Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report of the Director of Public Health which set out the proposed use of the Public Health Grant for 2014/15.  The report was introduced by Jeremy Wight, Director of Public Health, who emphasised that the philosophy behind the spending proposals was to address the root causes of ill health. 

7.2

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·                Attempts were made to join up all services and Public Health staff were now working in different parts of the Council, using the distributed model across Portfolios.  Many of these staff had worked together at the Primary Care Trust (PCT) and now liaised across the Council.  In addition they had contact with colleagues in the NHS, e.g. health trainers, so that the trainers knew what support was available.

·                £100,000 had been allocated to the Eat Well campaign to support the Food Strategy.  This was led from the Place Portfolio and included work by officers in the Children, Young People and Families Portfolio.  If it was felt that cook and eat classes would make a difference, then these would be organised.  The Healthy Communities Programme had operated cook and eat classes, and the Healthy Schools Programme linked with the Children, Young People and Families Portfolio.  It was accepted that child poverty and the welfare reforms were an issue with regard to healthy eating and obesity.

·                The Food Plan had been considered at the Economic and Environmental Wellbeing Scrutiny and Policy Development Committee and the implementation and effectiveness of the Food Strategy would be monitored. 

·                It was agreed that poverty was detrimental to public health, but the anti-poverty strategy was led elsewhere. 

·                Work was being undertaken with Job Centre Plus and GP Practices to remove barriers to employment caused by ill health, which appeared to predominately relate to mental health and musculoskeletal conditions.

·                £400,000 was being invested in Activity Sheffield, with additional funding being allocated to the Move More strategy and cycling opportunities.  The Healthy Walking sessions had been discontinued as they did not appear to be providing the biggest health return, with participants being people who were not usually inactive.  Public Health staff in the Place Portfolio worked with the Council’s Planners to encourage cycling and walking.

·                The zero funding allocations shown in the report for 2014/15 were as a result of those programmes being commissioned by other organisations.

·                To ensure that the Portfolio funding was used for public health benefit, the Council’s Chief Executive was required to sign off a document confirming this for the Department of Health.

·                The programmes invested in were monitored to ensure that funding was spent in the best manner possible, although in some cases, such as smoking cessation, it was not possible to obtain a full picture as some people would stop smoking without any support.

·                It was not thought that there was any link between oral health promotion programmes and food banks. 

·                Finding employment opportunities for those with learning disabilities was a difficult area, and helping them to stay in employment more difficult still.

·                Free school meals were seen as making a positive contribution to public health, as it meant that children and young people receiving them had at least one nutritious meal per day.

·                E-cigarettes were less damaging than normal ones as they contained less tar and, if used in withdrawing from smoking normal cigarettes, were seen as a good thing.  The danger with e-cigarettes though was that they tended to re-normalise smoking, particularly where young people were taking them up and they were proving to be a gateway to conventional smoking.  New EU regulations were looking to control the use of e-cigarettes.

7.3

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       thanks Jeremy Wight for his contribution to the meeting;

(b)       notes the contents of the report and the responses to questions;

(c)        requests that:-

(i)            it be kept informed of the performance of the Food Strategy; and

(ii)          the Children, Young People and Family Support Scrutiny and Policy Development Committee considers how children and young people were being taught to cook and eat healthily at school; and

(d)       requests the Director of Public Health to consider:-

(i)            whether it could view the 2015/16 Public Health Budget prior to it being agreed, so Members could have an opportunity to comment on it;

(ii)          the means by which details of where Public Health funding had been spent, together with confirmation that it had been spent appropriately, could be made publicly available;

(iii)         the provision of a statistical analysis at the end of each year on the effectiveness of Public Health spending;

(iv)         the establishment of a connection between Food Banks and the Oral Health Assessment Tool Programme; and

(v)          the most appropriate route for dealing with the effect of e-cigarettes in the City.