Agenda item

The East Devon Public Health Strategic Plan 2019/23 was presented to Cabinet on 2 January 2019 by the Strategic Lead for Housing, Health and Environment, the Service Lead for Environmental Health and Car Parks and the Public Health Project Officer. The Plan sets out how the Council would encourage and assist services across the Council each to support and improve health and wellbeing across the District.

Information about the evidence used to support the Strategic Plan was to be provided to Scrutiny.

This item is for members to consider how the priorities outlined in the plan will be progressed.

    Following consideration of the Public Health Strategic Plan for 2019-2023 by Cabinet on 2 January the Chair of Scrutiny Committee had requested that the document should also be considered by Scrutiny Committee on 7 February. 

The strategic aims of the Plan are to help more people to be healthy and stay healthy, to enhance self-care and support community resilience, and to integrate and improve support for people in their homes.

John Golding, Strategic Lead for Health, Housing and the Environment, stated that this work was regarded as core business, with a whole range of Health and Well-being aspirations and activities enshrined in the Council Plan and throughout Service Plans. Public health is an umbrella term for a whole range of East Devon District Council (EDDC) services, from health & safety at work to the provision of nature reserves; from running volunteering events to food hygiene inspections; improving housing conditions to community development; waste collection to leisure provision.

In a multi-disciplinary approach, teams across the Council including Housing, Planning, Countryside and Environmental Health worked together with partners to combat inequalities and encourage healthier lifestyles. EDDC has sought effective and creative ways of achieving this within existing resources.

The Plan sets out the evidence base for this work and is part of a bigger picture, reflecting public health priorities identified nationally and regionally.

A function of the Public Health Intelligence team at Devon County Council is to provide analysis and interpretation of health service data to help develop understanding of the health challenges in local communities. They collate data from many sources annually into the Devon Joint Strategic Needs Assessment [JSNA], showing what is harming the health of the people and therefore indicating what it might be possible for EDDC to do to improve that situation. EDDC officers have liaised with that team, and used this and other evidence e.g. from NHS and Public Health England sources, to create the East Devon Plan, using the best available information at the time.

          Comments and discussion included the following;

          Loneliness was referred to in the report. The question was asked about what the Council was doing about this, to which the response was that it was difficult to capture loneliness statistically and that many assumptions are made about it, so one of the ways of tackling it is by providing a range of activities which can be accessible to as many as possible across the district.

          The plan could be regarded as being urban-centric and not tackling rural isolation - Officers stated that efforts would be made to work across the whole district but with particular focus in priority communities as identified through liaison with public health colleagues at Devon County.

          Reference to Parish and Town Councils appear to be missing, but activities could be linked to village halls and community centres - Officers pointed out that there was a broad range of suggestions included in the plan, and local councils could easily be engaged. Spreading ideas and facilitating others to do more locally rather than paying for EDDC staff to undertake activities directly would be a way to achieve more through limited resources.

          Officers stated that EDDC has a responsibility to consider health and wellbeing in all council activities, and the Public Health Strategic Plan demonstrates how this can be achieved within current resources.

Two aspects in particular, social prescribing and Making Every Contact Count (MECC) are examples of ways in which any of the local public health priorities can be met, aligned with wider-Devon strategic themes of:

     i. Enabling more people to be healthy and stay healthy

     ii. Enhancing self-care and community resilience

     iii. Integrating and improving support for people in their homes.

MECC is a Sustainability & Transformation Partnership (STP) funded programme and MECC training gives participants the confidence and skills to use brief day-to-day conversations to support people in making positive changes to their lifestyles. The MECC training programme is intended for individuals in public-facing roles e.g. professional staff and community group leaders and Council Members may also wish to consider doing a day’s training on it themselves.

Members referred to initiatives such as ‘Villages in Action’, and activities organised by Leisure East Devon (LED) aimed at getting local people involved, and ‘Tri-hards’, which was a community led initiative in Exmouth.

The Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Homes & Communities, Councillor Jill Elson, congratulated the Public Health Project Officer for her work and also commented that Devon County Council (DCC) were one of the few County Councils to continue to support Community Transport.

          A member expressed a view that the district was dominated by the coastal strip rather than the rural hinterland and northern boundary - Officers responded by stating that the strategy is aimed at covering the whole district and would not just focus on the five priority areas referred to.

          A member expressed concern that drugs were omitted from the strategy, yet there appeared to be a disproportionate number of drug related deaths in Exmouth, and was not convinced that relevant organisations involved are effective - Officers confirmed that this was a Community Safety priority, and liaison was also taking place with DCC to progress matters.

          A member asked whether the role of the Public Health Project Officer role dealt with a budget. John Golding confirmed that there was a budget which covered the officer’s salary but not project work. This was within the Environmental Health budget whilst project costs are covered in service budgets. Although it is a big agenda, there is sufficient budget at present to achieve a lot of the identified priorities.

          Another question from members related to whether there was a mismatch between the aims of the strategy and what is available with the budgets available. John Golding responded that the budgets available will make a huge difference to people’s lives.

          The Chairman referred to receiving an email received from a Community Development worker who was in support of the Committee considering these important issues, but who could not attend the meeting.  He went on to state that there were no external bodies present at the meeting, such as the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and asked whether there were any difficulties in working with partners - Officers confirmed that they had been liaising with the Sustainability & Transformation Partnership (STP), and can see opportunities for how the role of EDDC and other districts can evolve within this partnership.

          Andrew Moulding confirmed that the budgets relating to this work were largely with DCC, with whom EDDC are liaising. The Council’s focus should be to focus on preventative aspects of ill health through its work undertaken e.g. via housing and leisure centres.

         RECOMMENDED to Cabinet

That this Scrutiny Committee;

1.    Would like to thank the Public Health Project Officer for the excellent work being undertaken and supported by colleagues across the Council, and to endorse the East Devon Public Health Strategic Plan 2019-23,

2.    Seeks to support the intention in the Plan to cover all areas of East Devon district

3.    Encourages improvements to communications with Town and Parish Councils in disseminating public health messages, including increasing the use of social media

4.    Requests that the MECC training programme is offered to all EDDC Councillors to help disseminate key messages about Health and Wellbeing in local communities

5.    Encourages greater use of Social Prescribing and healthier lifestyles, via Leisure East Devon (LED) and community led initiatives