Agenda item

This report provides the Joint Board with further information concerning the Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) Prevent Action Plan. This Plan has been developed to align and coordinate preventative actions within the NHS and other public-sector organisations with existing Local Authority Public Health programmes and pathways.

Discussion:

Medway Council’s Director of Public Health set out the importance of the prevention workstream within the Kent and Medway STP in delivering financial savings, improving health outcomes for service users and bringing wider community benefits. Emphasis was given to the need to embed prevention across all of the Kent and Medway STP workstreams, with particular consideration given to prevention when commissioning or re-designing health and social care services.

In introducing the latest iteration of the Prevention Action Plan, set out at Appendix 1 of the report, Medway’s Director of Public Health highlighted that the Kent and Medway Public Health teams had collaborated with partners to develop the Plan. This included patients and members of the public, in addition to the agencies set out at paragraphs 4.4 and 4.5 of the report.

In response to a question concerning the challenges in measuring the impact of the prevention workstream, it was explained that the Prevention Action Plan was accompanied by a detailed work programme and that the outputs and outcomes could be quantified by the Local Authority Health Intelligence Teams. The Joint Board was advised that it would receive updates on progress towards delivery of the Prevention Action Plan.

A Member commended the report. He also expressed a view that wider issues, beyond public health matters where prevention was also important, could have been addressed within the report. He gave examples including falls, loneliness and suicide prevention. Medway’s Director of Public Health recognised that these were important areas for consideration and that these topics could be considered in greater detail at future meetings of the Joint Board. He added that with regards to suicide prevention, funding of circa £700,000 had been secured for suicide prevention work across the Kent and Medway STP area in 2018/19.

A Member suggested that the links between the prevention workstream, General Practitioners (GPs) and local care initiatives, such as social isolation/ social prescribing work, should be better. In response, the Joint Board was advised that the prevention workstream was advised by the Clinical and Professional Board and that a GP co-production task and finish group had been established by the prevention workstream. It was added that this GP forum had reviewed the Prevention Action Plan.

Members expressed support for the Joint Board to establish a set of key measurable outcomes which focus on prevention and local care and which were aligned with the STP workstreams. It was suggested that the Joint Board monitor achievement of these outcomes via a dashboard showing trends and including a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating.

A Member commented that updates on activity within the Prevention Action Plan focussed principally on Medway. It was requested that future iterations of the Plan provided updates for both Kent and Medway. The Joint Board was advised by Medway’s Director of Public Health that the Prevention Action Plan was held on an online portal which was regularly updated by partners and would ensure future updates reflected activity and progress in Kent and Medway.

In response to a concern that the Prevention Action Plan did not address drug and substance misuse, the Joint Board was advised that Local Authorities were already obliged to address substance misuse and that the Action Plan had focussed on addiction, in particular nicotine addiction. It was explained that the focus was on nicotine addiction because this affected the largest adult cohort. It was added that under the Kent and Medway STP, there was an opportunity to enhance interventions in key areas to achieve a faster reduction in the number of people stopping smoking.   

Decision:

The Kent and Medway Joint Health and Wellbeing Board:

a)    noted the progress of the prevention workstream and supported the priorities and actions identified within the Prevention Plan;

b)    agreed that at the next meeting of the Joint Board consideration would be given to proposed prevention and local care outcomes which can be measured and monitored during the life of the Joint Board; and

c)    recommended that the outcomes agreed by the Joint Board be presented to the Local Care Implementation Board.