Agenda item

The Chairman of the Health and Well-Being Board invited Dr Laura Fabunmi, Consultant in Public Health, to join the table and stressed the importance of partnership working in order to commence the development of a response to obesity, both for adults and children.

The Chairman stated the difficulty of making a real difference to the entire overweight and obese adult population in Barnet (over 55%) and the need to look at prevention initiatives. She placed particular emphasis on preventing those at the upper scale of overweight from becoming obese.

Dr Andrew Howe, the Director of Public Health introduced the item and Dr Laura Fabunmi gave the Board an overview of the paper including the four tiers of services for weight management, stating the difficulty of gaining a true picture of prevalence in the borough due to self-reports and difficulties in routinely collecting BMI data by all GP practises and stated that obesity levels double from reception to Year 6 for children.

The Board heard the importance of making use of open spaces to encourage physical activity and promoting schemes that reduce obesity and incorporating these into the strategy and action plan.

Dr Fabunmi stated that, in terms of the pathway for children, tier 1 is running well, interventions aimed at enabling children to be more active and improving healthy eating habits are available in children’s centres and schools. However, the lack of tier 2 has been a big gap; this has just been commissioned and will start in April. For adults, a business case for tier 2 was presented to the Board (Appendix 3 of the report).

Dr Laura Fabunmi explained the need for reviewing the commissioning of Tier 3 services to ensure that a clear pathway exists which clarified the referral pathways for both children and adults and further informed that this is the responsibility of the CCG.  Dr Debbie Frost stated that this is something the CCG need to further consider from an NCL perspective in addition to the relevant resources.

The Chairman asked Dr Fabunmi to explain the type of service which was envisioned for the expenditure of £25,000 a year for 2 years. Dr Fabunmi explained that the business case outlines an evidence based approach.

The Board discussed the funding model for the tier 2 intervention, stating that there will be a lot of demand and to consider a reduced fee structure in order for more people to access the intervention.

Dr Clare Stephens, Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group, explained the importance of a family based approach when promoting physical activity and healthy eating habits. Dr Stephens further noted the importance of looking for contribution and involvement of Education. Dr Fabunmi explained that the Public Health Team are working with schools on a number of programmes.

The Strategic Director for Commissioning, Kate Kennally, stated that the re-commissioning of LBB Leisure Services offers an opportunity to take this agenda forward and will include a family based approach. The Strategic Director for Commissioning went on to stress the importance of culturally appropriate interventions.

The Chairman and Councillor Reuben Thompstone had visited Wingfield Children Centre, a Barnet Healthy Children Centre, and had been very impressed with the support being offered to families particularly with regard to healthy eating.

Action: That partners on the Health and Well-Being Board nominate their representative for the Obesity Steering Group.

RESOLVED that:

1. The Health and Well-Being Board agrees that tackling obesity is a priority and ensures partners engage with the system-wide approach recommended for both children and adults, in particular that the obesity care pathway is developed with partners.
   
   
2. Additional recommendation: That Barnet CCG reviews the Tier 3 provision in conjunction with the Obesity Steering Group.
   
   
3. The Health and Well-Being Board agrees to the development of strategic statement and action plan, based on the needs assessment and stakeholder events, which all partners should sign up to, facilitating system wide action.
   
   
4. The Health and Well-Being Board supports the commissioning of a Tier 2 adult weight management service as set out in the Public Health Commissioning Plan (2015-2020) and develop the weight management offer.