Agenda item

Councillor Janet Burgess, Executive Member Health and Adult Social Care, was present and made a presentation to the Committee, a copy of which is interleaved.

During consideration of the presentation the following main points were made –

·         A report on childhood obesity would be produced in the New Year and a copy of the report could be considered by the Committee. Members concurred with this view

·         Life expectancy in Islington has increased for both men and women, however men and women resident in Islington spend on average the last 20 years of their life in poor health. Healthy life expectancy for women in Islington is similar to London and England, whilst for men it is significantly lower than London, but similar to England

·         Key achievements include – the new integrated early years service, good health visiting services maintained and the Islington Mental Health and Resilience framework in Schools

·         Key challenges are – childhood obesity, parental mental health issues, completing the integration of health visiting and early childhood services and health visiting services continue to struggle to recruit qualified Health Visitors

·         Key achievements for long term conditions include – reduction in early deaths from heart disease, cancer and respiratory disease and Islington residents are also above the recommended level of physical activity and above England average and similar to London on healthy weight. The new stop smoking service, Breathe, has been mobilised

·         Two programmes with Haringey are being developed, National Diabetes Prevention programme and British Heart Foundation high blood pressure detection and prevention, focus on services in locations and times most specific to hard to reach groups

·         The individual placement and support trial is a primary care based employment support service for unemployed people with long term health condition or disability

·         Islington has signed up to the Local Government declaration on sugar reduction and healthy food – examples include restricting the sale of sugar sweetened beverages and work is taking place to encourage businesses to sign up to the Healthier Catering commitment

·         Key challenges – long term health conditions – Islington has higher needs than other London Boroughs and cancer screening uptake in Islington is lower than the London and England averages and increasing uptake remains a challenge. There remain a significant number of people with undiagnosed COPD, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension

·         Key achievements – Mental Health – 5124 people entered IAPT and nearly 50% of those who enter treatment recover after treatment. 3 public health funded mental health promotion services in Islington are now fully mobilised and include free adult and youth mental health first aid training, mental health for managers and mental health awareness training for anyone in the borough

·         There continues to be a downward trend in suicide rates

·         Challenges and inequalities – mental health and deprivation – factors such as poor housing, unemployment and other causes of deprivation increase the risk of mental illness but are also exacerbated by mental health conditions

·         Transformation programmes include substance misuse and sexual health

·         The Haringey and Islington Wellbeing partnership continue to work together on health and care system transformation and is committed to taking joint action on obesity and unhealthy food environments. The Partnership are also working on a number of key programmes to improve health and wellbeing outcomes and these include diabetes, cardiovascular disease, children and young people, intermediate care, mental health, learning disabilities, frailty, children and young people and musculoskeletal conditions. Over the next year the two Councils will produce a shared joint strategic needs assessment and a joint health and wellbeing strategy

·         Areas of focus for the coming year – addressing the high levels of alcohol related harm in the borough, renewing the approach to health weight in the borough, improving physical health of those with mental health problems, tackling social isolation in vulnerable groups, increasing the number of people with LTC’s who are in employment, addressing parental mental health in the early years and building resilience and continuing to work with partners in Haringey on health and care system transformation

·         Reference was made to the recent IAPT scrutiny review carried out by the Committee and the Executive Member stated that she would be writing to the Minister for Health to request additional funding to be provided for mental health services

·         Reference was made to the introduction of Universal Credit and cuts to disability benefits that would have a detrimental effect on residents health

·         The Chair referred to the list of objectives for the forthcoming year and that these should be reduced as there were too many to tackle them all effectively

·         In response to a question it was stated that the Council focus is to get people into work and Members stated that it would be useful to get details of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) trial

RESOLVED:

(a)  That a report be submitted to the March meeting of the Committee on child obesity

(b)  That the Committee be provided with details of the IPS scheme, as referred to above