Decision details

Having agreed priorities for commissioning at its meeting on 5 November 2013, the Board will approve the commissioning programme for the allocation of Public Health Grant for 2014/15.

Matthew Cole (Director, Public Health) introduced the report, in doing so the Board noted the following key points:

·  Partner organisations commission public health initiatives too, therefore discussion is needed to align plans. Key to this will be more effective delivery of the prevention agenda through General Practice and Primary Care.

·  A funding gap is forecast for 2015/16 as it not yet confirmed what the borough’s Public Health Grant settlement will be. Furthermore, Public Health does not know what Health Premium the borough will receive or what funding is attached to health visiting responsibilities.

·  Public Health is looking to experiment with different models of service delivery to create behaviour change among residents. There will also be greater emphasis on prevention especially with regard to smoking and obesity.

Conor Burke (Accountable Officer, B&D CCG) identified early intervention in cancer as an area not addressed by the Public Health Commissioning Plan. It was noted that there is a high level of cancer diagnosis in A&E which needs to be addressed.

The Board discussed Public Health Grant spend on children’s health and early year interventions. Matthew Cole advised that public health spend on children’s initiatives will go up in 2015/16 as more resource is invested in sexual health, school nursing and health visiting. Because there is uncertainty over the funding arrangements for health visiting Public Health has been prudent to set aside monies should funding not come with commissioning responsibility. 

Mr Nicholas Hurst (a member of the public) raised concern that sexual health services were not well signposted, as such service users are being referred incorrectly. Matthew Cole supported the view that there is a problem with access to sexual health services. Although the service is integrated across the three boroughs (Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, and Havering) the information about the services and how they can be accessed needs to be improved; it was suggested a directory of some kind would be useful.

Ms Christine Brand (a member of the public) suggested that commissioning plans should give greater emphasis to wellbeing and to make it more meaningful and embedded within commissioning plans.  Ms Brand also suggested that there should be more balance between health outcomes and wellbeing outcomes in those plans.

Cllr Worby (Chair of the Board) highlighted a correction to table 1 (page 81 of the agenda pack). It was confirmed that the leisure offer for older people is for ages 60 years and over. Board Members were asked to disregard the misprint on the explanatory notes for that entry in the table. 

The Board agreed to:

1.  Consider the resources allocated to the delivery of the 9 priorities agreed within the strategic framework for commissioning public health programmes for 2014/15 and 2015/16.

2.  Endorse the commissioning intentions in this paper to ensure that service delivery continues to improve Public Health outcome indicators as outlined in the Public Health Outcome Framework and the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.