Meeting documents

The Board considered a report by the Acting Director of Public Health summarising the findings by the Joint Public Health Board Task and Finish Group on the future of the Public Health Dorset Partnership. There was wholesale agreement amongst that Group about the successes and achievements of the Partnership to date and future areas for improvement. The report identified some key development areas arising from the Task and Finish Group’s findings, and presented recommendations from the moderation meeting as to how the Partnership should evolve under Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

The Task and Fishing Group’s findings were that:-

·        the delivery of Public Health as a shared service was being well managed and performing well,

·        how services had been commissioned had improved significantly by those arrangements,

·        key strengths included leadership and particularly the work to embed prevention within the Sustainability and Transformation Plans. The benefits of operating the shared service at scale, pan-Dorset, were emphasised too, and

·        future development should include understanding the importance of public health to the future success of the wider business of Councils and the NHS.

Members understood that collaboration with the Task and Finish Group on devising a clear set of proposals on how the Board should operate post LGR was necessary in order to better differentiate it from the work of the two Health and Wellbeing Boards. The Board understood what this entailed and the means by which it would be delivered, agreeing that any work should ensure regular representation from the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and in exploring the potential for the future joint appointment of the substantive Director of Public Health between the CCG and the Dorset councils. The Board noted that the Joint Public Health Board should focus more on governance and accountability for the delivery of public health services, and the use of the Grant. This would make the Health and Wellbeing Board’ strategic role in improving health and wellbeing clearer.

The Board recognised that it was critical that members of the two new councils had a fundamental understanding of what Public Health Dorset did and what its work entailed. As mentioned at the previous meeting, the opportunity should be given for an

improvement and enhancement of public health activities, in that there was a need

to expand accessibility to other councillors about what the Partnership did and how it

operated. This could be better achieved by ensuring that any future report included

reference to a public health impact assessment, which would draw attention to the

integral part public health played in each and every service. Members of the Board considered they had a part to play in conveying this message as best they could.

Moreover, it was still to be determined what model of governance should be adopted for the Board and the new councils would have a part to play in determining this.