Agenda item

This briefing is to help Committee inform its future work programme. Especially how health and care services respond to reducing inequalities in health.

Health inequalities are avoidable and unjust differences in health between groups of people. They are unjust because they don’t happen by chance. This means we can change them. There may be specific causes, such as lack of access to services, or timely diagnosis of disease. Or wider social factors such as income, education, housing or environmental factors.

BCP council has a statutory duty to assess and respond to health inequalities. So do our NHS organisations and partners in the integrated care system.

This paper gives an overview of what we know about health inequalities in BCP Council. It considers different approaches to how to reduce them. It takes stock of local progress, and it highlights areas that Committee may wish to review in the future.

The Director of Public Health presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The purpose of the report was to enable Members to understand the main inequalities arising in health and social care and to be able to ask strategic questions of ICS partners to assess progress in reducing them.

The briefing was to help Committee inform its future work programme, especially how health and care services respond to reducing inequalities in health.

Health inequalities were avoidable and unjust differences in health between groups of people. They were unjust because they don’t happen by chance. This meant we can change them. There may be specific causes, such as lack of access to services, or timely diagnosis of disease. Or wider social factors such as income, education, housing or environmental factors.

BCP council had a statutory duty to assess and respond to health inequalities. So do our NHS organisations and partners in the integrated care system.

The paper gave an overview of what was known about health inequalities in BCP Council. It considered different approaches to how to reduce them. It took stock of local progress, and it highlighted areas that Committee may wish to review in the future.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

• The Chair thanked the Director of Public Health for the presentation and stressed the importance of integration between the partners and for the Committee to have increased awareness of the work of the BCP Health and Wellbeing Board.
• There was some Committee discussion over how any scrutiny could be carried out and how positive measurable outcomes could be identified.

·       In response to queries regarding the report, the Director of Public Health advised the Committee to be careful not to make assumptions about associations between poor health outcomes and geographical location. In some cases geographic areas where housing was cheaper would be more likely to have people living there with conditions that would make it less likely for them to be able to work – hence the association with poorer health. In response to a query, the Director clarified that this was not in attempt to oversimplify, but was helpful when considering what contributes to areas with higher deprivation scores.

·       In response to a comment regarding free will and vaccinations, the Committee was advised of the importance to understand why some people chose to not take up vaccinations offered and the possible reasons for that were highlighted.

• In response to queries regarding the projected data around childhood obesity and NHS Dorset’s aim to prevent 55,000 children from becoming obese by 2040, the Committee was advised of the link between areas of deprivation and obesity in children and how the figure of 55,000 was reached.  The Director of Public Health advised he would check with NHS Dorset for clarity over how that figure was reached.  ACTION.
• In response to a query, the Committee was advised of the need to work together with all relevant partners and the community to try and achieve a reduction in health inequalities across BCP and some of the barriers in achieving this were highlighted.
• In response to a query regarding the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board and its Strategy, the Committee was advised that the Board had recently had a development session and the next steps to refresh the strategy were detailed including more focus on programmes from a place based partnership perspective.
• The Corporate Director of Wellbeing highlighted BCP’s Vision which had been adopted which had healthy people and healthy places at its heart and it was necessary to work on delivery plans focused on the Vision.
• The Corporate Director of Wellbeing also highlighted the link between this report discussions and the Committee’s working group considering data which was considered timely.
• In response to a concern about the lack of progress to date from the local Integrated Care Board, Health and Wellbeing Board and other relevant partners working together to tackle health inequalities locally, the Committee was advised there was a recognition around the duty to address health inequalities, however it was acknowledged that to reach a point where all agencies were working together to address these issues would take time.

The Chair concluded by advising of the need for the Committee to consider the Council’s Vision, delivery plans and the Health and Wellbeing Boards Strategy and consider the timeliness of any scrutiny of those to ensure the Committee can add value.

RECOMMENDED that the Committee:

(a) comment on the content of this briefing.

(b) To note the local work developing in response to health    inequalities.

(c) To consider what areas or opportunities for scrutiny Committee includes in its forward plan around progress in tackling inequalities in health.