Agenda item

Victoria Tovey, Head of Strategic Commissioning – Public Health, and Dr Connie Wou were in attendance for this item. 

1. Mrs Tovey noted that the overall performance was positive out of the 15 Key Performance Indicators nine were RAG rated Green and one Amber. Five Key Performance Indicators were not available at the time of writing this report.

2. In response to comments and questions from Members, it was said.

(a) The Chair asked what could be expected from the 5 KPIs for which data was not yet available. Mrs Tovey said that they were not aware of any concerns. 

(b) Asked about One You Kent and reported inconsistent buy-in from GP’s surgeries with some referring several individuals and others none at all. It was also noted that some patients were unaware that they were being referred. It was questioned how this scheme was funded and if it was per individual referred. Mrs Tovey gave an overview of One You Kent and noted that 6 district councils provided the service alongside Kent Community Health Foundation Trust. It was said that there had been national incentives for referrals but they would always expect that they were informed of referrals with consent, it would be of concern if people were not being told about referrals. Mrs Tovey said they would investigate any specific concerns outside the meeting. Mrs Tovey said there could be a review of promotional materials.  

(c) Dr Connie Wou gave further information on the weight management pathway and the work being done to improve the service. There was work ongoing to streamline the referral pathway and to ensure that people were aware of referrals. Dr Wou said they welcomed further specific details if there was a concern. 

(d) The Chair asked for this to be looked into and Mrs Tovey said it would be and reported back. 

(e) A Member raised a concern that the triage process was too long which was discouraging patients from taking referrals and that there were issues with the communication pathways between different agencies.  

(f) A Member asked if there was a way to self-refer as this would free up capacity at GP surgeries. Mrs Tovey said there were a lot of individuals that chose to self-refer, especially after public information campaigns. It was also noted that the One You Kent website signposts to self-help resources such as apps and services were provided by third parties such as GP surgeries themselves.  

(g) Asked about the KPI target figures and if these were relevant and proportionate to the whole population. It was also asked if absolute figures rather than percentages could be provided. Mrs Tovey said that the services were impacted by COVID-19 with services such as NHS Health Checks shutdown during the period, therefore many of the KPIs were set in response to this but it was noted that the services had caught up very quickly which was why so many were green. It was said that each year KPIs would be reviewed to drive continuous improvement and many of the KPIs would be changed to reflect this and stretch the providers as much as possible. Mrs Tovey noted that further information on relative performance that was requested could be provided in the next update. 

(h) A Member noted that KPI PH15 had dropped under 95%, but that the target had been increased from 30 days to 10-14 days and that the full story behind this effort was not reflected in the data. The Member praised the efforts of the team to achieve this. Mrs Tovey said that they would report the feedback and noted that a decision was taken to push the measure. 

(i) Asked by a Member about utilising Kent’s social media platforms to promote Public Health messages to reach a wider audience. Mrs Tovey welcomed the idea and would feed it back to the communications team.  

(j) Dr Ghosh said that improvement was being made as identified by the green KPIs, as over the previous couple of quarters there had been reds and orange. However, the targets would be increased going forward to ensure continuous improvement. 

3. RESOLVED the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee noted the performance of Public Health commissioned services in Q1 2023/2024.