Agenda item

The Board received a report presenting a suite of core standards for population health describing the evidence-based activity proven to improve population health outcomes for seven core population health themes comprising mental health and wellbeing, oral health, sexual and reproductive health; drug and alcohol service standards; physical activity, health protection, and tobacco control.

The core standards had been developed by the Greater Manchester (GM) Health and Social Care Partnership and co-designed by Public Health Practitioners and subject matter experts from the ten Greater Manchester localities following development of a GM Population Health Outcomes Framework.  Linked to the Framework, the standards aimed to reduce variations in population health outcomes across the city region and to increase the uptake of activities which are proven to be effective.The standards had been consolidated into a single document to provide localities with an evidence-based tool to review current local activity and identify any gaps in evidence.

The document, ‘Greater Manchester Common Standards for Population Health’ was appended to the submitted report.  While there was no requirement for localities to adopt or implement the GM standards, the Board was asked to review and provide feedback on those standards and endorse them for use in the locality.

The standards and measures were welcomed, the advantages of localities have commonality to support working together being recognised.  However, concern was expressed at the potential use of those standards and measures for benchmarking across GM, it being queried how the standards accounted for the differences between localities and what weighting measures applied.  There were known issues and challenges locally, and it was recognised that there should not be an adverse effect on staff undertaking good work because of the population demographic. 

Comment was made that many measures were system outputs and the extent and gathering of patient outcomes within the framework was queried.  The portrayal of these outcomes was queried also, people being keen to share their experiences on issues such as access to dentists, closed lists etc.

A reservation was expressed at the scoring mechanism presented for the Common Standards, comprising just three scores /assessment which, it was suggested, appeared simplistic.  It was noted that much of the content of the proposed standards was already measured in Oldham and suggested that the applicability of those standards to Oldham was the most important consideration.  Although not suggested, there was a concern that the GM level outcomes dashboard might impact into the quarterly assurance programme.

The importance of Oldham being able to decide on its own local priorities was emphasised.  It was queried how the dashboard information would be judged against local issues as it was important that priorities and how these are shaped should remain locally.

The Director of Public Health advised that weighting was built in to some extent in the outcomes framework and associated benchmarking, and such information needed looking at by Borough, rather than by population, as each Borough had its own challenges.  With regard to reflecting the patient experience, further consideration would be given to this point.  It was considered that the common standards and measures were a tool that would enable targeting of services, to see whether standards were being met, where service gaps were etc.  It was acknowledged that there were a lot of standards presented and suggested that the Board might wish to look at particular areas first.

The Chair noted that further local work needed to be done on the proposed standards and measures, noting concern at the potential for unrealistic targets and the need to be assured that targets were SMART and realistic.  It was suggested that the Board had Joint Strategic Needs Assessment sub-groups who could undertake some initial work, including scoring local services against the GM measures.

RESOLVED – That (1) further work be undertaken on the Greater Manchester Common Standards for Population Health to ensure that there are SMART and realistic targets, with mandated and non-mandated services, physical activity and mental health and wellbeing being referred to the appropriate Joint Strategic Needs Assessment working groups to assess and score local outcomes against the Greater Manchester standards; 

(2) a further report be submitted to the September 2019 meeting of the Board.