Agenda item

The Chair welcomed those present to the meeting.  Ms Sharon Stoltz, the Council’s Director of Public Health, advised that, although the Borough compared favourably to London and England, there were plans to improve the overall health of residents to address variation across Hillingdon: there were some pockets with far worse outcomes in relation to far shorter lives and higher rates of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer.  Action would be taken to narrow the gap but it was acknowledged that this would take time.  Some things could be improved over a short period but other changes would take a generation to have an impact. 

A review of the services commissioned in Hillingdon had been identified as one of the short-term priorities, for example, heath visiting and smoking cessation.  It was anticipated that the review would look a quality and outcomes and would ensure that the services were delivering what the Council needed them to deliver.  Giving a child a healthy start (from conception to two years old) would set them up well for life.  Members asked that they be provided with an update on this review of services at a future meeting. 

Consideration would also be given to how people of working age could be supported to be more healthy and how older people could be helped to be more active and prevented from being socially isolated.  Ms Stoltz advised that those areas of focus would need to be targeted using national data alongside local intelligence. 

Members were advised that the Public Health Strategy would be brought to the Committee in six months or so, once consultation on the development had been undertaken with partners and residents.  The Strategy could look at a ten year period (although it could be three or five years) and would be able to identify small, medium- and long-term priorities underpinned by a local outcomes framework that set out indicators that measured progress.  It was noted that not all indicators in the national framework were relevant to the local authority strategy.  The Council would not be able to look at everything and would need to focus on the most relevant issues which, in Hillingdon, would include childhood obesity, cardiovascular disease, heart disease, stroke and cancer.  Public Health would not be able to tackle these issues alone and would need to work in partnership with other teams from across the local authority, using Public Health grant and commissioning powers to achieve the greatest benefit.  It was agreed that the Committee would like to have a full meeting to look at the Public Health Strategy once it had been developed. 

With regard to proposals for the healthy integrated lifestyle offer, Ms Stoltz advised that there were currently separate services for different things like smoking cessation and weight management and separate referral processes to each of these services (which was fragmented and not necessarily helpful).  As people had such busy lives, it would be useful for them to not have to go to different places for the various services that they required, but rather to host all of these services in one place and address all of their needs at once.  Although it would be good to focus on this, it would require consultation with residents and service users to establish what would work best for Hillingdon residents. 

It appeared that Hillingdon residents were 15.4% more overweight and less fit than residents in neighbouring boroughs.  NHS Health Checks had been developed as an invitational national screening programme over a rolling five-year period.  Ms Stoltz was aware that Hillingdon’s performance had not met the required threshold but noted that there were no areas achieving 100% uptake.  The way that the service was commissioned in Hillingdon had recently changed so that it was now with the Confederation Hillingdon CIC rather than individual GP practices.  In addition, a new hypertension campaign was due to start which would encourage residents to get their blood pressure checked and, as not all residents appeared to know what the NHS Health Check was, it would be useful to raise the awareness and importance of attending these appointments.  Although it was possible to identify the number of invitations that were sent out and the uptake, it was not currently possible to split this information by sex.  Consideration could be given to whether this could be done in the future. 

Concern was expressed that the vaccination rates in Hillingdon appeared to be low.  Members asked whether or not it would be possible to identify specific areas where numbers were particularly low and to confirm whether or not the uptake in the Heathrow Villages was low.  Ms Stoltz noted that vaccinations was an interesting area as it was the responsibility of the Integrated Care Board but the Council had a statutory duty to have an oversight of the health and wellbeing of its population.  The maternity service delivered vaccinations to pregnant women and GPs did the early childhood vaccinations.  Access did impact on uptake as vaccinations were a choice in the UK but, if they were not able to get to their GP, it was queried whether residents would be able to get their vaccinations from a pharmacy.  It was agreed that health partners would be contacted and asked to provide information about vaccinations prior to the meeting on 26 March 2026 when they would be attending to provide updates. 

It was noted that social media had had an impact on the vaccination uptake.  As such, it would be important to get evidence-based, reliable information out to parents to tackle the myths that had been raised in social media.  It would also be important to ensure easy access to vaccinations such as flu and to look at how information could be communicated to residents. 

Concern was expressed about the number of parents that had not attended an early years appointment to have their child’s ten month vaccination review.  Ms Stoltz advised that the data included in the report had been based on GP registrations and related to 2023/24, so was not current and did not indicate whether or not the interventions that had been put in place had worked.  As such, the Council needed to look at how it could work collaboratively with GPs and the NHS to get earlier and easier access to the most recent data. 

It was noted that it was important to have proactive health professionals as, if they were ambivalent, they would be less able to help someone to understand why vaccinations were important.  These members of staff needed to be provided with training to help them to become more confident about educating and supporting parents to get their children vaccinated.  As asylum seekers tended not to bring their vaccination history with them when they arrived in the UK, their vaccinations were started again from scratch and needed to be caught up (which might have had a small impact). 

The report noted that the overall health in Hillingdon was good, but that there was significant variation between communities.  Ms Stoltz advised that it was possible to break this information down by Ward and that she would be able to pull a presentation together to share with Members of the Committee. 

RESOLVED:  That:

1.    Ms Sharon Stoltz provide the Committee with an update on the review of services commissioned in Hillingdon at a future meeting;

2.    Ms Sharon Stoltz attend a future meeting in relation to the Public Health Strategy once it had been developed;

3.    health partners be contacted and asked to provide information about vaccinations prior to the meeting on 26 March 2026 when they would be attending to provide updates;

4.    Ms Stoltz provide the Democratic, Civic and Ceremonial Manager with a breakdown of the Borough’s health by Ward for circulation to the Committee Members; and

5.    the report be noted.