Interviews with Councillor John A. Wilson Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure, John Littlemore, Head of Housing and Community Services and Services Katie Latchford, Community Development Team Leader.

The Chairman welcomed John Littlemore, Head of Housing and Community Services and Katie Latchford, Community Development Team Leader to the meeting.

Mrs Latchford gave the Committee an overview of the updated Action Plan, explaining this was the second time this document had been presented to the Committee.

Mrs Latchford explained the priorities had not changed significantly.  The document had been made more accessible and now had more specific targets which fitted in with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) targets.

Mrs Latchford confirmed the plan would be refreshed annually to ensure it continues to be relevant.

During some discussion and questioning the following points were raised:

·  Sufficient resources for the delivery of the action plan was raised as a concern.  It was confirmed the action plan would be delivered by the Community Development Team who are very enthusiastic and are working at a local level with partner organisations;

·  Provisions for care in older life as residents are living longer, the Committee agreed to add this to the Committees Future Work Plan as part of a wider review of Older Persons Services;

·  It was noted Priority 2 of the action plan focused on risk taking, but there was no specific action focussing on 14-25 year and the misuse of alcohol;

·  The targets shown on page 106 were difficult to understand.  Mrs Latchford agreed to share the methodology with Committee members who were interested;

·  Concerns over the ability to provide for the number of dementia sufferers in Maidstone.  The current figure of 2118 expected to double in the next 30 years.  The Committee agreed to add this to the Committees Future Work Plan as part of a wider review of Older Persons Services;

·  The use of specific examples of people who do not traditionally engage with services to access health professionals.

RESOLVED:

1.  That the Committee considered the information presented in the Health Inequalities Action Plan and made the following recommendations to the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure Services:

a)  That an action is included in the plan focussing on alcohol misuse in the 14-25 year old age group;

b)  That where the action plan refers to ‘hard to reach groups’ it should use the phrase ‘hard to reach and vulnerable groups’ rather than giving specific examples of who the groups were;

c)  That the refresh of the action plan comes back to the Communities, Leisure Services and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee on an annual basis.