Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Jo Parnell, Theresa Oliver, Dr Sahota, Graham Harris, Melanie Norris, Debbie Stock, Nick Moor, Lesley Bowles and David Turner.

There were no declarations of interests.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Dartford Gravesham and Swanley Health and Wellbeing Board held on 21 February 2018 are attached for confirmation.

Issues arising from the Minutes not addressed elsewhere on the Agenda can be raised at this item.

The minutes of the meeting of the Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Health and Wellbeing Board held on 21 February 2018 were agreed as an accurate record.

The Chairman may wish to report on any issues of relevance to this Board arising from the meeting held on 21 March 2018.

The agenda for the meeting is attached as an aide memoire.

The Chairman advised the Board of issues considered by the Kent County Council Health and Wellbeing Board at its meeting on 21^st March 2018.

The Chairman noted that work was well underway to create a new Kent and Medway Joint Health and Wellbeing Board which would meet regularly and would focus on the development of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan and the delivery of local care and ill health prevention. The Kent County Council Health and Wellbeing Board was now likely to only meet once a year to fulfil its statutory requirements.

The meeting had also received an update on the Ofsted recommendations from the Review of the Local Safeguarding Board carried out in 2017 and an “exceptions” report on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, a report on the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment and the Kent & Medway Safeguarding and Adults Board annual report.

The Chairman will report on any urgent item and determine its position on the Agenda.

There were no urgent items.

It was confirmed that all of the action points contained in the report had been completed.

The Chairman welcomed Simon Jones, Marketing & Events Manager, from Cyclopark Gravesend who gave a presentation on the work carried out by Cyclopark.

Mr Jones explained that Cyclopark was a charity with an outstanding venue which offered cycling, fitness and wellbeing across all ages and abilities and which sought to include all people by creating a unique “beginner to elite” coaching pathway. He felt that the charity could therefore help to address health inequalities and complement the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board. Mr Jones explained Cyclopark’s strategic objectives which included building upon having hosted the national BMX championships last year to host a World Cup event, to double the number of visits to cyclopark, to make it a true physical activity destination and to create a unique coaching pathway. Staff at Cyclopark believed in the positive benefits of cycling and fitness and this ethos pervaded the charity and helped to develop positive experiences for all parts of the community which would improve health and wellbeing. Cyclopark also had the benefit of being a safe place for children to visit and the skate park currently received over 12,000 visits from local Gravesham children and this attendance was increasing by 15% year-on-year. Cyclopark had also submitted a bid to build a roof and for coaching and further equipment which should increase the number of visits further. The facilities at Cyclopark included a car free and floodlit 2.5k road track which was used for elite races, coaching, schools, an inclusive cycling programme called “Cyclo 4 All” and general family days out and hosted a number of varied events with up to 3,000 people attending the BMX Championships.

There was also a plan to monitor attendance and to monitor the physiological outcomes and to encourage greater participation by children. Cyclopark was partnering HSBC to create a Cyclopark Coaching Pathway to enable riders to have a clear vision of how they could progress from Beginner to Elite level and to increase the number of cyclists visiting Cyclopark by 25%. Cyclopark was also expanding the number of programmes that it ran, including after school and holiday programmes, and had actively targeted schools by sending out a pamphlet before Easter. Another programme was Park Fitness which encouraged group training in the Cyclopark Fitness Centre and this had expanded rapidly since its launch in summer 2017. It was planned to introduce a junior membership programme. In addition Cyclopark held regular park events and Family Open Days. Cyclopark also worked with a local organisation, The Grand, to deliver a unique instructor led social programme which was producing positive results and promoting cycling as a recreational physical activity to disabled people with over 300 people having joined the Cyclo4all programme. Efforts were also being made to turn Cyclopark into a Family Adventure destination to attract visits from a wider geographical area which would increase the potential number of visitors enormously if successful. This meant adding further attractions such as the Cyclopark Play Track aimed at inspiring  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

The Board received an update from Alison Duggall on workforce development projects to support the Prevention Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP). A bid for funding to the Local Workforce Action Board had been successful and would focus on two priorities, smoking and obesity. Three projects had been identified to support this work stream, Motivational Interview Training (MIT), Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Brief Solutions Focused Therapy (BSFT). This training would initially be focussed upon NHS staff and would use the “train-the trainer” approach.

It was explained that the STP work programme and Action Plan were still works-in-progress and that as this was a programme rather than a strategy there had been no requirement to go through a public consultation process. The intention was to take a “whole system” approach to targeting obesity and promoting physical activity and looked to build upon experience of programmes piloted in London. It was also planned to provide a range of activities which could link into the services available at Cyclopark and local Leisure Centres. Work was also being carried out to promote smoking cessation and aspirations such as supporting the NHS Trust to be smoke free and initiatives such as in Ashford where the City Centre was now smoke fee. It was noted that in the past there had been weaknesses in terms of linking with work carried out by the District Councils and two Workshops had been arranged on Prevention and Child Obesity. In terms of the STP Work plan this had been developed whilst continuing to deliver existing services and a Steering Group established for each of the Plan’s priorities to take this forward with partners. A major difficulty however was the fact that the aspirations included in the STP were having to be delivered against existing ring fenced public health budgets and it was proving difficult within these constraints to take this work out to the CCG’s and Districts but it was hoped that Districts would interact with the planned Workshops (invitations to be sent shortly) and engage with this work.

The experience of work on tackling obesity in London was discussed and it was recognised that encouraging GP’s to “prescribe” physical activity was proving difficult to get off the ground and that there may have been obstacles to the programme which meant that it had been no more than a statement of good intent. It was noted that there had been an evaluation of the outcomes of the work in London and that the NHS was becoming more receptive to such programmes given its revised focus on prevention with the CCG’s and NHS looking at ways of building new links so that the tide might be turning in favour of primary care and social prescribing. It was felt that there had been progress in developing local hubs and it was hoped that the STP Action Plan and involvement of local partners would help to move this forward and to build on the existing work already taking place in the community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

The Chairman said that he had reflected on the current role and relevance of the DGS Health and Wellbeing Board and felt that there was a need to consider the purpose of these meetings. He felt that events had moved on since the Board was established and felt that although there might be a meaningful role for it to play in future he was uncertain that it was currently fulfilling this. He said that he would contact Board members individually to discuss this further and whether the Board should continue or not or required a shift of focus. It was also noted that CCG attendance had been less regular recently and members wondered whether meetings may technically have been inquorate