Agenda item

Karen Sharp (Head of Public Health Commissioning, Kent County Council) was in attendance for this item.

(1)      The Chairman welcomed Ms Sharp to the Committee. Ms Sharp introduced Public Health’s programme of work and proceeded to give a presentation (attached as a supplement to the Agenda pack) which covered the following key points:

§  Drivers for Change

§  Timeline

§  Review of outcomes and performance for smoking; healthy eating, physical activity and obesity; alcohol and substance misuse; wellbeing; and sexual health & communicable disease

§  Market engagement

§  Key themes of transformation

§  Revised local public health model

(2)       Members of the Committee then proceeded to ask a number of questions and make a number of comments. In response to a specific question about the value for money of smoking cessation services, Ms Sharp explained that people were most likely to give up smoking if accessing a smoking cessation service; she acknowledged that these may not always be value for money and providing interventions in a different way could be more successful. She highlighted a motivational insight case study of a group of young women in Sheerness who were smoking in pregnancy. They were reluctant to access a dedicated smoking cessation service and were not aware of the long term effects of smoking. She considered that it may be more appropriate for professionals to deliver smoking cessation services to these young women in trusted environments such as Children Centres.

(3)       Members enquired about engagement with the public and Troubled Families. Ms Sharp explained that the pilot of mobile NHS Health Checks had been effective in capturing people who might not have previously accessed a health check. She stated that it was an opportunistic approach which caught people in areas of high footfall. She reported that Public Health was looking at other ways to engage with the public using Mosaic data to profile how different groups were receptive to public health messages. She explained that Public Health was working collaboratively with different organisations to engage with the public such as the inclusion of public health articles in district council funded publications. She noted that people had to be motivated to make a positive change to their health behaviour; communities did not respond well to being told that their health behaviours were poor. She reported that engaging with Troubled Families was a key area; she acknowledged that many Troubled Families had serious health challenges and needed support to access basic services such as registering with a GP and dentist.

(4)       A number of comments were made about access to sexual health services. Ms Sharp explained that there were no plans to reduce provision of universal and specialist sexual health services. She noted the importance of early help services in preventing escalation to specialist intervention. Public Health was looking to at areas to integrate health improvement services and encourage motivation to change through the use of health trainers.

(5)       RESOLVED that the report be noted and the Director of Public Health be requested to provide an update on the Public Health Transformation to the Committee at the appropriate time.