Agenda item

(A report by Emily Spicer, Assistant Director – Wellbeing & Community Leadership)

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead presented the report, supported by the Assistant Director – Wellbeing & Community Leadership. The report provided an update on the work of South and East Lincolnshire Partnership Healthy Living Board, including local opportunities the Partnership had provided in Boston in the last year in response to joint scrutiny recommendations.

In March 2024, the Committee received a report from Joint Scrutiny Panel around the establishment of the Healthy Living Board. The scrutiny was an opportunity for Members to help inform the Board’s remit. Membership of the Panel included Councillors Suzanne Welberry, Neil Drayton and Jyothi Arayambath. The scrutiny recommendation had rightly concluded that its role in health and well-being was not statutory or clinical but as a District Council it had a huge understanding of the needs of the community and opportunities to influence better health outcomes.

Recognising the broad scope of healthy living, including all the social and economic determinants of health, the Panel had recommended that the Healthy Living Board prioritise two areas locally and they were outlined in section 2.2 of the report. They were (i) activity and well-being, which included addressing inactivity to help improve opportunities for residents to be active; and (ii) working with communities to leverage unique links at place and engage with communities.

The Healthy Living Board had provided a platform for NHS colleagues, local charities and community groups to come and work with the Board, and it had given partners a way to work with the South & East Lincolnshire Partnership.

The report outlined the nine recommendations made by the Joint Scrutiny Panel from Section 3 within the report and provided an example of local delivery in response to each of those.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead drew attention to a couple of the recommendations, particularly at section 3.6 around increasing place expansion and activity. She indicated that Sport England had announced place expansion last week and she highlighted this as a good example of an opportunity the Healthy Living Board had given Boston which fulfilled both priorities of strengthening communities and helping people to become physically active.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead drew attention to section 3.7 of the report and the focus on providing a shift to prevention which was what most organisations were striving for as it would reduce poor health, reduce the risk of exclusion and reduce pressure on local services. This included examples of some of the prevention work, for example, a Lincolnshire based digital inclusion charity which helped people access and navigate support and give them confidence online. In Boston over 100 people had been engaged in those projects by coming to community-based drop-ins which had helped them access digital services and improve their skills and confidence, including data and devices.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead highlighted the success of the Household Support Fund, which included a large amount of discretionary welfare funding in Boston and the Healthy Living Board had overseen local delivery. She indicated that this had been delivered successfully by working with organisations on the Board to get the funding into the hands of the people in most need of support or help with household essentials.

Since its launch, the Healthy Living Board had administered over £1.6million in small grants for Boston residents directly for help with utilities, food and school uniforms. It had also supported projects with bed poverty, furniture and a huge range of other welfare needs. By the end of the financial year, it was estimated that the fund would have helped in the delivery of around 12,000 small grants and emergency support.

Members discussed the reports and commented as follows:

Clarification was sought regarding the duration of the Household Support Fund. It had been announced in October 2021 as part of the post-COVID response and in response to some of the changes in Universal Credit and welfare gaps. The Household Support Fund had been a local discretionary scheme with funding allocated to Lincolnshire County Council but locally accepted and delivered by the Healthy Living Board.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead was asked for more information about how projects, such as these, were monitored and asked to highlight some of the major successes. She confirmed that each project had its own delivery plan and that the partnership with Active Lincolnshire and the delivery of funding had been a great success. The Board had been able to demonstrate that they had the ability to deliver, had the governance and the role in the wider community.

The benefit of the local delivery of the Household Support Fund was also highlighted, with strong engagement with the third sector and other partners and the ability to get the funds out quickly.

Deliberation included the importance of green spaces, their promotion and the need to make better use of green spaces to maximise health benefits. Councillor Richard Austin pointed out the need for more active promotion of the eight large country parks within four miles of the centre of Boston as well as Central Park in the centre of Boston. The deliberation also included the need to provide better and more prominent signposting of green spaces on the Borough Council website. The Healthy Living Strategic Lead agreed to review the availability of this information on the Council website with IT and to consider what increased promotion with partners could be achieved, for example, with some of the local primary care networks and GPs who had started thinking about walking maps around their areas. Councillor Austin agreed to provide details of the information that he thought should be included in enhanced promotion of green spaces.

Members discussed housing conditions, including Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and homelessness. The relationship between poor housing and homelessness on health outcomes was considered.

Adopting healthier eating habits and increased child poverty was also considered. The Healthy Living Strategic Lead confirmed that the issue of housing standards and poverty was in the remit of social and economic determinants. Economic inclusion and reducing poverty were other strands which were specifically being updated on the recommendations made by the Joint Scrutiny Panel. She confirmed that the Healthy Living Board had a rolling agenda to consider a range of issues, including those raised during the meeting. Each time that the Panel met it picked a different theme to bring partners to together and agreed to consider the feedback of the Committee, particularly around food insecurity and the pressures on healthy eating.

Confirmation was provided by the Chairman that the Committee would be receiving a briefing on HMOs in due course.

In relation to the role of parish councils, it was confirmed that Parish Councils had not historically been involved in the work of the Healthy Living Board but the Healthy Living Strategic Lead confirmed that under Councillor Cresswell's Portfolio, she had now established a regular meeting with them, which occurred three times a year.

The position with local government reorganisation was considered and the importance of local communities leading the way in determining the needs of their communities. This had been taking place in the form of the creation of a volunteer team, supporting events, which included direct interaction with communities and strong relationships with Parish Councils.

The need for communities to come together was considered, including where communities may be harder to reach. The Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership confirmed that there were a variety of mechanisms to do this through small focus groups and bringing smaller communities together. This also occurred through larger events as well, for example, through the Boston Christmas celebration. The services of the Communications Team at Boston Borough Council were highlighted as an important strand of this work and included their networks in terms of the social media groups that were set up with a vast variety of different community groups. Relationships with key and well-established community leaders were also identified as an important part of communicating with communities as was the work of Portfolio Holders. Doctor’s surgeries, supermarkets and school networks were also used.

The Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership indicated that Councillors were well-placed in their wards to reach out to communities and she agreed to accept any new information from them whereby the Panel might be able to engage with in the future, including employment agencies.

The position with mental health needs was considered. The Healthy Living Strategic Lead confirmed that the Panel was part of the Boston Mental Health Partnership, which was led by NHS Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust. Their work also included prevention work to reduce mental anxiety, particularly around money and cost of living pressures.

The Chairman requested an update in the summer on the work being done to improve the website with information about green spaces and work to improve the profile of the Panel’s work.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.