Agenda and draft minutes

To receive and note apologies for absence.

The board received apologies from Cllr Steels-Walshaw (there was no group substitute, the Interim Director of Place Chaired the meeting) and Cllr Cullwick (who was substituted by Cllr Cuthbertson).

The board received apologies from the Corporate Director of Adult’s and Integration, City of York Council; there was no substitute.

The board received apologies from the Director of Housing and Communities, City of York Council; there was no substitute.

The board received apologies from the Chief Executive, York CVS, who was substituted by the Deputy Chief Executive.

The board received apologies from the CEO of York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; there was no substitute.

The board received apologies from the Managing Director, North Yorkshire, York and Selby - Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, who was substituted by the Community Mental Health Transformation Programme and Delivery Lead.

The board received apologies from the Area Manager Director of Community Risk and Resilience, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service; no substitute was available.

At this point in the meeting, Members and co-opted members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest, or other registerable interest, they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

[Please see attached sheet for further guidance for Members].

Board Members were invited to declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests, other than their standing interests, that they had in relation to the business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board held on Wednesday, 16 July 2025.

Resolved:   To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board held on Wednesday, 16 July 2025.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines have changed to 2 working days before the meeting. The deadline for registering at this meeting is at 5.00pm on Monday, 22 September 2025..

 To register to speak please visit www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill out an online registration form. If you have any questions about the registration form or the meeting please contact the Democracy Officer for the meeting whose details can be found at the foot of the agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this public meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The public meeting can be viewed on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

During coronavirus, we've made some changes to how we're running council meetings. See our coronavirus updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy) for more information on meetings and decisions.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Flick Williams spoke on item 9, discussing comments in section five of the report, which alluded to patient employment goals.

She proposed that getting people to work was being treated as a “health outcome”, and that this was deeply dangerous. Consequently, with medical practitioners already complaining of heavy caseloads and insufficient consulting time, expecting them to be “work coaches” as well would be damaging to patient-doctor relationships and trust, would reduce quality of service and would make people think twice about seeing a doctor.

She suggested that this system evoked the mindset that only healthy working people were worthwhile to society, and implored the board oppose this.

This report is a covering report for the main City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2024/25 and the Independent Scrutineer Report.

The City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report sets out the work that has been undertaken by partners and the sub-groups of the Partnership during that time.

The Independent Chair and Scrutineer of the City of York Safer Children’s Partnership (CYSCP), presented and gave an overview of the CYSCP Annual Report 2024-2025.

She explained that this had been published in line with a statutory requirement for safeguarding childrens partnerships. She also noted that the report had been analysed by What Works Network, who provide evidence for decision-making in public services, on behalf of the Department for Education; this analysis was publicly available. In her capacity as an experienced independent scrutineer, she endorsed this as a really strong report; setting out difference, impact, case studies and aspirations.

The Independent Chair and Scrutineer, CYSCP also presented the CYSCP: Independent Scrutiny Annual Report 2024-2025, stating that this evidence-based report adhered to national statutory expectations and involved the wider partnership.

The Business Unit Manager, York CYSCP joined at 16:49 to assist in answering questions from the board.

Members noted the report’s case study on the role of primary care within safeguarding and asked how the board might better facilitate picking issues and risks up early and making sure that partners were pulling their weight within the safeguarding system.

The Business Unit Manager, York CYSCP responded that in autumn last year under priority one (Prevention, Early Support and Early Help) they had relaunched the Early Help strategy, with a group of partners around the table including primary care. This focused on a strong partnership response for which everyone can take responsibility, from universal services to the top end of safeguarding. Within the partnership of CYSCP are representatives of York Hospital, CAMHS/TEWV, the ICB and GPs all of whom play a part across the early help landscape in York.

