Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Public Health.

The report and presentation will cover developments in national policy and updates on progress towards achieving the ‘we wills’ for children and young people contained in the Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy. The report contains statistical analysis of key performance data.

The Board is invited to comment of the report and the issues raised in the presentation.

Officer contact: Duncan Weldrake, 0161 474 2443, Duncan.weldrake@stockport.gov.uk

Duncan Weldrake (Public Health Specialist) (Stockport Council) made a presentation and submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) on progress with delivering the ‘We Wills’ contained in Chapter 1 of the Health & Wellbeing Strategy entitled ‘Early Intervention with Children and Families’.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

·         School nursing had a key public health role and work was planned to pilot an enhanced role for school nurses following an analysis of the gaps in current provision. There was a danger that too great a demand was being placed on school nurses to support safeguarding activity so focus was being lost on the promotion of good health.

·         Members expressed disappointment that transition/ 16-19 services had been identified as a weakness as this was a longstanding area of concern.

·         Addressing the high rates of admissions to hospital for children and young people was a priority for the CCG and work had been done to improve pathways, although these either had not yet been implemented or had insufficient time to lead to improvements.

·         There was further work needed to enhance preventative work around lifestyles in pregnancy and early motherhood as part of the re-specification of services. The Council had recently commissioned specialist community-based breastfeeding support. The reintroduction of the Nursing Partnership next year would also provide significant support although because it was focused intervention it was unlikely to have a significant impact of the statistics.

·         Members queried the seeming contradiction between generally high levels of oral hygiene and high rates of cavity disease requiring admission. In response it was stated that caution was needed with the data as the sampling may have created a distorted view. It was also suggested that compared to Stockport other areas of the region had more community dental facilities that would deal with cavity disease so rates of admission would be lower, although incidence may be higher. Collaborative and partnership working around dental health had been identified as an area of weakness in Stockport.

RESOLVED – (1) That the report be noted and Duncan Weldrake be thanked for his attendance and presentation.

(2) That the Democratic Services Manager be requested to circulate the report and presentation to all councillors for their information.

(3) That the Director of Public Health be recommended to investigate the joint-working between Bolton and Wigan Councils in relation to early intervention and prevention for children and families.