Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed the report which provides the Board with the opportunity to review the annual performance and the achievements of the Public Health service against the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2016-2017.

The Chairman noted the progress that had been made in many areas and commented that the majority of plans and targets have green performance ratings and this is the best performance we have had in recent years. She drew particular attention to Barnet having the highest number of schools registered with the London Healthy Schools scheme – 101 – with 10 schools achieving Gold Awards, the superb coverage and results from the excellent Shisha Campaign - especially the positive reception from young people, our innovative and unique work to build health improvement into leisure services and our lead in the work to develop a pan-London approach to sexual health services. 

Rachel Wells and Natalia Clifford Consultants in Public Health joined the table. Ms Wells highlighted the key achievements and actions achieved during the period 2016-17. 

With regard to the Red rating for the London Heathy Schools Programme, it was confirmed that this was in relation to targets for the number of new school registrations within the performance year. The Chairman requested that this clarification be noted by the insertion of the word new in the target descriptor. (Action)

Ms Clifford provided an update in relation to the ongoing commissioning of support to the Healthy Schools programme. The Board noted that targets were exceeded for Gold and Silver awards, but not met for Bronze awards or primary or secondary school registrations.

Ms Clifford explained that going forward one of the areas of focus around the Healthy Schools scheme will be working with special schools. The Board heard that a drive to increase secondary school registrations is also under way, with increased promotion of those schools that achieve awards.

Following comments from the Board about encouraging uptake of the Healthy Schools programme, Ms Dawn Wakeling noted the work that has gone into promoting physical activity – which includes the Mayor’s Golden Kilometre initiative. Ms Wakeling stated that the Director for Education will be asked to consider this issue and remind Heads of Schools in Barnet about the Healthy Schools programme. (Action)

The Board requested an update about the work being done around promotion of physical activity and tackling obesity in children and young people. It was agreed that the annual report of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy would include an update on the Fit and Active Barnet Framework. (Action: Forward Work Programme)

The Chairman queried the reasons for the increase in smoking prevalence in connection with KPI reference PH/S5 on page 33.

Ms Wells explained that the previous indicator was described as smoking cessation and that under the new indicator smoking prevalence PH/S5 a wider approach can be taken towards reducing health risks. She spoke about the target that was set last year and the tiers of work including the communications campaign which has been rolled out. The Board noted that the Barnet result for smoking prevalence during 2016/17 was higher, meaning better, than the London and national average.

Following a query about the achievements of the MAPS and IPS schemes, Ms Wells commented that the result for 2016-2017 has been marked as red due to the challenging target that was set for 2016-2017. Dr Jeff Lake, Consultant in Public Health noted that some providers have been very ambitious about what can be delivered and this has contributed to suboptimal results. In addition, it was noted that a number of their staff members had left and a recruitment process will be followed to backfill the posts.

In relation to the low non-opiates treatments reported at p.45, Ms Wells explained that this could be attributed to the way treatments are provided. She noted that treatments are often completed over a long period of time and that therefore results are expected to improve over extended periods.

The Chairman thanked the Board Members for the discussion and the points raised. It was RESOLVED:

That the Health and Wellbeing Board noted and commented as above on the report and its appendices.