Agenda item

Mr Kevin Byrne, the Council’s Head of Health and Strategic Partnerships, noted that the issue of obesity had been of concern to the Board for some time and that a partnership action plan had been produced.  Work had been undertaken with partners in relation to breastfeeding but this had been delayed by the pandemic. 

The 0-19 contract had been agreed with Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) and would run until July 2022 and work was underway to rethink the programme.  The service offer for 0-5 year olds had been agreed and a condensed six week My Choice programme for school aged children would take place each term to increase throughput.  The National Child Measurement Programme would start again in all schools in September 2021. 

A survey was undertaken in February 2021 in relation to school packed lunches which parents often considered to be a healthier option to school catering.  There had been a high level of response to this survey with many parents indicating that they never included biscuits or crisps in their child’s packed lunch.  It was thought that there could be an opportunity to engage further after half term when the schools would be in more of a position to engage. 

The Healthy Start Scheme had been established in the 1940s and offered vouchers for vitamin supplements, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables to pregnant women and families with children aged under four who were in receipt of qualifying benefits.  The scheme had been relaunched for Hillingdon in June 2021 to raise awareness and officers were monitoring take up to gauge any resultant increase. 

The Council’s External Services Select Committee had just completed a review of children’s dental health in the Borough and its final report and recommendations would be considered by Cabinet.  The report provided a blueprint of actions that would help to reduce dental decay in children.  Councillors Palmer and O’Brien commended the Select Committee’s report. 

In February 2020, funding had been agreed for the SMILE programme to be rolled out in primary schools to teach parents and children basic cooking skills and to educate them on the impact of unhealthy choices on physical health.  SMILE would be piloted in Colham Manor Primary School and rolled out once schools were open again to introducing these types of activities.  Councillor Susan O’Brien suggested that consideration be given to also rolling the programme out to the Colham Manor Children’s Centre which was directly next door and that the distribution of toothbrushing packs be linked into it. 

Councillor O’Brien advised that she had found it difficult to find any local information about programmes being run in Hillingdon such as SMILE, My Choice and Healthy Start (a national scheme led by the NHS).  This had made it difficult to promote these programmes through social media.  Whilst all of these were thought to be great initiatives, it was queried whether their reach was being maximised.  For example, were the neighbourhoods teams being involved and work being undertaken to include social prescribing link workers, etc? 

Mr Tony Zaman, the Council’s Corporate Director of Social Care and Health, advised that pockets of activity tended to happen but that Hillingdon was approaching a shift in this approach.  Lots of good things had been happening but these needed to be put together and tracked against an outcomes framework. 

It was suggested that Hillingdon Health and Care Partners (HHCP) had become the environment in which local health and care needs would be addressed.  Public Health had been positioned well within this but, from a local authority perspective, it needed to be more centre stage and the associated budget needed to be more vigilantly tracked. 

The Children and Young People theme group at HHCP would be tasked with taking the Child Healthy Weight Programme forward.

RESOLVED:  That the Health and Wellbeing Board noted the progress against the earlier plan and commented on proposals for taking forward actions to support children’s healthy weight across partners and in the light of the current pandemic.