Agenda item
Health and Wellbeing Board Update
Minutes:
Councillor Turan, Executive Member for Health and Social Care, provided an update on local health and wellbeing issues.
The Health and Wellbeing Board
was held on the 4th of July 2023, the board heard about
work which is being carried out to tackle damp and mould in
housing, and how the council and NHS have been working together to
help tackle the situation. This is part
of the response to the tragic and entirely preventable death of
Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old in Rochdale who lived in a house with
severe damp and mould. The discussion
had prompted further and wider work to develop partnership working
between health and social care services, housing, and our local
Islington Integrated Care Board.
North Central London Integrated
Care Board had updated the Health and
Wellbeing Board on their needs assessment and strategy for
inclusion health groups. Inclusion
health groups cover groups experiencing significant disadvantage
and deprivation, and who have much higher health needs and are much
less able to access primary care and preventive services than
others in the population. These groups
include people who experience homelessness, drug and alcohol
dependence, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
communities, sex workers, people in contact with the justice system
and victims of modern slavery. The
update included the findings from engagement with people with lived
experience, insights from senior system stakeholders and staff
experience. The next steps will be to
identify ways to address the identified issues and needs through
local partnerships.
The Board also received an
update on the Health Determinants Research Collaborative, which is
the national initiative to develop public health research and
evaluation in local councils. Islington was awarded Development
Year status last year, and after a successful 12 months, we have
now been awarded the full five-year programme which will help us to
go further and faster with developing this work.
Finally, the Board received an
update from North Central London Integrated Care Board on next
steps with the population health and integrated care
strategy. The strategy has been
co-produced with local public health teams and others and sets out
the priorities and focus for helping to improve health and reduce
health inequalities, with a particular focus on best start in life
and helping to prevent and improve diagnosis of physical and mental
health conditions. The strategy has now
been completed and an action plan will be developed.
The following points were noted
in the discussion:
· The Committee congratulated Jonathan O’Sullivan on his appointment to the role of Director of Public Health
· Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust and Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust had written to Islington Council, stating that they will be submitting a formal application to NHS in October to create a new single organisation.
· Centene, a US organisation who had been operating GP practices in the borough, had decided to withdraw from the UK altogether.
· A member suggested that issues connected with damp and mould should be looked at in tandem with issues within the housing services as connected rather than as separate issues.
Actions:
· It was proposed that the Health and Wellbeing Board update should be renamed the ‘Executive Update’ going forward for the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee.