Agenda item

Solutions4Health - Deep Dives

Minutes:

The Panel received a further update from representatives of Solutions4Health on the work being undertaken as part of the Eat4Health, Let’s Get Going, Cardiowellness4Slough and FallsFree4Life programmes commissioned by the Council’s public health team.

 

Detailed summaries of each of the programmes was provided to the Panel with the overall strategy being to take a preventative approach to address key local public health challenges.

 

·  Eat4Health – the project was in its second year and uptake was good.  An average of 10 people attended each course with 53% achieving a 3% weight loss or more.

·  Let’s Get Going – a healthy lifestyle programme aimed at 7-12 year olds and their families.  47 children took part between January to August 2018 with 97% of children and 100% of parents rating the course as very good or excellent.

·  Cardiowellness4Slough – an integrated healthy lifestyle service to help people stop smoking, eat healthily or reduce excessive alcohol intake.  The aim was to increase the take up of health checks to bring Slough up to the national target.  767 patients had been triaged through the service in the first six months of 2018.

·  FallsFree4Life – the service exceeded its target of 600 falls assessments in 2017-18.

 

The Panel welcomed the good work that had been commissioned by the public health team and discussed a number of issues including the ongoing support to help people change behaviours and live more healthily.  It was recognised that this was a long term approach and it was often hard to directly measure the effectiveness of preventative work.  A Member asked why the Let’s Get Going programme was currently only running in three schools and it was noted this was due to the resources available to invest in the project.

 

It was noted that the activity was funded through the national public health grant, which was being reduced by 15% year on year and would cease to be a ring-fenced grant from 2020.  The Panel agreed that it was important that public health programmes of this type continued beyond that, particularly where programmes were proving successful in Slough.  It was therefore agreed to make a recommendation to the Cabinet to encourage it to commit to continuing to support this work in the future.

 

Resolved –  That the following reference be made to the Cabinet:

 

“That Cabinet encourages members and representatives from Public Health, and other Council departments, to work closely with Solutions4Health in developing future integrated models for prevention and behaviour change that will continue to benefit and improve the health of Slough residents beyond 2020.”

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