Public
Key Decision - No

HUNTINGDONSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL

Title/Subject Matter:	The Health Economy
Meeting/Date:	Overview & Scrutiny Panel (Social Well Being) – 6th January 2015
Executive Portfolio:	Strategic Economic Development, Legal and Healthy Communities
Report by:	Managing Director
Ward(s) affected:	All
Executive Summary:
The scrutiny chairmen and vice chairmen have an away day planned, and in advance of that there is chance to reflect on the priorities for the next municipal year. This paper starts off the discussion process about where the panel can make most impact.
Recommendation(s):
The panel reflect on the priorities and scope of the panel to offer some input into the upcoming away day and work planning session.

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1.	WHAT IS THIS REPORT ABOUT/PURPOSE?

1.1	To create a context within which the panel operates, and generate some choices about the priorities for work programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

2.	WHY IS THIS REPORT NECESSARY/BACKGROUND

2.1	Previously the Panel has been keen to establish clear roles and focus around supporting the health agenda for residents of the District. Much work has been carried out with the local hospital, and there is an appetite to explore how best scrutiny can support the delivery of the health agenda. The District Council actively promotes healthy lifestyles through the work of the head of leisure and health, and her leisure and active life styles teams. Attached at App 1 is the current health and wellbeing structure across Cambridgeshire.

3.	OPTIONS CONSIDERED/ANALYSIS

3.1	More scrutiny of the partners previously invited to the panel could be an option, but the landscape is clearly more diverse now that the new health structures are becoming embedded locally. There are other agencies who are actively involved in working with the council and the panel have the chance to involve them in future work programmes, for example how the health sector is planning to support the growth in population in the District, through primary and secondary care facilities.

3.3	The updated action plan for the Huntingdonshire Health and Wellbeing Partnership will be brought to the next meeting of this panel which will add more detail to the framework set out here.

3.4	The panel also have a scope beyond health which extends into the general area of social well-being, and this is an ideal time for the panel to give some consideration to the benefit that it could bring to the scrutiny of other people related District council services and outcomes. This could include skills and education, community resilience, community safety and the impacts of the 2012 health and social care act. Other areas for the panel to reflect on could involve consideration of issues around fuel poverty, how scrutiny can create a collaborative framework within which the council will work with their partners to procure and deliver services in a shared services arena.

3.5	More specific areas for exploration could look at scrutinising how physical activity can be promoted through planning, transport, and the physical environment, holding social landlords to account and perhaps looking at Equalities Impacts Assessments and how they can be used by scrutiny. Another suggestion would be to look at the whole area of community engagement. In recent times, community empowerment and engagement has become a key concern of neighbourhoods and communities, and has prompted many local authorities to focus on the associated problems. Local authorities have begun to examine appropriate and innovative ways of dealing with the problems created as a result of a lack of community engagement and sought new ways to address it, scrutiny reviews and investigations have been a popular way to question the effectiveness of different approaches to community empowerment and engagement.
A final area for reflection might be to consider the local impacts of the welfare reforms and the introduction of Universal Credit - the impact on councils themselves in terms of the transition from other kinds of benefit, and assisting local people in understanding the changes, and the impact on local people of the changes themselves.

4.	KEY IMPACTS/RISKS?

HOW WILL THEY BE ADDRESSED?

4.1	No specific risks identified at this stage.

5.	LINK TO THE CORPORATE PLAN

5.1	The work of the panel supports the theme of working with our communities, in particular the outcome of improving health and well-being, but also improving community resilience.

App 1: Cambridgeshire Health and Wellbeing Structure 2014

CONTACT OFFICER

Joanne Lancaster

8300