Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2022 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that, in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, they are required to consider in advance of each meeting whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI), an other registrable interest (ORI) or a non-registrable interest (NRI) in relation to any matter on the agenda.  If advice is needed, Members should contact the Monitoring Officer in good time before the meeting.  

If any Member or co-opted Member of the Council identifies a DPI or ORI which they have not already registered on the Council’s register of interests or which requires updating, they should complete the disclosure form which can be obtained from Democratic Services at any time, copies of which will be available at the meeting for return to the Monitoring Officer.

Members and co-opted Members are required to disclose any DPIs and ORIs at the meeting: -

·     Where the matter relates to a DPI they may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must not stay in the meeting unless granted a dispensation.  

·     Where the matter relates to an ORI they may not vote on the matter unless granted a dispensation.   

·     Where a Member or co-opted Member has an NRI which directly relates to their financial interest or wellbeing, or that of a relative or close associate, they must disclose the interest at the meeting, may not take part in any discussion or vote on the matter and must not stay in the meeting unless granted a dispensation.  Where a matter affects the NRI of a Member or co-opted Member, section 9 of Appendix B of the Code of Conduct sets out the test which must be applied by the Member to decide whether disclosure is required.

The Chair will invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3, to be recorded in the minutes.

There were no disclosures of interest declared at the meeting.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There was no urgent business for discussion by the Health & Social Care Sub-Committee at this meeting.

The Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is provided with a series of reports from health & care partners which will provide the Sub-Committee with an overview of provision in the borough. Reports have been provided by: -

-        South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (attached)

-        Croydon Health Service NHS Trust & South West London CCG

-        Croydon Council’s Public Health service

-        Croydon Council’ s Adult Social Care service

The Sub-Committee is asked to consider this information when setting its own work programme for the year ahead.

The Sub-Committee considered a series of reports set out in the agenda which provided an overview from the Social Care, Public Health and Healthcare partners on their priorities for the year ahead. The updates were provided at the meeting to assist the Sub-Committee with setting its work programme for the year ahead. 

During the introduction to section on Public Health, delivered by Public Health Consultant, Helen Harrison, the following points were noted: -

·       The Public Health team had been reviewing and resetting its priorities over the past four months following the previous two years of covid. These priorities were set out in the Public Health Service Plan, which included metrics to measure improvement.

·       The role of Director of Public Health was statutory and focussed on improving health outcomes and reducing health inequality in the borough.

·       The team took a whole population approach, which sought to understand the wider determinates on people’s health, using intelligence, to focus resource on those actions that would have the most impact.

·       It was acknowledged that the full extent of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis upon health was not yet known.

·       There was an opportunity in the year ahead to redesign sexual health services. It was also possible there would be new funding becoming available for addiction services.

Following the introduction, the Sub-Committee was given the opportunity to question the information provided by the Public Health team. The first question concerned the use of data from the 2021 Census, which was in the process of being released, and vaccination data to drive improvement. Regarding the census data it was confirmed that the initial high level demographic data had only just been released, but there was a team in the Council that would lead on processing the data. Vaccination data was already used to target activity with a view to increasing vaccination rates.

It was questioned how account was taken of both residents and patients voices when Public Health commissioned new services. It was confirmed that a consultation plan was created as part of the commission process that used a targeted approach that aligned to what was being commissioned. The team also used needs assessments including both qualitative and quantative data.  Going forward the teams planning to build the use surveys into its work, proactively collect feedback, as traditionally the service had been led by centrally collated data. This would help to ensure the team was hearing from residents as much as possible

Concern was raised about the perception that sexual health services available in Croydon may not be as good as those provided in other boroughs. As such it was questioned how the review of these services was progressing. It was advised that there were opportunities within the service redesign for resident engagement, however it should be noted that there was a range of reasons why people went out of the borough for treatment for sexual health related conditions, which were not unique to Croydon. It was accepted that inequality was an area  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17/22

The Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is asked to note the latest update provided by the Healthwatch Croydon Manager.

The Sub-Committee received an update from the manager of Healthwatch Croydon, and co-opted member of the Sub-Committee, Gordon Kay, on the latest reviews conducted by his organisation. The first review had looked at resident’s views on the Covid vaccine, which had found 80% of respondents had been happy with their vaccination. Of the 20% who responded negatively, issues of trust were a reoccurring theme.

The other two reports produced by Healthwatch Croydon looked at the experience of residents accessing NHS dental services and their experience using dentist’s websites in the borough. These investigations revealed that there was variable access to dentistry across the borough and the websites for many practices were not as helpful as they could have been. Many of the patients contacted very much appreciated their dentist, particularly those who were able to access NHS dental services. However ,access to NHS dental services needed to be less variable across the borough.

Healthwatch recommended that there should be a local needs assessment undertaken for dentistry as the last review was in 2006 and the borough had significantly changed in that time. It was also recommended that there needed to be a greater level of information made available to the public to help raise the understanding of the dentistry system. Better communication was also needed to manage patient expectations and explain the cost of treatment.

The Sub-Committee welcomed the findings from the Healthwatch Croydon reports and agreed that dentistry in the borough maybe be something to review as part of the work programme for the year ahead.

Resolved: That the three reports from Healthwatch Croydon are noted.

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This motion was not required.