Agenda item

Jason Page, Medical Director Rotherham Place Board, gave the following powerpoint presentation on Aim 1 of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy:-

Alignment of SY ICP Priorities with Rotherham’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy

-        Context for children’s health very similar in both strategies

Focus on both strategies on health inequalities and the impact of physical, commercial and socio-economic determinants on children’s health

Impact of the pandemic on children’s mental health

-        Focus of health areas very similar

1001 days, parental health, mental health, oral health

Children’s development, development of healthy habits (physical activity and healthy eating)

-        There was the focus on the SY Strategy on school readiness and this was also being promoted in Rotherham through activities in support of children and young people to develop well

-        This was also the focus of the ICP Strategy’s Bold Ambition – the area where more could be achieved by working together across South Yorkshire:

Focus on development in Early Years so that every child in South Yorkshire was school ready

Raise the level of school readiness in South Yorkshire and close the gap in those achieving a good level of development between those on Free School meals and all children by 25% by 2028/30

The Context

-        School age population has increased between 2011 and 2021, the number of children aged 0-4 has decreased from 15,738 in 2011 to 14,645 in 2021 (7% reduction)

-        The percentage of children living in poverty in Rotherham was higher than regional and England averages with an estimated 17,700 children and young people aged 0-15 living in families whose income was less than 60% of median income (2021)

-        Child obesity rates were also higher than national average – in 2022/23, 22.2% of reception age children were overweight or obese compared to 21.3% nationally and 41.1% of Year 6 children were overweight or obese compared to 36.6% nationally

Cross-Cutting Activities

-        The Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme has continued to become more integrated, more partnership-owned and better connected to Aim 1.  In particular, starting with a Partnership Maturity Self-Assessment workshop in February, the delivery plan has been redesigned into transformation and topic workstreams with better ownership and support

-        The Best Start Steering Group has since had oversight for all the Family Hubs and Start to Life workstreams outside of the main transformation workstreams (which are overseen by the Family Hubs Operational Group)

-        Outside of the Family Hub work, the Group has also continued to apply the Best Start and Beyond framework priority lenses to understand gaps and opportunities within the system through a partnership workshop that focused on school readiness on 19^th June

Strategic Priority 1: Develop our approach to give every child the best start in life

-        20 peer supports were now trained (with future training places filled) 6 of whom are actively providing peer support

-        The first breastfeeding friendly business has been recruited.  Breastfeeding friendly signage was now in libraries and Family Hubs and the Council’s health and wellbeing page would provide a sign-up space and a directory of breastfeeding friendly venues

-        The pilot universal 3-4 month visit was on track to achieve 70% coverage

-        The Start for Life Offer booklet had now been printed and launched a celebratory event with a Parent-Carer Panel in Clifton Park last month

-        The booklet contained QR codes linking to the digital version, the Family Hubs pages and other resources ensuring a sustainable approach

-        Once Baby Pack were distributed the booklet would be included (likely to be in Quarter 4)

-        Maternity Service on track to meet actions in 3 year delivery plan

Strategic Priority 2: Support children and young people to develop well

-        The successful launch of the SEMH Continuum of Need, competency frameworks and guidance documents at the SENCO network meeting in June

-        Collaborative work with schools, the voluntary sector and CAMHS was now planned to implement and embed the Social Emotional and Mental Health Continuum of Need and Competency Framework

-        Work continued to identify children who were eligible for places

-        Overall take-up of 2 year old early education for 2022/23 was 90.9%.  This was an improvement on last year and was above the latest benchmarking data for statistical neighbour average, national average and Yorkshire and Humber average

-        In the Central area of the Borough take-up remained in line with Spring 2023 at 74.29%

-        69 Golden Tickets were issued in Spring 2024 to target harder to reach communities alongside translated leaflets to encourage take-up within these areas.  7 Golden Tickets were used by families this term

Areas to address and next steps

-        No action under Aim 1 was off track

-        There was the need to continue to strengthen the Family Hubs as a setting for achieving Aim 1 priorities

-        The issue of obesity among children still required more attention.  The Rotherham rate was higher than the national average

-        There was the need for wide distribution of the booklet on ‘Giving Your Child the best Start in Life’ which should be helped by the advent of  Baby Packs

-        Continuous support to make sure that eligible Early Years children took up their places

-        What should be the focus for the refreshed Health and Wellbeing Strategy

It was felt that there had been a lot of emphasis on babies and the first 1001 days but there was now the need to develop the priority to encompass older children and engage with teenagers.

Jason was thanked for the presentation.

Resolved:-  That the presentation be noted.