Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Vizzard and Councillor de Wiggondene.

Councillor Grigg substituted for Councillor Vizzard.

Councillor Yates and Councillor Beerling were present as Visiting Members with an interest in item 6 on the agenda, Kent Joint Health and Well-being Strategy consultation.

Councillors Yates and Beerling declared an interestin item 6 on the agenda, Kent Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy consultation; Councillor Yates by virtue of his involvement with Age Concern and Councillor Beerling as Chairman of Switch cafe.

It was agreed that all items be taken in public as proposed.

Interview with Andrew Scott-Clark, Director of Health Improvement (Public Health) Kent County Council.

Andrew Scott-Clark, Director of Health Improvement (Public Health) and Malti Vashney, Lead Public Health Consultant for Maidstone District gave a presentation which provided the Committee with a background to the Kent Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy Consultation.  Mr Scott-Clark explained that it would provide a strategic picture and demonstrate how the Joint Health and Being Strategy had been developed.

The following points were made in the presentation:

• The Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB) were responsible for the production of the strategy under consultation;
• The HWBB will bring NHS, Public Health and most importantly, Social Care together;
• Kent HWBB was a pathfinder, establish before April 2012;
• The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) would help identify overlap and through joined up working;
• HWBB membership  included representatives from district councils and public representation from Healthwatch (formally Local Involvement Network LINks);
• HWBB had approved a substructure, local HWBB centred around the CCG configuration.  This was being piloted by Dover;
• Legislation allowed County to delegate responsibility to local boards;
• For the first time ever, GPs would be accountable; and
• Long Term Conditions (LTC) were the biggest challenge.

Mr Scott-Clark explained that the strategy reflected the needs of Kent determined by national health profiles and the Department of Health’s national outcomes framework.  The Strategy set out four priorities and three approaches aimed at delivering five key outcomes.

The Committee was informed that the Kent HWBB would have a strategic influence over commissioning decisions across health, public health and social care and would have a responsibility for joining up services by bringing together the NHS, CCGs and local councils.  Members queried how the HWBB would be a driver for this.  It was explained that the HWBB was an overseeing body; it would undertake a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) with the involvement of CCGs and local councils to determine how health needs should be addressed and how best to deliver services. It was stressed that the needs in Maidstone could be different to other areas in Kent and there was a necessity to make the JSNA meaningful locally. Mr Scott-Clark informed the Committee of the HWBB’s decision to approve local HWBBs which would mirror CCGs, taking on strategic responsibilities and interpreting them locally. CCGs were responsible for achieving better outcomes.

Mr Scott-Clark emphasised the need for joined up working in environmental, housing and community work as large amounts of money were being invested in areas of deprivation. He highlighted an example of how GPs had worked with a local council to address a local health inequality.  A link was made by a public health officer between the spend on respiratory illness by GPs and poor housing, namely houses in multiple occupation. The CCG worked with the local authority on selective licensing for landlords to improve housing quality and a new scheme was introduced in Thanet as a result.

Members questioned the non inclusion of care home provision for the aging population in the strategy.  Mr Scott-Clark explained that the outlook was for GPs, clinicians  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.