Meeting documents

Purpose:

The Select Committee undertook an inquiry into Child Obesity in 2018 to review how well Buckinghamshire was doing in meeting the Government’s targets around reducing child obesity and to identify any gaps and areas of improvement.  The report was presented to Cabinet in October 2018 and the majority of the recommendations were agreed.  This item provides Members with an opportunity to review the progress in implementing the recommendations at 9 months.

Attendees:

Mr G Williams, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health

Ms L Smith, Public Health Principal

Ms S Callaghan, Service Director, Education

Papers:

Recommendation progress table attached.

Intended outcome:

For Members to review and discuss the progress being made on implementing the recommendations made in the HASC’s Child Obesity Inquiry report and to delegate the assigning of a RAG status to each recommendation to the Chairman of the Committee.

The Chairman welcomed Mr G Williams, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health, Ms L Smith, Public Health Principal, Miss S Callaghan, Service Director for Education and Mr N Whitley, Head of Children’s Care Service.

The purpose of the item was to discuss the progress in implementing the recommendations made in the HASC’s Child Obesity Inquiry report.

The following main points were made.

·         Recommendation 1 – the Healthy Communities Partnership had agreed to put an action plan together which would be agreed at the end of July.  The plan contained a number of activities which included both short and long-term projects.  In the first year, the focus would be on training staff around "Making Every Contact Count" to enable staff to feel confident to raise issues and concerns around healthy eating and weight.

·         Recommendation 3 – good progress had been made in providing information for the Council’s Looked After Children and their carers.  A portal had been developed which contained useful information on healthy eating and cooking healthy meals for all foster carers and staff.  Foster carers also had access to Spark, a free 10-week group programme for children aged 7-13 and their families.  Children’s Homes were being encouraged to start allotments and grow their own vegetables.

·         Recommendation 4 – it was acknowledged that there had been poor performance around health assessments, including not being carried out in a timely way.  An improvement programme had been introduced and there had been full compliance in this area over the last few months so there would now be an opportunity to intervene at the appropriate time to improve a child’s health and wellbeing.  It was agreed that the Committee & Governance Adviser would contact the Service Director for Children’s Social Care to ask for written evidence of the progress being made around the data collection.

Action: Committee & Governance Adviser/Service Director, Children’s Social Care

·         Recommendation 5 – the work of the Prevention at Scale pilot had been included in the action plan.

·         Recommendation 6 – the existing Bucks National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) met the national guidance and data quality indicators.  Innovative approaches to the NCMP were part of Public Health’s horizon scanning remit.

·         Recommendation 7 – a suite of projects had been developed and would shortly be promoted through the Local Area Forum’s.

·         Recommendation 8 – the monies from the Healthy Pupil Capital Programme (£400k) had been allocated against major projects to support schools with improving outcomes for pupil activity and included playground refurbishment.  Further works would be carried out during the school holidays.  A Member commented that the recommendation in the inquiry report aimed to ensure the HPCP monies were targeted to make a difference for those pupils most in need and asked for evidence to show that this was the case.  The Service Director for Education agreed to provide information on the schools who had benefitted and how the money had been used to benefit pupils.

Action: Service Director, Education

·         Recommendation 9 – a letter had been sent to the Department for Education in support of introducing a new healthy rating scheme.

·         Recommendation 10 – the PSHE Programme Manager had established schools PSHE Forums as a means of engaging, communicating and developing a network for PSHE leads.

·         Recommendation 11 (a) – through the existing Side By Side school improvement model, established networks and links would be used to support healthy lifestyles.

·         Recommendation 11 (b) – key messages had been communicated via the Better You! Campaign and by the Live Well Stay Well outreach work.  Health information was also available within the maternity wards.

·         Recommendation 11 (c) – training sessions had taken place for both primary and secondary PSHE Leads.  A whole school approach to healthy eating and making healthy lifestyle choices would be promoted.

The Chairman thanked the presenters for their update and their hard work in this important area of work.

The Committee AGREED to delegate the assigning of a RAG status to each recommendation to the Chairman of the Committee.

Action: HASC Chairman

The Committee wished Miss Callaghan the very best of luck in her new job and she was thanked for her hard work.