Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Wednesday, 27th March, 2024 7.00 pm - Agenda and minutes

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 8th February, 2024 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meetings held on 8th February, 2024 were agreed as a correct record.

To receive a presentation on the recent Public Health report from Simon Bryant, Director of Public Health and Johanna Jefferies, Associate Director of Public Health, Hampshire County Council. A copy of the Health Protection Annual Report 2022-23, is attached for reference. Mr Bryant and Ms Jefferies will be joining the meeting virtually.

The Committee welcomed Hampshire County Council’s Director for Public Health, Simon Bryant and Associate Director for Public Health, Johanna Jefferies, who attended the meeting virtually to provide a presentation on Public Health.

The Committee noted that upper tier local authorities had a statutory duty to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities by reducing the need for people to access health and social care. These duties were delivered by working closely with partners and were funded through a ring fenced grant. Part of the duty included commissioning mandated services including sexual and reproductive health, drug and alcohol treatment, school nursing, health visiting, the National Childhood Measurement Programme and NHS health checks.

The vision of the Hampshire Public Health Strategy was to improve the health of everyone living in Hampshire and to create a healthier Hampshire. This was achieved by increasing the number of years residents could expect to live in good health and by reducing the unfair gap in healthy life years between the most and least healthy. The Strategy was in place to create conditions that enabled residents to maintain healthy behaviours that help to prevent illness with a focus on reducing conditions that contributed most to poor health (smoking, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, poor mental health etc.). The activities within the Strategy were achieved through working with a wide range of partners, such as the local NHS, district and borough councils, local businesses and the voluntary and community sector. To make an impact, and reduce the gaps in health, local government were uniquely placed to act on the building blocks of health, these included, money and resources, surroundings, work, education and skills, housing, family, friends and community, food and transport. The Strategy links with other key population level strategies including the Economic Strategy, Climate Change Strategy and the Local Transport Plan and aligned it’s objectives with the Children and Young People’s Plan, the Adult Health and Care Strategy, the Hampshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy and contributed to the delivery of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight and Frimley Integrated Care System Strategic Vision.

It was advised that the Strategy had three main themes:

·         Healthy Places, Settings and Communities – rooted in the work with communities undertaken primarily by local authorities with Hampshire County Council acting as the anchor institution.

·         Healthy People – to provide health protection, respond to Public Health emergencies, provide health intelligence and deliver programmes that help to reduce the impacts of violence within the criminal justice system.

·         Healthy Lives – enabling residents to live longer by encouraging physical activity and activities on stopping smoking and substance abuse

It was advised that a high level Action Plan had been drawn up to set key actions and identify contributors and a liaison officer had been appointed to work directly with Rushmoor. The Committee also noted current work areas in Rushmoor which included, a focus on smoking services, a whole system approach to healthy weights and health walks, Balance, Glide and Ride and Energise Me activities.

Following a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

To receive reports from the two Cabinet Champions on their work during the 2023/24 Municipal Year (copy attached). The Champions are as follows:

·         Equality - Cllr Jib Belbase

·         Armed Forces – Cllr Nem Thapa

Cllr Sue Carter, (Democracy, Strategy and Partnerships Portfolio Holder), Jill Shuttleworth (Corporate Manager – Democracy) and Emma Lamb (Community and Engagement – Service Manager) have been invited to the meeting to support the item.

The Committee welcomed Cabinet Champion for Equalities and Diversity, Cllr Jib Belbase, and Cabinet Champion for Armed Forces, Cllr Nem Thapa, who were in attendance to give their annual reports for the 2023/24 Municipal Year. The Cabinet Member for Democracy, Strategy and Partnerships, Cllr Sue Carter was also in attendance to support the item.

(1)          Cabinet Champion for Equalities and Diversity

Cllr Belbase reported that he had invested significant time establishing and strengthening links with community leaders from a number of underrepresented and hard to reach groups. These included leaders from Asian communities including, Afghan and Keralan, and European communities including, Bulgarian and Ukrainian. On 13 March, 2024, a Cultural Awareness Event was held  which give community leaders access to key partners to raise awareness about UK culture and offered advice about accessing benefits, help reporting crime, fire safety at home, mental health and cost of living support, and volunteering.

It was also noted that arrangements had been made to host Gender Identity training for both officers and Elected Members in summer 2024 and Neurodiversity training had been undertaken with officers with further session planned for Elected Members. Cllr Belbase encouraged all Members to attend the sessions.

Cllr Belbase advised that all activities undertaken had been in line with the Council’s Equality and Diversity Action Plan and recommended that the Council continued to review the Action Plan taking into consideration revised working arrangements around the independence of the Rushmoor Accessibility Access Group (RAAG). Cllr Belbase also acknowledged the contribution and contiuned work of former Champion, Cllr Makunura, in relation to the RAAG.

The Committee discussed the report and raised a number of issues:

·         Ease of engagement – it was noted that most were hesitant in the first instance, but once connections had been made most were happy to engage

·         Asylum Seekers – – it was advised that a dedicated officer was now in post to support the Council’s broader resettlement work

·         Briefings with the Cabinet – It was noted that frequent briefing were held with the Leader/Cabinet and it was suggested that Members could contact the Champions should an issue arise in their ward that could benefit from Champion input

The Chairman thanked Cllr Belbase for his report.

(2)          Armed Forces Champion

Cllr Thapa reported on his achievements and activities during 2024, these included addressing cost of living pressures for veterans, continued attendance and development of connections with veterans’ hubs in both Aldershot and Farnborough and work to update the Council’s webpages with links, organisations and information to aid signposting. Work has also been underway to achieve the Gold Employee Recognition Award and since attending a workshop in January the Council had taken a number of steps to close the gap by meeting some of the criteria required. It was advised that there was still some work to be completed to achieve gold around understanding current staff connections to the armed forces, internal promotion and understanding of forces friendly policies, support for cadets and advocacy for the signing of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

To consider the Work Plan for the 2023/24 Municipal Year (copy attached).

A requirement of the Committee is to provide an annual report on its work and activities throughout the Municipal Year. A draft on the 2023/24 Annual Report, for review by the Committee, is attached for comment.

The Committee noted the Work Plan.

Consideration was given to the draft annual report and a number of suggestions made, these included an update on the work of the Farnborough Airport Task and Finish Group and involvement of the Cabinet Members at meetings.

In addition, a couple of suggestions were made for future meetings, these included:

·         Union Yard, Aldershot - lettings

·         SERCO

The Committee extended thanks to the Chairman, Cllr Mike Smith, for his leadership during the 2023/24 Municipal Year.