Members noted with pleasure the inclusion for the voluntary and community sector in the report, though it was pointed out that some of the voluntary organisation names cited in the report were outdated or incorrect:

In a couple of places “York Carer’s Centre” was renamed as “York Carer’s Forum” (which is actually a different charity); the “Young Carer’s Centre” should actually be the “Young Carer’s Project at the York Carer’s Centre” and also “Parent Carer Forum York” was named such because “York Parent Carer Forum” was a different organisation that didn't exist anymore. The Manager, Healthwatch York offered to check through reports to avoid such errors going forward and also requested a link to the cited Healthwatch York report would be both appreciated and useful for readers.

The Business Unit Manager, York CYSCP accepted responsibility for the group names in the document but by way of explanation she clarified that the names given were derived from partner submissions. She accepted the offer of Healthwatch York’s assistance in the future.

Members asked about the language used as a partnership; about working with fathers and about working in partnership with schools, and what this would look like in York.

The Independent Chair and Scrutineer, CYSCP said that the use of language arose from a challenge by young people about the language used – particularly acronyms and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

This report provides an overview of the updated Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) 2025-2028, outlining the process undertaken to produce the assessment and the main outcomes.

The board is asked to approve the report for publication on the City of York Council website and the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) website.

The Vice Chair noted that the production of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) was a statutory duty for the Health and Wellbeing Board, and that the board were being asked to approve this report for publication on City of York Council's website as well as the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) website.

The report was presented by the Director of Public Health and the Public Health Improvement Officer.

The Director of Public Health noted that the board’s approval to publish this assessment formed part of the process of pharmacy provision and helped to shape its direction. He explained that pharmacy provision was a local issue, concerning the main point of contact most people have with the health service on a day-to-day basis, and getting this right was important for the board, in terms of assessing need and understanding what the sector looks like.

The Public Health Improvement Officer explained that PNA’s exist to provide a comprehensive data driven understanding of unmet need, and opportunities for reducing this. She stated that work on this PNA had begun during the summer of 2024, and in January 2025 residents and stakeholders had been invited to participate in a survey; in August 2025 there had been a 60-day consultation period on the draft document.

The key findings of this consultation were that while York generally had satisfactory pharmacy provision, there were areas of unmet need, particularly in rural and suburban areas of the city, and specifically in Clifton ward - where the nearest pharmacy was some distance away, and Westfield ward – where closure and limiting of hours had reduced provision.

The Manager, Healthwatch York said that this was a very good PNA – particularly praising the excellent survey response – and that community pharmacy was essential and with the current plans, people would come to rely on them even more.

She suggested there should be representation from the community pharmacy in meetings regarding neighbourhood health plans and the move to reorganise health services, and more detailed involvement from them at an earlier stage.

She suggested the importance of the 100 hour pharmacy changes may have been underestimated, but this fundamentally alters the number of hours that services are available to people.

The Vice Chair responded that neighbourhood and community pharmacies were being included by organisations such as the ICB and work was being done to ensure they were brought into neighbourhood discussions and more fully recognised as an integrated part of the process.

Cllr Webb asked what happens next with regard to the identified areas of unmet need, once the PNA was approved; what was the process to address this unmet need?

The Public Health Improvement Officer responded that there was a plan, which would be published to the JSNA website, and there would be follow-up conversations with members within the ICB who commission pharmacy services.

The Director of Public Health added that pharmacies close due to being independent contractors, therefore needing to make a profit. He emphasised that they do not close  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

This paper provides the Board with an update on the implementation and delivery of Goal 5 in the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2032. It also includes information on performance monitoring. The Board are asked to note the report.

The report was presented by the Director of Public Health. He advised that this item addressed goal 5 of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which was to reverse the rise in children and adults living with an unhealthy weight. He noted that this had been a sustained and long-term rise, meaning that 1 in 4 reception age children, 1 in 3 year 6 children and 2 in 3 adults were currently living with an unhealthy weight.

