Agenda item

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to note and endorse the recommendations in the report and agree its publication:

1.    Strong leadership across many organisations will be needed. The Somerset Board and constituent organisations commitment to a refreshed Local Declaration on Tobacco Control, (including commitment to not work with tobacco companies). 

2.    Support to Trading Standards to enforce the new tobacco and vaping legislation. 

3.    Support local workplaces to develop smoke-free policies that adhere to smokefree legislation, public sector organisations in Somerset should be exemplar employers. 

4.    Launch new, fresh communication and training campaigns that take a compassionate approach to smoking, supporting front line workers and members of our communities to have non-judgmental Very Brief Advice conversations about stopping smoking at every opportunity with signposting to support that meets their needs. 

5.    Strong engagement with people in Somerset to develop a new Somerset-wide action plan which develops services to meet the needs of people to stop smoking and protects people from second-hand smoke and smoking-related behaviour. 

6.    Focus our support towards groups with the highest rates of smoking, use behavioural insight research to understand what will work best to help them to stop smoking as well as to create more supportive environment. 

7.    Support schools, hospitals and care infrastructure to embed clear policies for smoking and vaping. 

8.    Stop smoking services should be further developed at hospital sites so 100% of patients are asked if they smoke and offered support to stop. 

9.    100% of pregnant women and partners should be screened using carbon monoxide monitors at booking and throughout pregnancy, and provided with appropriate support. 

10.To hit the target of smokefree by 2030, there needs to be strong measurement of progress against the target of 45,000. A collection of performance measures needs to be agreed with constant monitoring; as many measures as possible need to be ‘real time’ with little time lag. 

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Lead Member for Public Health, Climate Change and the Environment, Cllr Graham Oakes, to introduce the item. Cllr Oakes explained the target set by central government of less than 5% of the population smoking; the benefits of stopping smoking; the different attitudes about smoking; the importance of listening to people; the need for a whole organisation response.

Cllr Oakes proceeded to hand over to the new Interim Director of Public Health, Alison Bell, and Rachel Handley, Consultant in Public Health. They detailed: the commitment to achieve this; the need for the whole health and care system to get behind it; that since 1971 smoking has killed 8 million people in the UK; the reasons behind why people smoke; how smoking affects us in Somerset; the current services provided; how we can achieve the 2030 target.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: the comments from Scrutiny Committee – Adults & Health; how to target hard to reach smokers; the need for integration with health colleagues; how professionals engaged in other support work can support people to quit; how to engage with community groups, workplaces, and drug and alcohol group; the need to normalise non-smoking; engaging with Local Community Networks; deterring new starters from smoking and how they factor into the statistics; work with other agencies to disrupt black market activity; the work done around young people vaping; trading standards and enforcement powers and the link to organised crime; how to engage different demographics and different cultural backgrounds; incentive schemes (including for pregnant women) and the evidence behind them; the tobacco industry and its support of vaping; support groups; the impact of national measures versus local measures; the change in licensing powers relating to vape shops and other policy changes relating to vape sales; the data around smoking in social housing residents; smoking near hospital and council buildings and how to deter it; the success of current stop smoking services; vaping stalls in local markets; the need to stop young people from starting vaping; whether there can be any intervention with commercial landlords leasing to vape shops; the need to engage local businesses; how to support our own staff to quit.

The Leader of the Council and other Members present highlighted their thanks to the former Executive Director of Public and Population Health, Prof. Trudi Grant, for her hard work and advocacy for public health in Somerset over the 12 years in post.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to note and endorse the recommendations in the report and agree its publication:

1.    Strong leadership across many organisations will be needed. The Somerset Board and constituent organisations commitment to a refreshed Local Declaration on Tobacco Control, (including commitment to not work with tobacco companies). 

2.    Support to Trading Standards to enforce the new tobacco and vaping legislation. 

3.    Support local workplaces to develop smoke-free policies that adhere to smokefree legislation, public sector organisations in Somerset should be exemplar employers. 

4.    Launch new, fresh communication and training campaigns that take a compassionate approach to smoking, supporting front line workers and members of our communities to have non-judgmental Very Brief Advice conversations about stopping smoking at every opportunity with signposting to support that meets their needs. 

5.    Strong engagement with people in Somerset to develop a new Somerset-wide action plan which develops services to meet the needs of people to stop smoking and protects people from second-hand smoke and smoking-related behaviour. 

6.    Focus our support towards groups with the highest rates of smoking, use behavioural insight research to understand what will work best to help them to stop smoking as well as to create more supportive environment. 

7.    Support schools, hospitals and care infrastructure to embed clear policies for smoking and vaping. 

8.    Stop smoking services should be further developed at hospital sites so 100% of patients are asked if they smoke and offered support to stop. 

9.    100% of pregnant women and partners should be screened using carbon monoxide monitors at booking and throughout pregnancy, and provided with appropriate support. 

10.To hit the target of smokefree by 2030, there needs to be strong measurement of progress against the target of 45,000. A collection of performance measures needs to be agreed with constant monitoring; as many measures as possible need to be ‘real time’ with little time lag.