Agenda item

The Health & Social Care Sub-Committee is asked to:-

1    To note the content of the Director of Public Health’s Independent Annual Report; and

2    To endorse the recommendations in the report.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 13 to 26 of the agenda which provided the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health 2022. The report focused on how circumstances and experiences can impact on people’s health outcomes and spotlighted how these influences impact people unequally. The report discussed what can be done to reduce health inequalities across the life course and highlighted the work already happening around the borough to address them. The Director of Public Health introduced the item and summarised the report.

The Sub-Committee asked about the absence of women’s health and menopause services in the report and suggested that this became an item on the work programme for a future meeting. The Director of Public Health explained that they agreed that these were important issues and future Annual Reports may focus on these and related issues on sexual health, but that the focus of this report was specifically Health Inequalities. The Director of Public Health added that they took the issue very seriously and had co-founded the Menopause Support Group at Croydon Council. Members stated that they felt the lack of inclusion of menopause was an oversight and it was agreed that the Chair would engage in a scoping exercise with the Director of Public Health for a future work programme item. The Director of Public Health explained that they had been involved in the development the Women’s Health Strategy, which included menopause, and discussed the complexity of menopause support and the multiple partners responsible for providing these services and education around menopause.

Members asked why there had been less focus on the ‘Aging Well’ element, given that old age was featured as a key risk factor in many other reports, for example on COVID. The Director of Public Health explained that her Annual Report for the next year might consider this and that this report provided a reasonable overview of the whole life course and apologised if it was felt that the ‘Aging Well’ element was underrepresented. The Sub-Committee heard that the Director of Public Health report is an independent report developed on the health of the population, with a focus that the Director of Public Health chooses.

The Sub-Committee asked about the recommendations in the report, the budget for delivering these and how they would be prioritised. The Director of Public Health explained that this was not an action plan that this is an Independent report providing a compendium of health information for Croydon, and that Health Inequalities were not something that could be resolved by the local authority or NHS alone. The Director of Public Health explained that the report made a number of recommendations that reflected her view on measures that could be considered to reduce Health Inequalities that could be used by a number of organisations. Members heard that the Public Health budget was £22 million, but the content of the Annual Report was a separate statutory function to commissioning public health services with this ring-fenced funding, another statutory function of the Director of Public Health.

The Chair welcomed the content of the Annual report and stated that they hoped that Health partners in Croydon read and engaged with the recommendations. The Sub-Committee noted the report and thanked the Director of Public Health for taking the suggestions of Members into account for future Annual Reports.

The Corporate Director for Adult Social Care and Health explained that in South West London, a piece of work had been done around the Core20PLUS5 and this recognised the large Health Inequalities in Croydon. Members heard that the Director of Public Health and Health and Social Care were jointly engaged in work to ensure this resulted in additional funding for Croydon. The Chief Executive of Croydon Health Service NHS Trust stated that they felt the Annual Report was fantastic and agreed with the Corporate Director for Adult Social Care and Health that there were large Health Inequalities in Croydon. Members heard that funding allocations for Croydon were starting to change to target Health Inequalities and the greatest need as this was recognised; it was hoped that this trend continued. The Chair commented that Croydon had been historically underfunded in the context of South West London.