Agenda item

The Board’s existing Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy includes a specific aim to reduce health inequalities in Bath and North East Somerset.  The Board is asked to consider the attached update report and to:

•  note the existing work on health inequalities

•  consider some of the current opportunities for strengthening this work and also potential barriers

•  consider its future role in relation to this issue.

The Board considered a report which highlighted some of the good practice occurring for each of the priorities identified at the health inequalities inquiry day held in May 2016.

It was noted that the Your Care Your Way commissioning of community services and the emergence of Sustainability and Transformation Plans had absorbed a great deal of time and attention.  This had resulted in a lack of space and resource to carry out other cross-cutting work.

Some work was currently being carried out to address health inequalities such as:

·  The creation of a virtual employment hub.

·  Provision of more joined up services.

·  Programmes to work with “hard to reach” groups e.g. the local programme in the Foxhill/Mulberry Park area of Bath. 

·  Work to encourage healthy lifestyles e.g. increasing physical activity and reducing smoking and alcohol consumption.

·  CCGs and GPs were also doing work within practices located in deprived areas e.g. safeguarding.

·  The public health team had also met with Healthwatch to discuss priorities.

The following issues were then discussed:

·  Cllr Vic Pritchard informed that Board that he had recently attended a seminar regarding mental health where Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) were discussed.  He welcomed the inclusion of the use of routine enquiry around ACES and felt that this should be promoted.  The trauma informed care approach was gaining interest in drug-treatment services and the police force.

·  Cllr Paul May stressed the need to clarify outcomes and deadlines for the future actions to enable the Board to monitor this work more effectively.

·  Sarah Shatwell welcomed the explanation regarding the context of this work and highlighted the impact of work pressures on the whole of the health and social care community.  She suggested that work on Adverse Childhood Experiences could join up with the Making Every Contact Count project.  It was important to work together with voluntary sector organisations to join up with work already underway such as the Better Opportunities Programme.

·  Ashley Ayre advised Board members to read the recently published Ofsted inspection report which highlighted the strength of the early help and childcare service in B&NES.

·  Diana Hall Hall pointed out that the Bath Area Playgroup deserved credit for the work it carries out to address inequalities.

·  It was noted that service user information was well developed but that further work needed to be undertaken regarding workforce data.

·  It was important to ensure that families received the help they needed at the correct time.  Early intervention was vital, along with a needs based response.

·  The STP and inequalities actions were not mutually exclusive and work could be carried out to identify where most value could be added for B&NES residents.

·  Laurel Penrose stated that further education could assist with employability and that focus should be wider than purely compulsory education.

RESOLVED:

(1)  To note the existing work on health inequalities.

(2)  To ask the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership Board to discuss the issue of health inequalities and to consider ways in which it can assist with this work.

(3)  To receive an update on progress in 6 months’ time.