·        Some Parishes delivered Medical News with the Parish newsletter which helped to deliver public health messages.

·        A question was asked about what impact Children’s Centres had on the health of the local community. This would be discussed with the Director of Children’s Services and reported back to the Committee. There was more likely to be qualitative rather than quantative information.

·        There should be a response to the consultation on housing numbers in Aylesbury Vale from a public health perspective, particularly in relation to footpaths and cycle routes, leisure and green spaces.

·        In terms of targeting older people it was important to do this from the age of 50 onwards as changing behaviours could have a dramatic impact on health and life expectancy.

The Committee agreed that the two areas that should be looked at for their future Work Programme was:-

·        The impact of primary care and practice based commissioners on the delivery of key public health targets

·        Children and Obesity

It was suggested that before a scoping paper was drawn up by the Policy Officer on Children and Obesity that a discussion should be held with the Director of Children’s Services regarding areas for research and how the research was conducted. In relation to practice based commissioning it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4ii

The Forum Support Officer will update the Committee on key patient issues arising from the Forum’s current Work Programmes.

The Forum Support Officer gave an update on key patient issues arsing from the Forum’s current Work Programmes. In addition the following points were made:-

·        90 responses had been received from people in Buckinghamshire out of 6,000 responses nationally on the National Dental Survey. A full report would be available on 15 October 2007.

·        The Milton Keynes Forum were hosting a health event on 9 October at the Shopping Centre where there would be 60 exhibitors.

·        The hospital discharge policy was welcomed as a work priority issue. There were concerns about the huge variation between services on discharge packages.

The Committee thanked the Forum for their report.

An opportunity to update the Committee on relevant information and report on any meetings of external organisations attended since the last meeting of the Committee.  This is particularly pertinent to members who act in a liaison capacity with NHS Boards and for District Representatives.

This month the Chairman will brief Members on recent communication with the Primary Care Trust and Ambulance Trust.

The Chairman updated the Committee with the following information:-

·        The future vision of Buckinghamshire PCT had been presented to the Committee on their Strategy ‘Getting healthcare right for the future’.

·        An announcement was expected soon on the number and location of control rooms/HQ sites in the area from the Ambulance Trust. The Committee had responded to the consultation previously and would wait to see what decision was made at the next Board Meeting.

·        The next meeting of this Committee was being held at South Bucks District Council and members of the public would be invited to speak, particularly to raise issues affecting their area.

Friday 2 November 2007 at 10am. Please note that this Meeting will be held at South Bucks District Council Offices. A map will be distributed at this Meeting. Please contact Clare Gray on 01296 383610 if you need a map or any further information.

The next meeting would be held on Friday 2 November 2007 at 10am at South Bucks District Council.