Agenda and minutes

County Councillors Christian Wakeford and Richard Newman-Thompson attended in place of County Councillors Keith Iddon and Bev Murray respectively and Councillor Helen Jackson attended in place of Councillor Liz McInnes (Rossendale Borough Council).

Apologies for absence were presented on behalf of County Councillor Alycia James and Councillor Bridget Hilton (Ribble Valley Borough Council

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None disclosed

The Minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 10 June 2014 were presented and agreed.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 10 June 2014 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed officers from the Adult Services, Health and Wellbeing Directorate:

·  Mike Leaf, Director of Health Improvement;

·  Karen Thompson, Consultant in Public Health;

·  Sheridan Townsend, Public Health Specialist (Children, Young People & Families); and

From the Directorate for Children and Young People:

·  Theresa Moore, Early Years Lead.

The Health Scrutiny Committee had previously agreed to structure its work programme around the three key strands of Lancashire's Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Starting Well, Living Well and Ageing Well. As part of Starting Well the Committee had requested additional information about pregnancy, early years and healthy lifestyles.

The report now presented therefore provided a focus on: pregnancy, early years initiatives and support for families to make healthy lifestyle choices. It provided brief background information to each of these themes and suggested how elected members could contribute to the Public Health agenda.

A PowerPoint presentation was used to set out some key statistics relating to breast feeding, vaccination coverage, obesity, oral health, chlamydia, and under age 18 conceptions. It included brief details of a range of current initiatives to encourage healthy lifestyle choices. There was also information about services and initiatives delivered by Lancashire Children's Centres. It highlighted key challenges and opportunities for the future. A copy of the presentation is appended to these minutes.

Members raised a number of comments / questions and below is a summary of the main points:

·  There was some discussion about the reasons for a drop-off in breast feeding after 6-8 weeks, for example return to work, lack of facilities in public places, peer pressure. It was suggested also that problems could arise when babies were being weaned owing to lactose intolerance, especially among Asian families. 

·  In response the Committee was assured that health visitors worked hard with new mothers to encourage breast feeding and they were very familiar with a range of possible barriers / complications and able to provide support strategies for weaning. Health visitors now routinely made an antenatal visit, which provided an opportunity to talk about breast feeding before the birth and therefore address any concerns at that stage also. Health visitors were currently commissioned by NHS England, however the county council would commission their services from October 2015.

·  It was a key challenge to reach a point where breastfeeding was universally accepted in this country, as it currently was abroad. It was considered very important to tackle a negative perception of breast feeding in public and to promote and publicise facilities.

·  Hyndburn Borough Council had been awarded gold standard for its baby friendly initiative, which included local businesses, and it was suggested by the district councillor that the approach taken by Hyndburn might be rolled out countywide.

·  It appeared that the message about the importance of breast feeding in the early weeks had been effective and the benefits now well understood, but perhaps a changed message should now be promoted to extend the period during which some mothers breast feed. Officers agreed that there were many reasons to promote breastfeeding beyond just  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

It was reported that on 2 May the Steering Group had met with Mark Hindle, Chief Executive of Calderstones NHS Trust to update members on the Trust's annual and 5 year plans and also received a further update from Lancashire Care Foundation Trust on inpatient facilities. A summary of the meeting was at Appendix A to the report now presented.

On 13 June the Steering Group had met with University Hospitals Morecambe Bay Trust to discuss the forthcoming publication of the CQC inspection report and other recent developments. A summary of the meeting was at Appendix B to the report now presented.

It was confirmed that there had been an exchange of correspondence between the Steering Group and University Hospitals Morecambe Bay Trust about pharmacy services and there was to be a meeting between the two parties to discuss this issue.

Appendix A to the report now presented set out a draft work plan for both the Health Scrutiny Committee and its Steering Group, including current Task Group reviews.

It was suggested that when the Committee was to consider the theme 'Ageing Well' that 'exercise on prescription' be included as part of that item.

Resolved: That the work plan be noted subject to inclusion of 'exercise on prescription' as referred to above.

The Committee's attention was drawn to forthcoming decisions and decisions recently made by the Cabinet and individual Cabinet Members in areas relevant to the remit of the committee, in order that this could inform possible future areas of work.

Recent and forthcoming decisions taken by Cabinet Members or the Cabinet can be accessed here:

http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/mgDelegatedDecisions.aspx?bcr=1

Resolved: That the report be received.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

No urgent business was reported.

The next meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee will be held on Tuesday 2 September 2014 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 2 September 2014 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.