Agenda item

To receive a verbal update and presentation from Liz Morgan, Interim Executive Director for Public Health and Community Services.

Members received a presentation from Gill O’Neill, Deputy Director for Public Health.

Gill O’Neill highlighted the following key areas:-

·            The summit had taken place on 25 March 2022, chaired/facilitated by Professor Chris Bentley and with the keynote speaker, Cormac Russell and was working towards production of an Inequalities Plan for Northumberland. 

·            The event was not badged under any one organisation but aimed was to bring together a number of inequalities plans.  Discussions included immersive experience, sharing examples of local best practice, social determinants and holding ourselves to account to deliver.

·            Key Messages from Cormac Russell

·            Asset Based Community Development – working alongside communities and enabling them to do things for themselves.

·            Key Messages from Professor Chris Bentley

·            Thinking about issues from a civic level responsibility perspective and what were the best levers to use all the tools in the tool box but also how best to enhance services at the right time and right place but also what could come from community.  This would enable true ‘Place’ based working.

·            Interface between civic and community and services and community

·            Workshops identified the current position regarding civic into community seams and services into community seams.  Discussions surrounded moving from Emerging/Developing/Maturing and Thriving.  Attendees’ opinion had been that Northumberland was emerging to developing when considering the whole system how to best work from a community centred perspective and to maximise the opportunities with civic responsibilities, services and empowering communities.  However, it was stressed that there were pockets of mature and thriving examples.

·            Key Ambitions

·            Improve data and insights sharing

·            Upscale community centred approaches as the core delivery model, using the three questions from Cormac Russell

·            What is it that communities can do best?

·            What do communities require help with?

·            What do communities need outside agencies to do for them?

·            Align the organisations and resources from a cultural and workforce perspective.

·            Look at everything through an inequalities lens.

The following comments were made:-

·            It was acknowledged that there was disappointment from the voluntary sector representative that they had not been invited to attend the event.  Invitations had been very restricted in order to keep the event COVID-19 safe.  It was noted that invitations had been spread out over the NHS, Local Authority, private sector and VCS.  Advice had been taken from Citizens Advice and Northumberland Communities Together on attendance by VCSE organisations.  The Summit had only been the start of the conversation and there would then be further local events to enable a richer conversation.  Membership of the Task Group referred to was still to be discussed. 

·            Although there had not been an opportunity for members of the local community to attend, there had been video injects such as from the group ‘Forget-Me-Nots’, from a young man about his life experience and from a front line teacher.

·            It was good to be recognised to be at the ‘Emerging’ stage and that a culture change was required.  It was suggested that ‘Emerging Together’ may be a more appropriate title.

·            The aim was to decide what more could be done across a range of areas.  Ideally the Action Plan should be ready by September 2022 in order to feed into the 2023/24 budget process.

·            It was stressed that the summit was an ‘Inequalities’ Summit and not a ‘Health Inequalities’ Summit.  A shift in thinking was required in terms of the collective understanding of what health was and what created a healthy life.  The prevailing narrative was that health was the absence of disease and driven by personal responsibility, making healthier choices, and how health services were accessed.  Focusing on ‘Inequalities’ required a move to thinking about the wider determinants as the building blocks of a healthy life.

·            How the citizen’s voice was written into the Action Plan would be very important.

RESOLVED that

(1)     a Task Group be established under the Health & Wellbeing Board to progress the locality events and the Action Plan.

(2)     the Summit’s priority areas be agreed and included in the Inequalities Action Plan.

·            To agree better share data and insights.

·            To agree to work towards and embed a shred understanding and delivery of a community centred approach

·            To work together to better share resources

·            To consider all policies, strategies and action plans through an inequalities lens.

(3)     to work towards a draft plan in the summer of 2022 and to formally sign it off in September 2022.