Agenda item

Officer: Rachel Flowers

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to:

1. Note the information, the evidence provided and to agree and action all of the recommendations; and

2. Implement all the recommendations within the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report 2018.

The Leader proposed to change the order of the items taken at the meeting and it was agreed by Cabinet. The items were taken in the following order:

1. 94/18 – Community Safety Review - First Findings and Next Steps
2. 93/18 – Annual Report of the Director of Public Health 2018
3. 98/18 – Croydon Tram Incident - Summary of Croydon Council's response and learning
4. 95/18 - Children's Improvement Plan
5. 96/18 – Regional Adoption Agency
6. 97/18 – Croydon's Year of Business
7. 99/18 – Stage 1: Recommendations arising from Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee and Streets, Environment & Homes Scrutiny Sub-Committee
8. 100/18 – Stage 2 Response to Recommendations arising from Scrutiny & Overview Committee 10 July 2018 and 4 September 2018
9. 101/18 – Investing in our Borough
10. 102/18 – Electricity and Gas Supplies Contracts

The Director of Public Health informed Members that an updated version of the report was available on the council’s website which included the foreword by the Leader. The report focussed on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life as it had been found that the early experiences of a person laid the foundation for the rest of their lives. It had been found that positive stimulating environments were important, and that while a small amount of stress had a positive effect; high levels were toxic.

As such, it had been found that if a person experienced more than four traumatic experiences before the age of four it had a serious impact upon that person and their future. In Croydon it had been found that 500 of the 6,000 children born each year would experience four or more adverse childhood experiences, 1,000 would be born into poverty, 2,000 would have been unplanned, 1,700 would have tooth decay by the age of five.

It was noted that there was good work taking place in Croydon with Gateway and Welfare services helping families to achieve financial stability and improved housing. It was further noted that Early Help would help vulnerable families; and that work to improve parks and recreation spaces would facilitate health improvements.

The Director of Public Health stated there were 34 recommendations within the report with the key messages being that issues such as housing, education and mothers’ health in the first 1,000 days impact the child’s experience and had a lifelong effect. Members were requested to ensure that health was considered in all policies and work continued to break the inequalities cycle.

Recommendations from the Director of Public Health included reviewing, revising and joining up maternal mental health pathways, 100% of midwives to be trained on recognising and supporting families at risk of multiple adverse childhood experiences, frontline staff to be trained on adverse childhood experiences, and an increased awareness about pre-pregnancy health. The Director of Public Health stated that the way forward was to ensure there was a whole system approach in ensuring that children’s first 1,000 days did not have a negative impact upon the rest of their life.

The Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care noted that the recommendations covered all Cabinet Member portfolios and requested that health impact was considered within all policies. The UN report into child poverty levels in the UK was raised; and it was stated that Public Health were battling against the tide of government budget cuts and it was necessary that all councillors worked together to combat the issue. The Leader further stated that the Director of Public Health’s report could not be considered in isolation as child poverty was a serious issue which needed tackling.

It was stated that it was shocking that child hunger was an issue in the UK; and the Cabinet Member for Homes & Gateway Services suggested that the impact of Universal Credit was affecting this and children’s education. It was further noted by the Cabinet Member that there was a large number of children in emergency accommodation which needed to change, and as such the council supported new homes to tackle the issue.

The early experiences of people were noted to last a lifetime by the Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board, as it had been seen when reviewing case studies of those who had experienced adverse childhood experiences and those who had not received early intervention support. The Chair of the Board informed Members that the recommendations would be considered at a conference later that week and work would begin on engaging partner agencies to assist in implementing the recommendations.

In response to Member questions the Director of Public Health stated the challenges of ensuring children had their MMR vaccinations were similar to encouraging people to have the annual flu jab, and that there were a number of challenges to overcome. An Action Plan to deliver the recommendations would be developed by the Board; however, the Director stated that she would welcome ward councillor involvement as everyone had a role to play in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

Whilst it was noted that the recommendations were made by the independent Director of Public Health, Cabinet were welcomed to endorse the recommendations as it was important that everyone owned and worked towards the implementation of the recommendations.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities stated that a quote picked up by Women’s Hour on Radio 4 was from the London Assembly Police & Crime Committee and was in relation to safeguarding rather than the Director of Public Health’s report. It was stated there were emerging themes of ensuring there were trusted relationships and stable families; furthermore, parents were often known to the council before the child was born and so it was important to work with the parents to ensure they had support.

The Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources stated that he had seen close up the effect of the first 1,000 days on a child’s life through his experience of adoption and fostering; and supported the focus on this important aspect. It was suggested that it would be helpful if there were not cuts to the Public Health budget, social care and policing; however the council was committed to working toward early help and intervention and as such it had been built into the council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.

The Leader proposed and Cabinet agreed that the council would work to implement the recommendations within the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to:

1. Note the information, the evidence provided and to agree and action all of the recommendations; and

2. Implement all the recommendations within the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report 2018.