Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest

Rebecca Willans, Consultant in Public Health will provide an overview on sexual health services in the borough.

Rebecca Willans, Consultant in Public Health presented slides which provided an overview on sexual health services in the borough.  The following points were covered:

·        A diagram summarised the responsibilities for local authorities, integrated care boards and NHS.  It was noted that most activity around reproductive health choices and access to contraception was delivered through General Practices with around 70% of women accessing contraception through this setting.  Local Authorities were mainly responsible for putting in place specialist sexual health services through funding from the Public Health grant.  In Bracknell Forest this was delivered through the Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust.

·        A range of other services and settings involved in supporting good sexual health were shown.  A common requirement for good sexual health included access to high quality information from trustworthy sources.  Providing these facilitated individuals to make informed choices regarding STI testing and contraception choices. 

·        Reducing stigma around sexual health was noted as a common need.

·        The importance of good quality sex and relationship education and support for parents was noted.  This was mandatory in primary and secondary schools.

·        Data to show key indicators for sexual health outcomes in the local authority was shared.  It was noted that in Bracknell Forest the chlamydia detection rates and proportion of 15–24-year-olds being screened was significantly worse than the benchmark and national average.

·        Late HIV diagnosis in Bracknell Forest was also significantly worse than the national target.

·        Core sexual health services in Bracknell Forest were highlighted.  The specialist integrated sexual reproductive health provider commissioned to the authority was the Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust and this provided tier 3 sexual health services.  This was based at the Garden Clinic in Slough and provided services for complex STI’s, recurring infections and long-acting reversible contraception.  Skimped Hill was open two days a week for routine STI testing and long-acting reversible contraception.  A facility was also available in Reading.

·        Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust subcontracted SH24, an online service that provided home test kits – capped at 15 a day.  There was a complaint received in 2023 about difficulties accessing these kits.  Whilst recognition of further demand was noted this needed to be done in a balanced way to ensure the appropriate health promotion was provided alongside the service. 

·        Eight out of the eleven GP’s in Bracknell Forest provided long acting reversable contraception services.  For those who don’t this could be attributed to not having trained staff to provide the service.

·        Only one pharmacy in Bracknell Forest could offer emergency hormonal contraception services for 13- 24-year-olds. Work was ongoing to improve this offering.

·        The Safe Sex Berkshire website was mostly used by 19–25-year-olds as this was where they were often signposted by professionals.

·        The Youth Team by Thrive worked with three secondary schools to support sexual reproductive health education in schools. 

·        Other services connected to sexual health included BPAS as a provider of termination of pregnancy and Frimley Healthcare Foundation Trust as a provider of maternity and gynaecology services.

·        A visual graph illustrated the numbers of Bracknell Forest residents accessing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

To discuss and confirm the scope for the Panel’s scrutiny review of sexual health services.

The draft scope was shared online with the panel for comments.  The following was raised:

·        The lack of pharmacy provision for emergency contraception should be added to the scope.

·        A point was raised about looking further at the PHSE provision around LGBT groups and it was agreed that the panel would wait for feedback from Rebecca Willans around this topic.

·        The panel agreed for the scope to go forward to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting on 29 February for approval.

To consider possible ideas for future scrutiny reviews to be undertaken by the Panel during their administration.

The following topics were proposed for future reviews:

·        Brants bridge – investigate the provision and its change from being an urgent walk-in centre.

·        Expand on sexual health and look at the provision for SEND pupils.

·        Effects of COVID lockdown on mental health services and assess the overall availability of services.

·        Childrens dental health with a focus on what provision there is around a programme of education for children’s healthy teeth to enable better care.