Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Wellbeing presented the Thriving Together health and wellbeing plan. She said that work had begun on the plan in the previous administration and a public survey had been carried out over the autumn in 2023 which received good feedback that has been incorporated into the plan. She said a focus group was held before Christmas to go through the updated version of the plan and the document was reviewed at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 16 January 2024. She said that there should be joint ownership of the plan by residents and councillors.

Councillor Hopewell proposed that the recommendation in the report be supported. Councillor Swainston seconded the proposal.

Councillor E Buckmaster said that it was good to see an update to this plan. He said that health and wellbeing was a broad subject and there was a balance to be struck over the role of the council. He said that there should be a strong emphasis on activity fitness, culture, the arts and planning who all have a role to play. He felt that the council had a role to be play with the integrated care partnership and Hertfordshire County Council with social care.

Councillor Carter said she was pleased to see a focus on children and young people as the Director of Public Health report 2019-2020 said that 8.2% of children in East Herts were living in low income families.

Councillor Deering said the Conservative group welcomed the report.

The motion to support the recommendation having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – That the Thriving Together health and wellbeing plan for 2024-2027 be approved.

The Executive Member for Wellbeing presented the Thriving Together health and wellbeing plan. She said that work had begun on the plan in the previous administration and a public survey had been carried out over the autumn in 2023 which received good feedback that has been incorporated into the plan. She said a focus group was held before Christmas to go through the updated version of the plan and the document was reviewed at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 16 January 2024. She said that there should be joint ownership of the plan by residents and councillors.

Councillor Hopewell proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported. Councillor Dumont seconded the proposal.

Councillor Dumont said that wellbeing was about more than just exercise but wanted to highlight the importance of exercise and physical activity. He said that obesity costed the NHS £6.5 billion a year and the council should act as an enabler and facilitated exercise groups and a wider scope of wellbeing activities. He thanked the Executive Member for allowing him to engage with his process.

Councillor Daar said that she was pleased that the administration had decided to protect the funding given to organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and Community Alliance who play an important part in delivering the action plan.

Councillor Buckmaster said he was pleased to see the continuation of this work and said there were other elements to wellbeing such as not being isolated. He said everyone had a role to play in the improvement of health and wellbeing.

Councillor McAndrew said that Bishop’s Stortford had a vibrant cycling community which encouraged learning how to ride and promoting women’s cycle groups. He said one of the biggest challenges was trying to influence the manufacturers of food to change what they put in what we all consume.

Councillor Crystall said that the Executive Member for Planning and Growth was doing some great work on local markets to make local food and fresh produce more easily accessible.

The motion to support the recommendations having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED -  That (A) the comments put forward by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be considered, listed in Appendix A, and endorse the resulting actions proposed by the Executive Member for Wellbeing as also detailed in Appendix A;

(B) the draft Thriving Together health and wellbeing plan for 2024 – 2027 be endorsed, as amended by Recommendation (a), and recommend it to Council for approval

(C) Delegate to the Executive Member for Wellbeing, acting in consultation with the Head of Housing and Health, the authority to (i) determine action plans to deliver the objectives in the Thriving Together health and wellbeing plan, pending its approval by Council, and (ii) authorise periodic progress reports

The Executive Member for Wellbeing submitted a report in respect of Thriving Together 2024 – 2027, which was the new health and wellbeing plan for East Herts. She set out the background to the paper and summarised the draft work that had already begun in respect of the Health and Welling Plan, including the work of partners in wider health and wellbeing services and ways to include residents.

The Executive Member for Wellbeing said that a helpful approach for residents would be to have this document as a broad mission statement and then have an action plan as a live document which would be monitored and updated on a more regular basis. She said that the Healthy Lifestyles Programme Officer had run a survey for residents that had been broadly advertised and a good number of responses had been received.

The Executive Member for Wellbeing summarised the broadly positive feedback and said that respondents had been given the option to receive further updates or to become part of a wider community group. She said that the report summarised some of the suggested changes and there had been a small focus group prior to Christmas with a few of the residents who had expressed an interest in being more involved.

The Executive Member for Wellbeing said that a number of further edits had been made following the focus group and she welcomed any comments or questions from Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Buckmaster acknowledged the amount of work and expertise that had gone into the report. He emphasised the importance of the document being easily understood and that there should be an associated “live” action plan document. He talked about ensuring enough flexibility so that various agencies and communities were able to engage with the plan.

Councillor Buckmaster said that the council should make sure that there was a measurable baseline. He referred to the social and community benefits deriving from council services such as Hertford Theatre and the leisure centres. He talked about the council’s cultural strategy and taking culture to the community if residents were unable to attend a theatre. He referred to the previous Forever Active programme from a few years ago and said that every councillor had a part to play in ensuring that the council reached out to as many people as possible.

Councillor Nicholls said that this work was important in tackling loneliness and issues related to mental and physical health in local communities. She referred in particular, to pre-empting the need for adult care as a way of tackling the consequences of neglecting mental and physical health. She welcomed the inclusion of arts and creativity in the health and wellbeing plan and talked about the provision of services in rural communities.

Councillor Carter mentioned that she had noticed that respondents were perhaps weighted to the older age group, and she felt that this should be looked at going forward in the next stage of the process.

In reply to a question from Councillor Andrews  ...  view the full minutes text for item 286