Home > Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: F10, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX. View directions

Contact: Cliona May
020 8726 6000 x47279  Email: cliona.may@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

10/20

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 97 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 30 October 2019 as an accurate record.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 30 October 2019 were agreed as an accurate record, subject to the amendment above.

11/20

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

Minutes:

There were no disclosures at this meeting.

12/20

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

There was none.

13/20

Public Questions

TBA

Minutes:

There were none.

14/20

Update on ACE and Perinatal Mental Health pdf icon PDF 109 KB

To receive an update on the 2019 Annual Public Health Report.

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health introduced the report and explained that her 2018 annual public health report focused on the first 1000 days from conception to the age of 2. The report had made 34 recommendations for action, which were all in progress or completed, which was positive.

 

The Executive Director – Health, Wellbeing and Adults noted that the action plan created from the public health report was helpful to monitor the progress of the recommendations; he was hopeful to see a similar process with the 2019 annual public health report to ensure a broad delivery of the recommendations. The Director of Public Health added that her independent report for 2019 was focused on food, and welcomed a workshop with the Health & Wellbeing Board Members to develop a work plan for the suggested actions from this.

 

The CVA representative, Steve Phaure, thanked the Director of Public Health and noted that the CVA had submitted a bid with the Local Government Association to focus on trauma and perinatal health care due to her 2018 public health report, which helped shape their bids throughout the year.

 

RESOLVED – That the Board noted the progress in implementing the recommendations made in the Director of Public Health’s Annual report 2018.

15/20

Homelessness Strategy pdf icon PDF 107 KB

To receive the Croydon Homelessness Strategy.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Gateway Services introduced the report and explained that homelessness legislation required housing authorities to publish a new homelessness strategy, based on the results of a further homelessness review. In way of introduction, she highlighted the following:

 

·       The Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeping Strategy would deliver on, and contribute, to two of the outcomes the Council had committed to in the Corporate Plan 2018 -22: “Good decent homes for all” and “Live long, happy and independent lives”.

·       The Local Housing Allowance rates had been frozen since 2016 and had recently been slightly lifted; however, residents were still struggling.

·       There was a big migration into the borough from more expensive parts of London, which was a contributing factor. The neighbouring authorities also did not have as much private renting accommodation, so homeless people were being placed in Croydon; these people often had complex needs.

·       The five key actions were based around intervention and prevention.

·       The Somewhere Safe to Stay hub (SStS) at Croydon University Hospital (CUH) was the missing link in Croydon and was working very well; it was a 24/7 support centre with a rapid rehousing pathway. It had been soft launched in November 2019 and 50 people had already moved through the service with positive outcomes.

·       A long-term temporary accommodation plan was currently being developed.

·       Consultation events were ongoing and the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy was to be approved and published by March 2020.

 

The Health & Wellbeing Board were shown a video called “Rough Sleeping Partnership Working in Croydon 2020”, which was available on YouTube. The Director of Gateway Services thanked all the volunteers and organisations across the borough, who worked in partnership, and had helped develop the Strategy.

 

The Chair and Vice-Chair thanked the Director for her presentation and the development of the strategy; it was noted that the strategy including a wide range of partners and that the work was already being implemented was extremely positive.

 

Councillor Hopley thanked the Director and noted that there were a lot of fantastic initiatives included within the report. She expressed concern with the influx of those coming to Croydon due to being on the Gatwick Express line, the Home Office being based in Croydon and having a large support network and community projects available. The Director of Gateway Services explained that those using the services were monitored and it was verified from where they were from and the vast majority of homeless people were not from outside of the borough. The statistics were indicated that Croydon would soon have rates of homelessness as high as Westminster, however, due to the ongoing work and initiatives included within the strategy, this had been prevented. There was a high number of Eastern European homeless people in Croydon but there was government funding available to provide short-term accommodation, for up to six weeks, to help them get back in to employment to prevent long-term homelessness.

 

During the discussion, the Health & Wellbeing Board Members stated the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/20

16/20

CYP Mental Health update pdf icon PDF 140 KB

To sign off the LTP plan, update on children’s integration.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Commissioning and Procurement Children's, Family and Education, Executive Director Children Families and Education and Director of Commissioning and Procurement introduced the report and explained that a previous report was presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in October 2019 to provide an update on the work overseen by the Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health (CYP EW&MH) Partnership Board. The report being presented was an update to provide further information across emotional wellbeing and mental health services for Croydon’s children and young people.

 

During the introduction of the report, the following points were highlighted:

 

  • Croydon Council had set a number of different actions and priorities in recent years and the aim was to link these in to one clear action plan for all services to work towards.
  • The Local Transformation Plan for Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health was annually reviewed and aims were identified to work towards.
  • A task and finish group was to be established who would develop a dashboard to monitor and measure data from all providers in the borough.
  • The report highlighted the key achievements in 2018/19.
  • From February 2020, the single point of contact (SPOC) service would expand to include emotional wellbeing and mental health. Practitioners from (SLaM), specialists from social care, early help, health visiting, education, safeguarding, police, and housing services would be located at Bernard Weatherill House.
  • An increase of referrals when the SPOC service was first opened was expected and this information would be collected to review and possible redesign the resources to meet the need of the residents.
  • There was an increasing demand for mental health services and it was positive that additional investments were incoming to meet the demand. There was a requirement for the CCG to invest in mental health services annually, but there was a challenge to ensure this investment used wisely.

 

In response to Board Members, it was explained that Kooth had been commissioned to deliver online counselling across schools in South West London as part of the Mental Health in Schools trailblazer offer. There was an anonymous chat function for young people if they did not want to seek help from a service.

