Agenda item

            The Head of Environmental Health informed the Members that the Council’s key objective was to improve the quality of life in the City.  She reported that one of the greatest quality of life issues affecting the City related to health and wellbeing and that there continued to be a significant difference between the health and life expectancy of people living in deprived areas and those in more affluent areas.  She pointed out that this health gap, together with the health of the general population in the City, was worse than that encountered in many other cities within the United Kingdom.  She explained that these issues could not be addressed solely by the Health Service as they related to many other social, economic and environmental factors, such as employment, education, housing, social inclusion, access to leisure and people’s lifestyles.  She stressed that the Council had a key role to play in terms of service delivery, civic leadership and advocacy in addressing these issues and added that it had included the development of a healthier City as one of its key priorities under the ‘Supporting People and Communities’ theme of the Corporate Plan.

            She reported further that the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety had written to the Chief Executive of each District Council within Northern Ireland seeking expressions of interest from those which might wish to host a Regional Agency for Public Health and Social Wellbeing/Council joint working pilot during 2009/2010.  The Minister had indicated that Local Government had a major role to play in improving public health and in reducing health inequalities and was proposing that a number of pilot arrangements be put in place to test joint working between Local Government, the new Regional Agency for Public Health and Social Wellbeing and Local Commissioning Groups.  She explained that early proposals had suggested the co-location of health and social care staff and those from Local Government in order to support local government in taking forward its future power of wellbeing and community planning role and in the leadership of local inter-sectoral partnerships.  The staff involved would assist also in developing local health improvement plans, programmes and projects in order to reflect local community need and would support also the Local Commissioning Group in developing commissioning plans which would deal not only with health service provision but also with measures to prevent ill-health.

            She informed the Members that the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, at its meeting on 23rd January, had agreed to the Council submitting to the Chief Medical Officer an expression of interest to host a joint working pilot scheme.  It was recognised that it would be necessary to ensure that Elected Members were involved in the new arrangements from the outset and that they were provided on a regular basis with the necessary information in order to assist with decision-making and policy development.  A further report would be presented to the Committee at a later date in order to gain agreement on how the matter should be progressed.

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided.