Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director of Public Health

Members were provided with a high-level summary of performance for LiveWell Dorset; smoking cessation; weight management services; health checks and Children and Young People’s Public Health Service (CYPPHS) performance, with supporting data contained in the appendices to the report.

The Service was to deliver additionally on four key local health and wellbeing

priorities:

• reducing smoking, particularly in pregnancy and postnatally

• increasing family physical activity

• improving family wellbeing and mental health

• ensuring children arrive at school ready to learn and achieve.

Officers explained that Public Health Dorset and Dorset HealthCare senior leaders were working with partners on a number of phased implementation plans to enable changes to key elements of the new service model and operational delivery namely: workforce, intelligence, communications and digital.

The Board was updated on the performance of each service since the new procurement model had been implemented. It was considered that this was seen to be successful in what was being delivered, how this was being done and the benefits being gained.

Integral to improvements being made in public health and wellbeing was the LiveWell Dorset initiative, being a pan-Dorset integrated health improvement service, delivering consistent, high quality behaviour change support for people wanting to quit smoking, lose weight, be more active and drink less alcohol, having supported almost 30,000 people since April 2015. It was seen to be a successful initiative and was pleasing to see that activity had increased by 43 % in 2019/20 compared with the previous year, and was on track to meet the ambitious target of 10,000 people supported over the year, compared with 6,600 in 2018/19, this being driven by more digital users and by supporting organisations. 

The development of the next LiveWell Dorset Service Plan, for 2020/21, was being undertaken with already agreed development priorities being enhanced smoking cessation – with offers for hard-to-reach groups, including vaping - and further development of the digital LiveWell Dorset offer to increase the scale and reach of support.

Weight management - local weight loss services were delivered by two national providers, Slimming World and Weight Watchers, with access managed by LiveWell Dorset to ensure individuals were in receipt of behaviour change support before taking up the service. Access to services was good, with there being a 75 % increase in people accessing weight loss support in 2019, compared with the previous year. Services remained effective at reaching people living in deprived communities. The Board were pleased to see that the impact of services had increased in 2019 following the introduction of a new payment by results contract, with an increase in the percentage of people achieving and sustaining 5% weight loss at 3 months.

Smoking cessation – success was evident from the prevalence for smoking to continue to decline locally in line with national trends, driven by more people successfully stopping, fewer young people taking up smoking and the increasing popularity of vaping products which played a significant part as a popular and moderate alternative.

Health Checks - current performance for the delivery of NHS Health Checks was seen to be improving, but remained variable across Dorset. Since the new programme of provision was put in place following a successful procurement exercise, GP and pharmacy providers were delivering under the new contract, which showed some encouraging early indications of increased activity compared to the previous year.

Children and Young People’s Public Health Nursing Services (0 – 19 years) / Health Visiting – as health visitors and school nurses had a crucial

leadership, co-ordination and delivery role within the Healthy Child Programme, this Service, pan-Dorset, was high performing when compared with other services in England and, overall, parents and carers express high levels of satisfaction with the Service.

The Board were pleased to learn of the improvements being made and the

way this was being done, seeing the benefits of how the new model was

being applied and hoped this progress could be maintained and enhanced

where practicable.

Resolved

That the information on what activities there were to complement the Health Improvement agenda and how the performance of health improvement services and children and young people’s services was seen to be successful, be acknowledged and noted.

Reason for Decision

To update the Joint Public Health Board on Health Improvement activities and to note their performance.