 

In response to Councillor Hopley the Executive Director – Children, Families & Education confirmed that all schools in Croydon were engaged, including private schools. It was added that not all schools would included in the Trailblazers programme but they would all have an offer to access the resources available to schools; it was assured that there would not be a blanket “one fits all” model.

 

In response to the Healthwatch representative the officers explained that the voice and experience of the young people should be at the heart of the framework, so the timing of the Healthwatch report regarding mental health was useful. There were ongoing projects as funding had been recently secured but a clear “Croydon one offer”, which would be easy to navigate, needed to be established.

 

In response to Councillor Campbell  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16/20

17/20

Director of Public Health Annual Report - Food pdf icon PDF 113 KB

To receive the Director of Public Health Annual report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health introduced her Annual Report, which focused on food and the key role it played through the course of Croydon residents’ lives and explored the complexity within their system and the associated challenges around obesity, food insecurity and sustainability. The report had used over 100 evidence-based practises to form 22 recommendations, six of which were key, to produce facts as opposed to opinion. She expressed that she would appreciate the Health & Wellbeing Board Members to endorse the recommendations and support the implementation in Croydon.

 

Councillor Hopley noted that the implementation of the recommendations could be difficult, in particular with getting local businesses involved due to the commercially sensitive nature. In response, the Director of Public Health agreed and explained that the advantage of the Health & Wellbeing Board being involved and endorsing the recommendations was having a wide range of Members being on the Board from various organisations. She suggested holding a workshop with Members to discuss how the recommendations could be implemented.

 

Through discussion, the Health & Wellbeing Board Members stated the following:

 

·         Food poverty was a concern in Croydon; there were many residents who would be grateful to fill a nine-inch plate.

·         There were engagement events held across the borough with the intention of helping less wealthy families, children and schools to learn how to grow healthy foods in large allotments; education had a big impact on influencing the community.

·         To encourage a healthier relationship with food for younger people it was suggested that eating healthy needed to become trendy; there could be a focus on body image and eating disorders for instance.

·         It should be promoted that eating healthier often saved money.

·         Local Government had less power regarding licensing than residents thought; a dialogue with Government could be started regarding the licensing of fast food outlets.

·         There were more GP referrals to leisure centres in Croydon than any other borough, which was helping the transformation.

·         The Transformation Board should include the recommendations in the Health & Care Plan.

 

The Executive Director - Health Wellbeing and Adults volunteered to be the sponsor between the Health & Wellbeing Board and the Croydon Transformation Board and suggested that actions should be established within the next six weeks, which he would co-ordinate.

 

In response to the Vice-Chair the Director of Public Health agreed to work with him on creating a separate piece of work regarding allergies and introducing foods at an early age to prevent these in the future.

 

RESOLVED – That the Board agreed to note the information and recommendations outlined in the Annual Director of Public Health Report, endorse, and support the recommendations.

18/20

Health Protection Forum Update pdf icon PDF 100 KB

To update on vaccination priorities within the London context. Including MMR and BCG pathway.

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health introduced the report and noted that the report included an update of the ongoing work with seasonal influenza, the MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) vaccination, BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccination and the pan London priorities. It was noted that a letter from the Director had been distributed to all local schools expressing the importance of the MMR vaccination; it was further requested that the Health & Wellbeing Board members begun the conversation with those around them regarding the whether they have the vaccination.

 

The Vice-Chair noted that London was one of the worst areas in the country for being vaccinated and Croydon had one of the lowest population in a London Borough to be vaccinated. The London Borough of Sutton was the highest borough to be vaccinated, so he suggested that the Health & Wellbeing Board looked at how they were promoting the MMR vaccinations. The Director of Public Health added that the figures in Croydon were improving and she hoped that having a targeted approach would improve these further; it was important to start going out and having physical conversations with people, similar to the localities approach. An action plan had been created and the Director agreed to share this with Board Members.

 

The Vice-Chair noted that the coronavirus was becoming a concern, however, there was not a vaccination for this yet; the Director of Public Health agreed but noted that people were dying from measles and flu and there were vaccinations for these available.

 

·       Parents were unaware if their child has had both doses of the MMR vaccination or not; it was positive that a letter had been sent to the schools, but it needed to be ensured that this message would filter to the parents and trigger them to book appointments for the vaccination or to check if their child was already vaccinated.

·       Active engagement with the different communities within the borough was crucial.

·       It was important to discover the common cause of why people were refusing the vaccinations; the example given was social media promoting the vaccinations negatively to parents.

·       A clear message to parents was needed, including, when vaccinations should be had, the process, information regarding receiving a double dose and the importance of vaccinations.

·       Teachers were obliged to be vaccinated, however, this was not checked and health workers were also obliged to be vaccinated and obliged to receive confirmation of this from their GP to supply to the employer; it was important that this was changed for teaching staff.

·       The first 1001 days focus was important, however, it should be increased to 2001 days (to when the child turned five) to capture a critical period in their lives, including vaccinations.

·       Grandparents often held the memory of diseases and the impact from these, so could have an influence on present vaccinations.

 

RESOLVED – That the Board agreed to note the contents of the report and to continue to support the activities and actions to improve flu and MMR vaccinations.

19/20

London Vision pdf icon PDF 110 KB

For information – NHS London Vision.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director – Health Wellbeing and Adults introduced the report and explained that the Healthy London Partnership (HLP) Vision for London was published in October 2019. The Vision outlined 10 priority areas which were closely aligned to the priorities within the Croydon Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Health and Care Plan.

 

RESOLVED – That the Board agreed to note the report.

20/20

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”