Agenda item

The Director of Public Health and the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on a Public Health Peer Review for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

In February 2024, the Local Government Association (LGA) conducted a Public Health peer challenge which focused on how partnership working, vision and strategy, and the use of resources was used to improve the health and wellbeing of Barking and Dagenham residents.

The LGA produced the following recommendations as a result of the public health peer challenge:

·  Help to support cross-council work on the wider determinants of health by developing a health in all policies approach;

·  Reflect on executive place leadership arrangements as the Council developed;

·  Rationalised strategies, commitments, and priorities into one smart Barking and Dagenham prioritised delivery plan;

·  Agree on a model of joint commissioning including procurement considering where Public Health can best add value in needs analysis and evaluation;

·  Create a single team for data intelligence and modelling demand across council and partners; and

·  Design and embed a joint vision for integrated locality working.

Health in All Policies (HiAP) was  key in acting on wider determinants of health such as inequalities and climate change. There needed to be a collaborative approach for HiAP by incorporating health considerations into decision-making across all sectors and policy areas.

The Marmot Review 2010 highlighted the need for action against six policy areas that would address health inequalities which were reflexed in the Council’s Corporate Plan Priorities; however, there was an ongoing challenge for the Council to bring the Corporate Plan into reality.

The Council was working on three key areas of practice which were:

·  A focus on a specific public health issue;

·  A focus on a key policy area; and

·  Embedding health and equalities in wider council processes

The Committees in Common allowed GP’s and NHS staff to sit in a collaborative partnership with the Council over decisions on health across the Borough and had signed up with the HiAP.

A question was posed by the Committee on an estimated timescale for delivering the recommendations. The Cabinet Member advised the committee that the Council would be undertaking a huge amount of work to deliver the recommendations.

Currently there were 33 GP practices within the borough and a question was raised on whether the voluntary sector had played a role in easing the pressures on practices across the Borough. The Committee was informed that there were monthly pop-up sessions across the Borough which allowed residents to get greater access to healthcare. Most of the GP’s within the Borough had already signed up to do the pop-up health sessions.

A question was raised on what the Council had done to prevent childhood obesity. The Council introduced a program called Henry that was designed to tackle childhood obesity which involved work with the whole family. The Council was taking a new approached by decommissioning a lot of previous programs that had little effect on childhood obesity. The Director of Public Health explained to the committee that calorie intake was only a part of the problem for childhood obesity. There was a lack of physical activity in children which was another contributing factor in childhood obesity. The Council needed to create an environment within the Borough that promoted physical activity and play for children. The Cabinet Member suggested that the Council needed to create more community opportunities such as using unused grass spaces as growing plots.

The Committee touched upon the issue that people may not have the knowledge needed to cook fresh vegetables leading to the consumption of unhealthy foods. The Cabinet Member informed the Committee that the Council was working with 50 convenience stores across the borough who were given healthier choice packs to display and sell. There was also a proposal to open the 45 fully equip school kitchens within the Borough to teach families how to cook healthy food. A suggestion was made for the Council to get free / cheap healthy food to give to vulnerable residents once the three markets start operations within the Borough. 

The Committee inquired about dentistry services within the Borough including out of hours dentistry. The Cabinet Member confirmed that there was an out of hours dentistry service across North-East London. The dentistry services within the borough were stretched however, the Council was in the final stages of agreements to open a dentistry school, allowing more vulnerable people within the borough to have access to dentistry services.

The report was noted.