Agenda item

Health and Wellbeing Board and Engagement

Report of the Director of Public Health, SCC

Minutes:

8.1

Dan Spicer and Rosie May attended the meeting and presented the report.

8.2

Dan Spicer informed the Board that a review had taken place of the Boards ways of working in 2016/17 and it was felt that the approach to engagement was not delivering.  Steps had been taken to address the issue.  A small commission to increase engagement was given to Healthwatch and Voluntary Action Services.  Covid-19 had reinforced the fact that engagement was not delivering, particularly with regards to Public Health England reports and the Board needed to take further steps to increase engagement.  A Citizens Panel had been established, but there was a need to avoid a piecemeal approach.

 

8.3

Rosie May asked the Board for a steer on what the ambitions were for more engagement and which groups did the Board want to hear more from.  There was a need to look at how to coordinate health engagement across the city and ensure that engagement has an impact on decision making.  A working group was required and there was a need to ensure that evidence was available to show that the Board had listened and taken action.

 

8.4

Councillor Dawn Dale asked what could be done regarding the lack of BAME and young people representation on the Board.

 

8.5

The Chair felt that this was a valid question that the Board needed to tackle.  There was a need to break down barriers and get to a place where the Board was reaching out as far as it could.

 

8.6

Maddy Desforges agreed and said that action needed to be taken sooner rather than later.  If the Board was to ask for views, it needed to be prepared to invest time and commitment.  There would be a need to be realistic and make time to aggregate the information gathered and commit to taking action as a consequence of feedback received.

 

8.7

Judy Robinson felt that it was important to look at what we already know and thread what we have learnt through future plans.  The CCG has Statutory Regulations on consultation.  The Board did need to be more representative and meet more in the community.

 

8.8

Greg Fell said that the report was good and he agreed that there was a need for a working group.  It was important to build on the strengths and bring new voices to the discussions.

 

8.9

Terry Hudsen endorsed the report and asked how did we know who we needed to hear from.  It was important that it was not just Board members on the Working Group, but a broad range of people.

 

8.10

The Chair also endorsed the report and agreed that representation needed to be wrapped up with future engagement.  The Terms of Reference and engagement needed to be looked at in conjunction.

 

8.11

AGREED that an Engagement Working Group be established to develop a coherent proposal for consideration at the Board’s March 2021 public meeting.

 

 

Supporting documents: