Agenda item

To monitor delivery of the Health & Wellbeing Strategy.

Heema Shukla, Interim Director of Public Health presented an update on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and a deep-dive into Priority 4: Keep residents safe from infectious disease.

On the wider Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Heema updated the Board that there was good work going on across all priorities, and there were lots of good actions reflected in the dashboard across partner organisations. A key area of focus remained the self-harm prevention toolkit. The Berkshire-wide suicide prevention strategy was progressing well, but it was not clear what the local iteration of a self-harm prevention toolkit would look like.

Board members raised the following points on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy:

·        Nicola Airey highlighted that it was World Suicide Prevention Day. It was noted that this year’s theme aims to raise awareness about the importance of reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations to prevent suicides. It hopes to create a shift from a culture of silence and a lack of understanding to one of openness, empathy, and support. Nicola offered to share a brief training link (20mins) that had been shared with ICB staff produced by Zero Suicide Alliance (Action: Nicola Airey)

·        Officers were looking into an interactive tool to assess granular data on eating disorders across the borough.

·        Board members queried how the success of mental health schools teams was being measured.

·        Following an unsuccessful bid by Youthline to pursue the Happiness Hub work, officers were investigating how mental health support for children could be improved. Ideas included using South Hill Park arts centre or similar to support neurodiverse children.

·        Officers sought to achieve equality across all lifestyle services, such as smoking cessation.

Heema continued on to cover a deep-dive into Priority 4: Keeping residents safe from infectious diseases, including pregnancy and newborn immunisations, adult immunisations and screening services. Overall, there was positive assurance for the Board on local immunisation and screening services.

Bracknell Forest was performing well on its pregnancy and newborn programmes compared to national, South East and East Berkshire data. The timeliness of newborn and infant physical examination was the only area of note, and this was improving.

Some adult screening programmes were only just meeting the lower threshold but were still performing better than national standards.

Heema commented that it was important to remember that if cancer screening services caught cancer early by bringing in the at-risk populations, it could reduce the impact of cancer later on.

On childhood immunisations, Heema commented that if 95% of the population were vaccinated, herd immunity would be attained.

There were plans for a new RSV vaccination for 75 to 79 year olds and pregnant women from 1 September 2024, which would be delivered by GP surgeries and maternity services respectively.

Heema commented on the need to focus on flu vaccinations for those with co-morbidities. The flu vaccination rate was low in Bracknell Forest and could be improved.

Work was underway with Frimley ICB to establish how certain communities could be better engaged to reduce vaccination and screening uptake inequalities.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        It was commented that working collaboratively would be key in coping with winter pressures. Board members suggested that a plan should be developed to further promote the flu vaccination.

·        Officers were looking into gathering GP practice or ward level data to better understand the geographies of take-up on immunisations and screening services. Public Health officers were working with the six largest minority groups in Bracknell Forest to understand their knowledge of various health issues, and to raise awareness of services available to them.

·        It was noted that those with learning difficulties also often had a lower take up on cervical and breast screening, and whether this group could be better supported to take up such opportunities. 

·        Heema commented that text messaging would be key in supporting young people to take up screening services, and that young people should be encouraged to rebook appointments if they were not able to attend.

·        It was recognised that in some schools in Berkshire, the uptake of immunisations was so low that herd immunity would not be achieved. Charlotte Pavitt agreed to raise the issue of granular data with the Health Protection Board. (Action: Charlotte Pavitt)

·        It was commented that assurance from providers should be sought where figures were orange or red in the dashboard that non-attendees were targeted to encourage attendance.

·        Public Health officers would participate in the ICB group on health inequalities.

·        It was noted that the risk of MPox was low locally, and there was currently no local response required. However, the issue had drawn attention to the public health budget lines and the importance of ensuring health protection contingency for any outbreaks in a sustainable way.

It was therefore RESOLVED that

1          The Board noted the nature of the joint work with UKHSA, NHSE, ICB and partners to keep residents safe and delegate it to the health protection forum.

2          The Board noted the ad-hoc nature of health protection incidents, the reactive response required and ensure system capacity to respond.

3          The Board noted the work with the warm, safe and well programme to reduce the impact of cold homes in vulnerable populations.

4          The Board noted the performance on screening and immunisation in Bracknell Forest and recommend that the programmes aim to maintain national standards and reduce inequalities in uptake.

5          The Board requested a report at lower (GP/neighbourhood/ethnic) level to identify any inequalities in screening and immunisation uptake.

6          The Board noted the arrangements for adverse weather planning.

Shamarke Esse, Public Health gave a demonstration of the data dashboard. The dashboard captured outcomes and progress against each of the five Health and Wellbeing Strategy priorities over time.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        Shamarke agreed to include a section on actions being undertaken against any indicators which were not on target in a single view. (Action: Shamarke Esse)

·        Board members celebrated the work and asked if a ‘how to use’ could be added to the front page.

·        While most data would be publicly accessible, some indicators would be kept private. Board members commented that as much data as possible should be published publicly.

·        The vision was that partners would be able to use the data proactively to inform their own decision making.