Agenda item

This report asks Members to consider a referral made by the Executive via the Scrutiny Management Committee in relation to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. The Interim Director of Public Health will be in attendance to give a presentation on this document.

Members considered a report, which asked them to consider a referral made by the Executive via Scrutiny Management Committee (SMC) in relation to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). All elected members had been invited to attend the meeting for consideration of this item.

The Interim Director of Public Health was in attendance and gave a presentation of the JSNA, a process to identify current and future health and wellbeing needs of the local population, which would produce priorities and targets to provide shared commissioning priorities (a copy of the full Assessment had been included as part of the online agenda). She stated that the JSNA confirmed that generally the health and well being of the residents of York remained very good in comparison with the rest of the country. However there were still inequalities in the determinants and outcomes of health for vulnerable groups and unhealthy lifestyles still impacted on a proportion of the population.

Members and Officers made a number of comments in relation to the presentation including:

• Confirmation received that the numbers drinking alcohol daily in the area was higher than the national average. Pointed out that recommended levels were developed in the context of one unit of wine being measured as one glass at a strength of 9% but many drinks now had a much greater % strength.
• Reported that physical activity levels were improving however this had been measured when free swimming had been available for the under 16’s and over 60’s age group.
• The changing attitudes of parents in relation to obesity.
• Clarification required of the figure of 36,000 reported people each year who will suffer from or may experience some mental health issues.
• Numbers of people living with dementia and those that went undiagnosed.
• Need to provide the right level of support and care for dementia suffers. Confirmation that this was part of the ongoing commissioning dialogue.
• Statistics for deprivation and reference to hidden pockets and to the isolation that could result if these people were overlooked
• Impact of government cuts in benefits and public sector jobs with subsequent pressure on incomes and reductions in disposable income. Questioned whether an assessment had been undertaken of the impact this was likely to have. Confirmation that the JSNA only referred to a point in time and therefore no assessment had been undertaken.
• The aim to ensure that no child lived in poverty, questioned whether any mapping had been undertaken to ensure the targeting of services.
• Confirmation from the Executive Member for Children and Young People’s Services that the authority together with multi agency teams were aware of these areas of poverty and were concentrating their efforts on families rather than individuals which would continue.
• Continued concerns regarding resident’s access to dentists.
• As from 1 April 2011 the Care Quality Commission would also cover dentists - reference to York LINks open session on 27 January in relation to dental issues and the availability of an online survey.

Members questioned the way forward as a number of issues contained within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment fell into the remit of a number of different scrutiny committees with some issues appearing to require more in depth analysis. The Scrutiny Officer reminded members that SMC had acknowledged this fact when they had suggested that an invitation be extended to all elected members to attend for consideration of this report to enable them to question any issues of concern.

The Interim Director of Public Health confirmed that she could arrange for the assessment recommendations to be broken down into scrutiny areas, if required and following further discussion it was

RESOLVED:             That the Scrutiny Management Committee recommend that each scrutiny committee add to their work plans for the new municipal year, the relevant issues from the JSNA that fell within each Committee’s remit. ^1.

REASON:                  To address the Executive referral in relation to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.