Agenda item
Tower Hamlets Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2020-25: update and agreement on draft proposals
- Meeting of Online 'Virtual' Meeting, Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board, Tuesday, 2nd February, 2021 5.00 p.m. (Item 4.)
- View the background to item 4.
The Board will have opportunity to consider progress to date and consider next steps.
Minutes:
The Board received an update on progress to date in developing the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, key messages from two workshops in early January to test principles and priority areas the remit of the Strategy and emerging priorities, as well as next steps and obtain feedback from experts, leaders and public on the priorities set out in the Strategy and insight on how priorities can be delivered with desired impact/outcomes
As a result of discussions on the presentation the Board discussed the emerging priorities, and these are summarised as follows that:
The Board,
v Noted that in Spring-Summer 2020 a review had taken place of key health and wellbeing data, alongside public engagement to hear residents’ views on key issues. Following this, interviews with Health and Wellbeing Board members had taken place throughout October 2020 to gather their views on the role and remit of the Board and its Strategy, and what the priorities of that Strategy should be.
v Was reminded that on 17th November 2020 they had agreed priority health areas: the health impacts of poverty, Mental Health and emotional wellbeing, and healthy diet and exercise. Then after this, there were two workshops (January 8th, 2021 and January 11th, 2021) that had brought together Board members and stakeholders to discuss: the wider determinants that impact these health priority areas across the life course; the mechanisms to impact those wider determinants; and what role the Board should play in driving forward change across both wider factors and health and wellbeing support services across the Borough in the next five years.
v Commented that culturally competent staff are important for a variety of reasons. Firstly, as the Borough becomes increasingly more diverse, as it attracts residents from all over the UK and wider international communities. The Tower Hamlets population is mobile, relatively young and is expected to increase by around 20% over the next six years health care professionals are progressively seeing patients with a broad range of perspectives regarding health, often influenced by their social or cultural backgrounds e.g. patients whose first language is not English and have different thresholds for seeking care or different expectations about their care, and beliefs that influence whether or not they adhere to health care staff’s recommendations.
v Health care staff need to be (i) aware of these issues and how to address them; and (ii) acknowledge that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to health care will not suffice. In addition, local communities face some unique health challenges, with significant levels of poverty and high premature death rates amongst adults from circulatory disease, diabetes; cancer; vitamin D deficiency; 25% of teenage girl’s self-harm; and respiratory disease. Our population as mentioned is also growing fast, which will lead to even greater challenges if we fail to act now.
v Wanted to see more adults’ accessing dental services and to have improved oral hygiene e.g. reduce the incidence of gum disease.
v Commented that a healthy weight and good nutrition in childhood sets an induvial up for life. It is a key factor in life-long general physical and mental wellbeing as well as preventing common long-term conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers. This issue is of particular importance in the Borough as childhood obesity levels of 4-5-year-olds and 10-11-year-olds are significantly higher than national levels. Also, children that are under-achieving educationally in the Boroughs schools can almost relate directly back to their nutrition and their mental, physical, and social health. Therefore school-based interventions delivered by school nurses can play a key role in implementing sustainable, effective school-based obesity interventions.
v Noted what has been done to address knife crime in the Borough following the success in Glasgow where it has adopted a public health approach to knife crime, in which the police work with those in the health, education and social work sectors to address the problem. In the London, the NHS England appointed a leading surgeon Martin Griffiths to tackle rising knife crime in the Capital. Mr Griffiths, a consultant trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, has therefore become the health service's first clinical director for violence reduction. Mr Griffiths has helped set up a service for young patients injured through gang crime, providing support to victims while they are being treated onwards. The scheme has reduced the number of young people returning to the hospital with further injuries from 45% to less than 1% in six years. A big part of that being to be getting rid of school exclusions.
v Agree that if such an ambitious approach were applied to all aspects of the Strategy then in 5 years’ time we would have a healthy environment for all residents.
v Noted that a huge amount of work is going on across the Boards priority areas particularly on the health impacts of poverty on mental health healthy diet exercise. Therefore, the ambitions that have been discussed tonight bring together a lot of the key issues.
v Noted that the workshops held in January 2021 had focused on different aspects e.g. early years and supporting families to be healthy. There had also been considerable discussion about young adulthood and making sure that people have opportunities and access to help when they need it.
v Noted that there had been much discussion about the stronger networks that could be established across different professions and how support can be more effectively targeted.
v Noted that the focus of the consultation exercise was to take the values considered and develop at the workshops and for these to be discussed with the public, experts, and leaders.
v Commented that it is important to recognise the Partnerships collective power as leaders and their ability to galvanise people across different sectors and within different organisations.
v Agreed that to add value and bring about positive change it was important to ensure that the right priorities and issues have been identified.
In conclusion, the Chair thanked Polly Ashmore and Jamal Uddin for their presentation and to all partners and stakeholders for their contributions in the discussions on this topic.
The Chair then Moved, and it was RESOLVED to (i) agree the consultation plan; and (ii) the Board Members support for the consultation process.
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Supporting documents:
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Item 4. HWB Strategy 2020-25_cover sheet, item 4.
PDF 226 KB
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HWBS Consultation..., item 4.
PDF 144 KB