Agenda and minutes

County Councillors David Stansfield and Bernard Dawson attended in place of County Councillors Andrea Kay and Yousuf Motala respectively.

County Councillors David Stansfield and Bernard Dawson attended in place of County Councillors Andrea Kay and Yousuf Motala respectively.

Apologies for absence were presented on behalf of Councillors Asjad Mahmood, Pendle Borough Council, Julie Robinson, Wyre Borough Council and 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 2 September 2014 were presented and agreed.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the Health Scrutiny Committee held on the 2 September 2014 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

As part of the ongoing scrutiny of the 'Living Well' element of the Health &

Wellbeing Strategy, the committee was provided with a report which presented an overview of the actions being taken to address the impact of the economic downturn on the health and wellbeing on the population of Lancashire.

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

·  Mike Leaf, Director of Health Improvement

·  Clare Platt, Public Health Specialist

·  Hilary Abernethy, Public Health Specialist (Public Mental Health Commissioning)

·  Gulab Singh, Public Health Specialist (Central Locality)

·  Chris Calvert, Health and Wellbeing Officer

The Committee received a PowerPoint presentation which set the context and briefly summarised the determinants of health. Officers then went on to explain in further detail what Public Health was doing to address the impacts of the economic downturn. The presentation focused on:

·  Mental health

·  The workplace

·  Food poverty

·  Affordable warmth

A copy of the presentation is attached to these minutes.

Members raised a number of comments and questions and the main points arising (under broad headings) are summarised below:

Food Poverty

·  The Chair noted that the planned 'Call to Action' event to be held in February 2015 was to be held in East Lancashire; he acknowledged that deprivation was prevalent in that part of Lancashire, however he felt that it was important to engage communities, including councillors, from all parts of the county. The Committee was assured that the list of delegates would be carefully managed to ensure that appropriate groups were represented.

·  It was reported that much work was ongoing across the Districts to address food poverty and Lancaster City Council, in particular, had developed its own action plan around food poverty. It was to present at the 'Call to Action' event to share information with other delegates.

·  It was acknowledged also as very important for major supermarkets to engage with the issue of food poverty.

·  There was some discussion about the different operating arrangements of food banks and the Committee was assured that work was ongoing to try to achieve a greater level of co-ordination, support and sharing of good practice and expertise. The 'Call for Action' event would provide an opportunity to progress this.

·  In response to a suggestion that food banks could provide cookery lessons, it was explained that not all food banks had facilities, but a number of colleges provided adult learning courses for 'cooking on a budget' and food banks could signpost people to these courses.

·  It was noted that some supermarkets collected donations for food banks but the food wasn't necessarily distributed locally; it was considered appropriate that collectors make it clear to where donations would be distributed. It was understood that much depended on the relationships established between the food banks and the collectors.

·  In terms of the profile of people who were using food banks it was a mixed picture, including people in work and on a low income.

Affordable Warmth

·  The point was made that it was often the people least  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

On 15 August the Steering Group had met with officers from North West Ambulance Service to discuss their 5 year plan and Lancashire Care Foundation Trust who provided an update on inpatient facilities. A summary of the meeting was at Appendix A to the report now presented.

Resolved: That the report be received.

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.

In light of the discussion at this meeting about the impact of environmental matters on health, it was suggested and agreed that the related topics scheduled for the 13 January be brought forward to the 25 November meeting, and those scheduled for November now be considered in January.

Members requested, that as part of the presentation to the Committee, practical examples of interventions, including approaches that have not been successful, be included. The Committee recognised that it was still early days and some interventions will not yet have been evaluated.

It was reported that a work planning workshop would be arranged in March 2015 at which the Committee could consider and agree topics for the 2015/16 programme of work.

Resolved: That the work plan, as now amended, be noted.

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 25 November 2014 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday 25 November 2014 at 10.30am at County Hall, Preston.