Agenda and draft minutes

Caring Sub-Committee - Thursday, 25th July, 2024 6.00 pm

Venue: 0.01 Chamber - Quadrant, The Silverlink North, Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside, NE27 0BY

Contact: Karen Robson 0191 643 3681  Email: democraticsupport@northtyneside.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

C1/24

Appointment of Substitute Members

To be notified of the appointment of Substitute Members.

Minutes:

C2/24

Declarations of Interest or Dispensations

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

 

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

 

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

Minutes:

Councillor K Clark declared a registerable personal interest in agenda Item 5: Overview of Strategic Priorities for Public Health and Adult Social Care (C4/2024),

as she was a Director and Employee at Justice Prince CIC which had contracts with North Tyneside Council and received funding from the Authority.

 

Councillor J Kirwin declared a non-registerable personal interest in Item 5: Overview of Strategic Priorities for Public Health and Adult Social Care (C4/2024), as he was employed by a 3rd sector charity organisation.

 

C3/24

Minutes pdf icon PDF 51 KB

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 March 2024.

Minutes:

Resolved: that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 March 2024 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

C4/24

Overview of Strategic Priorities for Public Health and Adult Social Care

A presentation will provide the Sub-Committee with an overview of the strategic priorities for Public Health and Adult Social Care.

 

 

Minutes:

The Sub-committee received an overview of the Strategic Priorities for Public Health and Adult Social Care.

 

Wendy Burke, Director of Public Health, and Chris Woodcock, Deputy Director of Public Health, attended the meeting and presented the sub-committee with an overview of ‘what is public health?’

 

It was explained that The Faculty of Public Health used: the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts of society.  Ultimately, it was about helping people to stay healthy. 

 

There were three main areas of Public Health:

 

1.       Helping people to stay well

2.      Managing infections/hazards

3.     It was about helping people to stay healthy 

 

Throughout all of this, they also aimed to reduce inequalities.  In a “public health approach” – they used data and evidence to determine: what does our population need; What could work; Who could we work with; and Has it worked?

 

Traditionally, doctors had worked treated individuals when they had fallen ill and dealt with the medical consequences of that illness.  Public health focused on preventing people from getting ill and keeping them well – and also worked at a population level.  They wanted to stop people falling in the river or help them upstream where the waters were less choppy, rather than waiting for them to reach the rapids.

 

Wider determinants of health was linked to the conditions in which we were born, grow up, live, work and age.  Health was not just linked to how the NHS functioned.  Some of the most effective interventions had been at a policy level.  The development of a national vaccination programme had almost wiped out a lot of the diseases e.g. measles.  Other key examples were seatbelt legislation, water fluoridation, smoking ban, food standards, sugar tax.  The challenge  - state vs individual responsibility – “the nanny state”. 

 

Inequalities was unfair and avoidable differences between groups in society.  In North Tyneside 36.2% of children were living in poverty in our most deprived areas compared with 2.6% in less deprived areas.  The proportion of children with decayed, missing or filled teeth ranged from 7% in the least deprived areas to 47% in the more deprived areas.  Nearly one in four (24.6%) residents who had a LTC or disability lived in less affluent areas, down to less than 1 in 6 (14.3%) in the most affluent. 

 

North Tyneside Council’s public health responsibilities like all areas had finite resources, so where should the Authority focus its efforts?  It had a number of statutory responsibilities for example NHS health checks and advice to NHS commissioners. Also, discretionary functions such as stop smoking services, health at work, events and campaigns.

 

The Authority’s areas of focus linked to the refreshed Council Plan and supported the vision of a ‘thriving, family-friendly, secure and caring North Tyneside.  In addition, the North Tyneside Health and Wellbeing Board was responsible for the Equally Well: A healthier, fairer future for North Tyneside 2021-2025 Strategy, which had been developed by its representative partners and would shape and  ...  view the full minutes text for item C4/24

C5/24

Work Programme 2024/25 pdf icon PDF 14 KB

The attached report sets out a proposed approach to work planning for the Caring Sub-Committee for 2024/25, which the Sub-Committee may wish to utilise in considering and deciding on its outline work programme for 2024/25.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A report was received which set out a proposed approach to the work planning for the Caring Sub-committee 2024-25, together with an initial information base which the sub-committee could utilise in considering and deciding on its outline work programme for 2024-25. 

 

The Authority’s Scrutiny arrangements were reviewed by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) in 2023/24.  The CfGS was a national body which specialised in promoting governance excellence within local authorities. 

 

The CfGS recommended the following as good practice in Scrutiny work planning:

 

(a)     Involvement of all Committee members in work planning: – the CfGS highlighted that work planning was key to ensuring that Scrutiny stayed focussed on strategic issues where it can make an impact, whilst making the best use of time and resources.  Accordingly, all members of each scrutiny sub-committee should have a chance to influence that sub-committee’s work programme; and further, sub-committee members should lead development of their committee’s work plan, in order to have influence and ownership over committee activity.

 

(b)      Sufficient flexibility: – the CfGS noted that work planning was an on-going process and not just a one-off event.  Whilst identification of a list of topics and priorities was sensible there would need to be flexibility in the work plan and time set aside to regularly revisit the relevance of topics in meetings as the local context changes.

 

(c)      Involvement of Cabinet Members, and Senior Officer Support: –in their 2023/24 review, the CfGS commended the desire of the Elected Mayor and Chief Executive to fully support the scrutiny process.  As part of that commitment, a link Cabinet Member, and a lead SLT officer, had been nominated to support each Scrutiny sub-committee.

 

 

(d)          ‘Less is More’: – the CfGS stated that “there is evidence that when scrutiny focuses on fewer things of greater importance, more is achieved”.  This would be worthwhile to consider when developing the scrutiny work plan.  The CfGS also recommended considering the introduction of selection criteria to identify appropriate topics for the work plan, and bringing discussion of the work plan to the beginning of meetings, so emerging or changing priorities can benefit from considered discussion.

 

Scrutiny tended to be most successful when it set clear objectives for its work, and when it focused on strategic matters which were likely to make a real difference.  Taking these Ideas forward, the Caring Sub-committee’s remit, agreed by Council on 16 May 2024, was attached as Appendix A.   

 

An extract from the Our North Tyneside Plan 2021-25, showing the priorities under ‘A Caring North Tyneside’ theme of that Plan, was included at Appendix B. 

 

It must be emphasised that it was for the caring sub-committee to determine its work programme.  However, to aid the sub-committee in this process, some initial activity to identify potential work plan topics had been undertaken, as outlined below.

 

For each Scrutiny Committee the links with lead Cabinet portfolios and Directorates of the Authority had been identified.  These links were summarised in the diagram of  ...  view the full minutes text for item C5/24

C6/24

Date and time of next meeting

Minutes:

6.00pm on 26 September 2024.