Agenda item

A Health Inequalities Plan for Oldham

Minutes:

The Health and Wellbeing Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health that provided an update on the development of the Health Inequalities Plan for the Oldham borough.

 

The meeting was reminded that in November 2021, Health and Wellbeing Board members had discussed the development of a Health Inequalities plan for Oldham and a process for development. Since then, a series of working group meetings have taken place, with a significant amount of work outside of the working group, reviewing key themes highlighted in the Greater Manchester Marmot Build Back Fairer report.

 

The working group’s membership included: Oldham MBC Councillors, colleagues form the Public Health service, representatives from Employment Services, Children’s Services, Organisational Development, Housing, Oldham CCG/Integrated Care Service, Action Together, First Choice Homes, Oldham Community Leisure, Northern Care Alliance and Oldham HealthWatch.

 

As each theme was reviewed, recommendations from each session were drawn together to form the Health Inequalities Plan for the borough.

 

In terms of engagement and development of the plan there had been a retrospective review of various residential engagement exercises that had been carried out ahead of the working group sessions and the key themes from the engagement exercises were presented to inform the discussion and these included:

a.    The work of the doorstep engagement team, which reviewed themes generated from extensive conversations that had been held ‘on the doorstep’ with residents between from the period August 2020 to November 2021.

b.    Mental health, concerns about Anti-Social Behaviour, the environment and money issues were all key concerns that were raised.

c.    The Insight Tracker had reviewed all insights that had been recorded in the insight tracker by professionals across Oldham up to November 2021, with a number of themes raised around learning disabilities and mental health.

d.    The Community Champions Network had drawn on key themes that had emerged from several community champion network meetings during the pandemic.

e.    The Poverty Truth Commission had examined emerging themes around the extent to which staff can associate and empathize with people in poverty informed elements of the plan.

f.     The Early Years Strategy Consultation had observed a wide range of points raised by residents which informed the Children and Young People element of the plan.

g.    The Authority’s Homelessness strategy was studied to determine if it could be used as part of the development of the health Inequalities Plan.

h.    The Authority’s Covid-19 recovery plan included feedback from a wide range of residents who had offered their views on the impact of Covid-19 on their lives, which was particularly relevant to the employment related themes.

i.      The ‘Let’s Talk Oldham’ programme had seen residents identify a number of priorities that were relevant to the health inequalities plan as part of this engagement around the corporate plan.

 

The members of the working group had offered their accounts of client/service user experiences in each individual working group discussion. Dedicated engagement had taken place in the form of a Poverty Truth Commission session focusing on residents’ experiences of using health services. Wider themes around issues relating to access, trust and relationships had emerged which were relevant to all aspects of the health inequalities plan. Further engagement was planned with residents to review it in draft form and to ‘sense check’ the priorities outlined therein. It was stressed that further conversations with residents would still be needed to inform how actions were to be developed and delivered.

 

Resolved:

1.    That the report be welcomed.

2.    That the Health and Wellbeing Board notes the report and support further engagement with residents and wider stakeholders as the Borough’s Health Inequalities Plan is further developed.

3.    That after further consultation and engagement a finalised version of the Health Inequalities Plan be presented to the Board’s next meeting on 21st June 2022, for approval.

Supporting documents: