Agenda item

To consider the report.

Following consideration of the officer report and discussion, the Executive agreed to note and endorse the following recommendations:

1.          To maximise opportunities to join up and integrate commissioning and delivery of supported housing and support services to better serve people with multiple complex needs.

2.         To ensure the new Local Plans give significant attention to current and future demographic trends and the related housing needs.  Innovate solutions to the development of more one and two-bedroom homes, affordable homes, housing stability and homes built to accommodate future health needs are required.

3.         That the Council and Integrated Care Board prioritise collaborative work to address the needs of people who experience multiple disadvantage.

4.         To recommended that the Integrated Care Board continues to develop the Inclusion Health Service and develops an overarching Somerset Inclusive Health Strategy.

5.         To recommended that Somerset Integrated Care System adopt a collaborative approach to reducing injuries and falls overall and in the home, including continuing to provide support for retrofit interventions and housing adaptations that enable people to live safely in their homes.

6.         To maintain support for approaches such as Personalised Care that seek to wrap individualised support around a person in their current place of residence to reduce the risk of needs escalating.

7.         That a communications plan is developed to raise awareness among the public of the need to plan ahead for ageing in their home or moving to a more suitable home when the time is right, to reduce the number of people in homes in Somerset that are difficult to live in into old age.

8.         That the council commits to, and supports, the development of the Public Health Ambassador Programme.

9.         That the Council embeds the Health Determinants Research Collaborative and its principles into the new Target Operating Model for the Council going forwards.

10.       That Somerset Council adopts a strong “health in all policies” approach to Neighbourhood Plans, the new Local Plans and Transport Plans, embedding consideration of local health needs when developing and implementing the plans, and seeking to design neighbourhoods that improve health, support community resilience and reduce the risks and impact of climate change.

The Lead Member for Public Health, Equality and Diversity, Cllr Adam Dance, presented the report explaining that it set out what the Council now needed to focus upon. Cllr Dance highlighted that one advantage of the new unitary authority was having the opportunity to have joined up housing and Public Health and even licensing policies and the ability to have planners working alongside housing officers to maximise the health and wellbeing of local people with housing for the long term.

The Executive Director for Public Health, Professor Trudi Grant, provided details of the report which was then discussed and the following points were made with responses being provided by the Executive Director: housing and homes were an important foundation for health and wellbeing they were looking to influence the new Local Plan, which had to be in place by 2028; that the report took a high level look at housing under the three heading of - Stable homes, Good quality and suitable homes andHealthy neighbourhoods; it was pointed out that there were in fact 2 local plans as part of the county came under the Exmoor Local Plan; it was highlighted that Somerset had an increasing number of older adults living in under occupied properties and there was a need to see what sort of accommodation, if they wished to move, they would like to move into to e.g. smaller houses or bungalows, Members felt that there was a need for more bungalow type accommodation, particularly in rural locations; that the new Public Health Ambassador programme was part of the new target operating model put in place last year, it tried to put in place connections across the Council to help maximise the benefits to public health through different types of policy; that whilst there were standards to meet regarding damp and mould in council and social housing, private landlords also had a duty and if they failed to take action it should be reported to the Council; timescales for the investigation and resolution of complaints; the registering of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs); and after it was explained that the broad principles of Health Determinants Research Collaborative (HDRC) were about being by evidence informed and research active where we didn’t have the evidence. It was suggested  that in recommendation No. 9 rather than use its abbreviation Health Determinants Research Collaborative should be written out in full.

The Leader of Council suggested that this would be a good thing to have on the agendas of all Local Community Networks to help people get an understanding of the strategic picture.  Noting the comments made he proposed the recommendations with ‘plan’ amended to ‘plans’, to acknowledge that Somerset had more than one local plan, and with ‘HDRC’ relaced with ‘Health Determinants Research Collaborative’.

Following consideration of the officer report and discussion, the Executive agreed to note and endorse the following recommendations:

1.     To maximise opportunities to join up and integrate commissioning and delivery of supported housing and support services to better serve people with multiple complex needs.

2.    To ensure the new Local Plans give significant attention to current and future demographic trends and the related housing needs. Innovate solutions to the development of more one and two-bedroom homes, affordable homes, housing stability and homes built to accommodate future health needs are required.

3.    That the Council and Integrated Care Board prioritise collaborative work to address the needs of people who experience multiple disadvantage.

4.    To recommended that the Integrated Care Board continues to develop the Inclusion Health Service and develops an overarching Somerset Inclusive Health Strategy.

5.    To recommended that Somerset Integrated Care System adopt a collaborative approach to reducing injuries and falls overall and in the home, including continuing to provide support for retrofit interventions and housing adaptations that enable people to live safely in their homes.

6.    To maintain support for approaches such as Personalised Care that seek to wrap individualised support around a person in their current place of residence to reduce the risk of needs escalating.

7.    That a communications plan is developed to raise awareness among the public of the need to plan ahead for ageing in their home or moving to a more suitable home when the time is right, to reduce the number of people in homes in Somerset that are difficult to live in into old age.

8.    That the council commits to, and supports, the development of the Public Health Ambassador Programme.

9.    That the Council embeds the Health Determinants Research Collaborative and its principles into the new Target Operating Model for the Council going forwards.

10.That Somerset Council adopts a strong “health in all policies” approach to Neighbourhood Plans, the new Local Plans and Transport Plans, embedding consideration of local health needs when developing and implementing the plans, and seeking to design neighbourhoods that improve health, support community resilience and reduce the risks and impact of climate change.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the attached report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the attached report