Agenda item

-        Dave Richmond, Director of Housing and Neighbourhoods

Dave Richmond, Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services, presented a report on the poverty theme of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, setting out the extent of the problem, its determinant factors and highlight some of the approaches being taken to tackle the issue.

The Poverty theme had the following outcomes:-

Priorities

-          We will make an overarching commitment to reducing health inequalities particularly in areas suffering from a concentration of disadvantage

We will ask the Rotherham Partnership:-

-          To look at new ways of assisting those disengaged from the labour market to improve their skills and readiness for work

-          To ensure that strategies to tackle poverty do not just focus on the most disadvantaged but there is action across the Borough to avoid poverty worsening

-          To consider how we can actively work with every household in deprived areas to maximise benefit take-up of every person

Attention was drawn to the following:-

-          Much of the work was undertaken at a neighbourhood level as part of the Deprived Neighbourhoods initiative

-          The 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) had highlighted significant concerns in relation to a worsening position for Rotherham. 

-          Corporately, work was underway to develop a Building Resilience Strategy which would ensure a strategic multi-agency approach towards tackling the key underlying issues affecting poverty in the Borough.  Its 4 overarching objectives were:-

·           Maximising access to sustainable, decently paid employment and relevant training

·           Inclusive economic growth that benefits all of Rotherham’s communities

·           Helping people to thrive and fulfil their potential

·           Building social capital and helping neighbourhoods to flourish

-          A new approach agreed by Cabinet and the Rotherham Partnership based on local leadership and a long term commitment from partners to tackle inequalities in disadvantaged areas.  Cabinet Member and Strategic Director leads were identified for each of the 11 deprived neighbourhoods (as identified through the 2011 IMD) as well as Area Co-ordinators with the remit of:-

·           Developing a local rich picture

·           Putting in place governance and engagement strategies

·           Establishing an action plan

·           Making connections with the key players from other agencies to deliver the action plan

-          Each priority area had been evaluated to assess progress with emerging issues set out in the report submitted.  The following actions were recommended:-

·           Children, Young People and Education – stronger links needed to be created between the Area Co-ordinators and the learning communities.  Young people in deprived neighbourhoods were not achieving England and Maths to the Local Authority average and of the 16 learning communities predominantly those in the deprived communities were below the Local Authority average

·           Adult Skills – increased community engagement activity to build up the connectivity within a community.  Consideration to be given to outreach support work in the geographical areas with targeted groups of greatest need.  From the 2011 census, 40% of those in deprived neighbourhoods had no qualifications and only 19% had a Level 3 qualification or above

·           Employment – targeted action had been undertaken to tackle unemployment.  Unemployment and inactivity had to be reduced in order to narrow the distance between neighbourhoods of entrenched worklessness and the City Region average

·           Health – ensure those working in deprived neighbourhoods were trained in Making Every Contact count, actively promote the availability of free school meals/Health Schools Meals Policies, distribute information regarding the dangers of cheap and illicit tobacco and Area co-ordinators to contact general practices to raise their awareness of local health provision in the community and provide community feedback to the practice.  Smoking rates in Rotherham were higher than the England average for the general adult population, in pregnancy and for young people as well as the rates of overweight and obesity in adults.  The percentage of Rotherham’s adult population with increasing and high risk drinking was similar to the England average but had significantly higher numbers of hospital stays for alcohol-related admissions

·           Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour – improve the process for determining what local actions and resources should be applied to emerging problems

·           Environmental – data showed that there had been a general increase in the number of complaints made about waste accumulations/flytipping but a marked reduction in complaints about dog fouling and litter.

·           Community Engagement – all Co-ordinators to recognise the value of community involvement as a key method of raising aspiration and use community engagement as the focus of cascading information on adult education, employment, health and environment, increase resources, work closer with the Customer Engagement Team to target ‘communities of interest’ within the disadvantaged areas, improve links to schools within the 11 communities, closer links to environmental work and establish a ‘plan of engagement’

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues clarified:-

-          “Ask me about the Flag” – in an attempt to improve fuel poverty, the Repairs contract workforce wore the badge for any tenant to ask them about their energy requirements.  They could carry out boiler and thermosat checks, give energy saving advice, provide contact number for energy providers and refer people to specialist financial advice etc.

-          9 out of the 11 neighbourhoods had a specific priority relating directly to health inequalities whilst others had actions which impacted on health. There was very little mention of mental health and disability both of which were real barriers to employment.  It was acknowledged that the main issues coming forward, and focussed upon, from the 11 deprived neighbourhoods related to Obesity, Alcohol, Smoking, Breastfeeding and Healthy Lifestyles.  However, there were a whole raft of things taking place that were interlinked.  Mental Health was 1 of the key priorities of the Better Care Fund (BCF) and actions that been taken under that heading would also impact on this workstream.  It was also fair to say that mental health issues were not confined to areas of deprivation but occurred Borough-wide.  The workstream was attempting to address a set of 5/6 priorities on a  Borough-wide basis and working with people in those neighbourhoods to identify the issues that had arisen from the statistics and local people in order to devise a plan that should link up with Borough-wide issues.  The Health and Wellbeing Strategy and BCF recognised mental health, loneliness, isolation, the need to support people, need to catch people early, primary and secondary care.  They were not highlighted in the deprived neighbourhoods works as there was service provision on a Borough-wide basis

-          Not a lot of work had taken place yet with regard to engagement with GPs.  It was an area for development

Resolved:-  That the progress made against the objectives within the Poverty workstream be noted.