He stated that a number of actions had been established by the Public Health team in order to achieve this goal:

13.     Support adult residents to achieve improved health behaviours in relation to eating, moving and mental wellbeing, as part of a wider shift to a compassionate approach to weight.

14.     Continue to deliver the National Child Measurement Programme and offer targeted support to families with children and young people in bigger bodies.

15.     Deliver the Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Strategy across the city, to support parents to make informed feeding choices and practise age-appropriate introduction of solids; and ensure that families are supported to achieve their feeding goals by professionals with evidence-based training.

16.     Deliver the Health, Exercise, and Nutrition in the Really Young (HENRY) approach in our 0–5-year population.

17.     Support the implementation of HENRY awareness for professionals.

Board members expressed praise that HENRY was going well – having worked hard to establish this alongside the previous Director of Public Health.

Members noted that the published statistics did not split results on gender lines but asked if there was a difference between boys and girls in this area.

The Director of Public Health advised that it was possible to make this distinction within the statistics and in fact this information was published elsewhere; the intention of this report had been not to overwhelm with too much detail, but he would be happy to include a gendered breakdown in future.

He stated that it was clear that gender differences, and the way in which bodies change at different stages of development, was something that affected genders differently here. He didn’t want to suggest this was more of an issue for one gender or another because it was not, and as much as one might focus on a discussion of underweight teenage girls, one might also discuss the under-reporting of boys’ eating difficulties. While gender differences in this area were a complex issue, they were observable in the data, reflected on and targeted by the Public Health team.

Members asked about what happens regarding HENRY when children reached Year 6.

The Director of Public Health responded that by extending HENRY up to Year 6 this took them to 10-11 years, and health trainers can work and support individuals aged 13 and above. There would be a small gap between these points and the Public Health team were looking for possible ways in which this might be filled. He noted that it was now a much smaller gap than in the past and they were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

This report is a verbal update from the York Health and Care Partnership, delivered to the board by the Interim York Place Director, Humber and North Yorkshire ICB. The Board is asked to note the update.

The verbal update was delivered by the Vice Chair; who noted that York’s second Mental Health Hub was to open the following day, initially operating within core hours with the aim of expanding to 24/7 opening in the coming months.

He noted that a large part of the York Health and Care Partnership’s agenda concerned the National Neighbourhood Health Improvement Programme, in which 43 sites had been identified to become early implementers. York Place had put in a bid, along with all five other Places within the regional Integrated Care Board (ICB). While York had been unsuccessful in its bid, North Lincolnshire had succeeded, so there would be representation here for the ICB.

He acknowledged that the Partnership had understood deprivation was going to be a focus for this, and therefore York and North Yorkshire would struggle to be identified as early implementers on a Place level. It had however, been decided that the lead put forward from within primary care would continue to do that regardless of the outcome of the bid, and that programmes of work within neighbourhoods such as community pharmacies would definitely continue. He stated that this aligned with the priorities and strategy of the Health and Care Partnership.

He acknowledged that this programme had led to recognition of a need for alignment across different sectors and within health itself. He said that, together with the momentum that had been built, this put the YHCP in a great place to respond to the 10-year health plan in defining what these neighbourhoods look like.

There were no questions.

Resolved:   That the Board note the report of the YHCP.

Reason:      So that the Board were kept up to date on the work of the YHCP, progress to date and next steps.

This paper is designed to summarise key issues and progress which has happened in between meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB), giving Board members a concise update on a broad range of relevant topics which would otherwise entail separate papers.

The Vice Chair presented the report, which was written by the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The report included an update on the 10-year health plan for the future, for which a member briefing would take place on Thursday 2 October, presented by the Director of Public Health and the Interim Director of Place.

He reminded board members and residents of the importance of receiving vaccinations at this time of year.

There were no questions, and it was

Resolved:   That the Health and Wellbeing Board noted the report.

Reason:     So that the Board were kept up to date on: Board business, local updates, national updates, and actions on recommendations from recent Healthwatch reports.