Agenda item
Any Items the Chairman decides are urgent
Minutes:
Councillor Helena Hart, Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board made the following closing statement:
As this is not only the last HWBB Meeting of the municipal year but also of this current Council with a new HWBB to be approved at the Annual Meeting of the Council perhaps I could be permitted to make a few closing personal remarks.
As most of you already know after a total of some 20 years on the Council and a great deal of heart searching I have finally decided to stand down – and in this case, it really is a question of spending more time with my family. There are many things I will miss but most of all the work we have managed to do together to improve the real quality of life in Barnet.
Virgil said that the greatest wealth is health but improving that health does take money and commitment and dedication. I think the work we have done as a Council, as a CCG, as Healthwatch and as individual members of this HWBB from its very inception bears testament to what can really be achieved if we all work as one. Thinking back over the last 16 years in , I remember as a newly re-elected Councillor in 2002 I had a Members Policy item to Council asking for us to institute a Healthy Catering and Eating Certification Scheme across the Borough. Well it only took about 10 years to institute our Healthy Catering Commitment Awards but we got there in the end and it has given me the very greatest pleasure to be able to present certificates to so many different establishments over the last 5 years.
16 years ago, our only real focus on children’s health was based on how many children were registered with an NHS dentist and how many decayed or missing or filled teeth they had – today our concentration on all aspects of Children’s Mental and Physical Health and Wellbeing is embedded across the Council. 16 ears ago we seemed to deal solely with the effects of poor mental and physical health – and all too often just recording them. Today it is universally accepted that it is the role of every one of us to do everything in our power to educate and empower residents to avoid ill health.
When the then Leader of the Council Mike Freer appointed me as Barnet’s very first Cabinet Member for Public Health in 2006, I had no Budget whatsoever and only goodwill for backup – hence my alternative title as Cabinet Member for nagging and spending other people’s money. Nagging I have to say which came in very useful when negotiating for our nigh on £3 million uplift in our transferred Public Health budget.
In closing, may I thank each and every one of you for all your patience, help, support and sheer goodwill towards me both as Chairman of the Health & Wellbeing Board and in my previous role as Cabinet Member for Public Health.
We have achieved so much together. So I end with a final plea to keep on working together, keep on fighting and keep on believing that with a bit of give and take on both sides we really can make things better for all our residents in Barnet.