Agenda item

Resolved: to receive additional information about the Public Health budget in relation to the delivery of the Health and Wellbeing Board priorities and to note the report.

4.1      Aileen Buckton (Executive Director for Community Services) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

• The Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) had agreed on nine priorities for improving health and wellbeing in Lewisham, covering the entire population.
• Delivery of priorities relating to children and young people were overseen by the Children and Young People’s partnership board.
• All other priorities were overseen by a multi-agency delivery group of officers, who provided regular updates to the HWB on progress.
• Priorities one to seven were being managed by officers in Public Health.
• Priorities eight and nine, were related to reductions in avoidable admissions and were overseen by the adult integration board.
• The board did not consider every priority at every meeting.

4.2      Sir Steve Bullock (Mayor of Lewisham) addressed the Committee; the following key points were noted:

• Lewisham had taken a proactive approach to the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board.
• However, in its current form, the Board was not necessarily sustainable in the long term.
• The Board occupied an uncomfortable position between executive and scrutiny bodies.
• The Public Health joint Strategic Needs Assessment served as the basis for the Board’s work.
• Recently the Board had considered a range of different issues.
• It was not clear why boards were given responsibility for coordinating the response to the problems identified from the review of failings at Winterbourne View.
• The Board had also taken on the coordination of health and social care integration and overseeing the delivery of the Better Care Fund.
• At its away day, the Board had agreed to focus on adding value to fewer priorities- including food, housing and social isolation.

4.3      Aileen Buckton (Executive Director for Community Services); Sir Steve Bullock (Mayor of Lewisham) and Martin Wilkinson (Chief Officer, Lewisham CCG) responded to questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

• In previous guidance for the Better Care Fund, partners had been directed to adopt a national target for reducing A&E admissions. This overall target had been dropped, but partners were still required to work in a planned way to prevent avoidable admissions.
• There could be no ‘double running’ of plans so work was required with partners to manage and reduce the potential risks of moving from one pattern of working to another.
• Officers had sought advice from legal about the scrutiny of the budget for Public Health. The responsibility for looking at the budget sat with the Healthier Communities select committee.
• The clinical commissioning group recognised the importance of improving access to primary care. Work was taking place to enhance capacity and improve access to services.
• The proposals in the budget had been mapped against the borough’s health and wellbeing priorities – and it was considered that there would be no substantial impact on the delivery of these plans.
• It was recognised that there was a link between physical and mental health. The South London and Maudsley NHS foundation trust (SLAM) had recently become a ‘smoke free’ trust, as part of its efforts to improve the physical health of patients.

Resolved: to receive additional information about the Public Health budget in relation to the delivery of the Health and Wellbeing Board priorities and to note the report.