Agenda item

To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the PMR for the third quarter (October to December) of 2009/10 relating to Children's Services and Learning, giving particular attention to details of performance indicators relating to children and young people’s participation in high quality physical education and sport, child obesity and take up of school lunches.

Panel members are asked to give advance notice to the Overview and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the PMR where possible.

Please bring the previously circulated Performance Monitoring Report to the meeting.  Copies are available on request and attached to this agenda if viewed online.

The Chief Officer: Access and Inclusion, introduced the Performance Monitoring Report (PMR) for the third quarter of 2009/10 (October to December) relating to Children, Young People and Learning. Performance relating to child obesity, children and young people’s participation in high quality physical education (P.E.) and sport, and take up of school lunches had been identified for particular attention.

The Chairman welcomed Dr Angela Snowling, Consultant in Public Health, who gave a presentation entitled ‘Staying Healthy – a life course prevention programme’, which focused on tackling health inequalities through a lifecourse approach concentrating on the most deprived areas, an overview of the commissioning process, the Staying Healthy programme and the outcome of national performance indicators NI 55 and NI 56 for childhood obesity. The Staying Healthy programme consisted of the breastfeeding peer education project, the family weight management project, the supported voucher scheme for adult obesity, and the healthy life checks project.

There had been problems with data sharing in NHS Berkshire East but data would now be uploaded to a single website in order to simplify measures and access. Most of the indicators in health were annual and in the case of obesity, for example, the actual figures were too small to be published.

Figures from the evidence base which prompted the breastfeeding peer education project in NHS Berkshire East showed that children were less likely to become obese if they were breastfed and this could have a lifelong impact on obesity rates. NHS Berkshire East were awaiting confirmation from the Strategic Health Authority regarding possible funding.

The target group for the breastfeeding project was young families in the most deprived areas, such as expectant mothers and their babies. It was not just a peer education project. The possibility of awarding a qualification as part of the training and eventually working alongside health visitors would be explored. There would be an operational plan for releasing in-year costs. For the family weight management service there was a shortlist of five named providers and a very formal tendering process. The project was commissioning for outcomes and the aim was for ninety families to complete the course and achieve significant weight loss.

Figures on long term life expectancy in men and women showed that approximately a quarter of all deaths from each group was caused by a form of cancer. One purpose of the Staying Healthy programme was to tackle underlying risk factors for cancers and cardiovascular diseases. The top three factors affecting infant mortality rates were maternal obesity, smoking in pregnancy and infectious diseases. There had been an increase in smoking in younger women.

NHS Berkshire East would work with the local hospitals, children’s centres, early years centres and breastfeeding charities to promote breastfeeding and would monitor the prevalence of breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks from birth. The most deprived areas of Bracknell Forest were Wildridings and Central, and Harmans Water, as less than a quarter of mothers in these areas maintained breastfeeding by 6-8 weeks. Only one in three children were breastfed by 6-8 weeks in Berkshire East as a whole. The project would focus on ten mothers per year and aim for a ‘cascade’ effect on other mothers.

Target groups for childhood and adult obesity were families and children in Years 4-5 of primary school in the wards with the highest rates of Year 6 obesity. The Birch Hill and Hanworth area would be targeted first, but the school figures would not be published as the issue was family based rather than school based. There were stringent targets for tackling obesity in Year 6 in primary schools and NHS Berkshire East had just two years to reach the target of 12.6%. Figures were higher amongst boys and in Asian and African groups. The end results were lower than the South East average, so on the whole Bracknell Forest had good results when compared to neighbouring authorities.

Multiple causes for obesity included a combination of an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise. Discussion followed that children tended to use computers, and computer or TV based games, and did not go out and play as much as previous generations.

The Chairman thanked Dr Angela Snowling for her presentation.

The Chief Adviser: Learning and Achievement and the Chief Officer: Access and Inclusion advised on performance relating to children and young people’s participation in high quality P.E. and sport, and take up of school lunches, respectively.

Arising from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

• Dr Snowling’s presentation would be circulated to the Panel.
• A typical week in school for pupils was approximately 25 hours and at least 2 hours per week of this time should be spent on exercise. Information had been gathered by the government via an annual sports survey. High quality P.E. and sport was needed, for example, darts was not considered to be a sport. The majority of Bracknell Forest schools did complete 2 hours of P.E. or sport per week. A small number did not due to pressures on curriculum, for example in Year 9, as P.E. and sport was not linked to overall academic performance and some pupils were learning two languages alongside their other subjects. Ofsted would investigate this further as there was a strong pressure on schools for pupils to complete 2 hours of exercise a week.
• The Chief Adviser, Learning and Achievement, would provide a list of schools not providing two hours of exercise a week for pupils and advise on their actions to overcome this.
• Dr Snowling would provide further information on which schools in the borough were taking part in the Advanced Healthy Schools Programme.
• Take-up of school lunches in Bracknell Forest was 28.5% in primary schools and 31.0% in secondary schools. Bracknell Forest primary schools were in the worst performing quartile nationally and secondary schools were in the third quartile. Changes of contract, prices and publicity had all been undertaken but there had been no significant change in take-up and this remained an issue. There were very few free school lunches provided in Bracknell Forest as a local authority and it was felt that the numbers would rise if more meals were free. There was also the difficulty most children faced of not having time to queue for school lunches and eat them during their allocated lunch time period. Some schools staggered lunch hours but there was only so much flexibility within the school lesson timetable.
• It was suggested that the number of children who did not qualify for free school lunches could be compared to the number of children who did qualify but it was noted that some children who were entitled to free meals did not claim them. Opportunities for publicity for parents, for example through job centres, could be explored. The cashless Edgecard system of purchasing school meals also made no difference to take-up. There would be pilots to investigate the possibility of reducing the threshold for free school meals.
• The Chairman extended an invitation for members to indicate which performance indicators in the PMR they would like to look at in detail at the next meeting.