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Chapter 4 - What the Council Plans to Do
Chapter 4 - What the Council Plans to Do
The Council is committed to ensuring that health issues are addressed by the Council's central policymaking body. This is currently the Policy and Resources committee, however, the Council's decision making structures are likely to change with effect from May 2000 when it is anticipated that there will be a co-ordinating cabinet and that one member of the cabinet may have a health portfolio.
Community Health Impact
In line with recommendations in Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation guidelines will be produced which will enable officers to assess the Community Health Impact of policies. The CHI will cover the impact on health, the environment, equal opportunities, crime and disorder and social exclusion. This guidance will be included in the Council's review programmes - Best Value and Team Planning.
The Council will also receive annual reports on the progress of the health action plans, consider other health reports and consultations and receive and approve Healthy Kingston Group proposals.
Co-ordinating health activities
Healthy Kingston Group
The Council is committed to ensuring co-ordination of the health activities of the different directorates, networks and other strategies in the Council. This will enable the Council to identify health policy issues affecting more than one department and/or agency to improve joint working.
To do this the Council has set up a co-ordinating body called the Healthy Kingston Group, which includes representatives from across RBK directorates, the voluntary sector and local health services.
Healthy Kingston Co-ordinator
The Council has also employed a Healthy Kingston Co-ordinator to lead the Healthy Kingston Group, as well as working closely with local Health services and the voluntary sector to promote the health of Kingston residents. The co-ordinator will also lead The Royal Borough of Kingston's (RBK) contribution to the Health Improvement programme and monitor implementation and develop RBK's involvement in health improvement initiatives.
Incorporating Health Components into other Strategies
The Council is committed to ensuring that the many strategies in which RBK is involved that impact on health, are co-ordinated. Appendix 3 shows health links for four Council strategies. The Corporate Development Team, along with the officers leading on each strategy, aims to ensure that all the strategies are aligned. There is already an 'improving health' section within the Housing strategy and there will be a 'Health and Wellbeing' chapter of the Local Agenda 21 strategy and the Crime And Disorder strategy makes links to health in the sections on tackling drug misuse.
The Council's revised Unitary Development Plan will continue to include strategic policies to promote the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Kingston residents in line with the proposed duty on Local Authorities. The Healthy Kingston Co-ordinator will investigate the potential for including health issues in the community plan and as a best value cross cutting issue.
The Healthy Kingston Co-ordinator is also working with directorates to ensure that, where appropriate, all plans and strategies will consider health improvement and address health inequalities. Work has already begun with the Interim Transport Plan and the Housing Strategy.
"[Local decision makers] will in future need to act much more as health champions at local level and ensure that health is on the agenda of all local organisations and agencies outside the health field" - Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation
Promoting good health
Both independently and in partnership with other agencies RBK has organised a number of special campaigns to promote good health in the community such as the 'Keeping Kids Safe Campaign', the 'Festival of Sport' and the 'All Nations Health Fair.' RBK hopes to build on these successful events in the future.
Annually RBK organises a large health promotion event for employees. Such events have focused on 'Stress At Work', 'Healthy Eating', 'Men's And Women's Health' and 'Alcohol And The Workplace' among other issues. Information packs are available to staff on a range of health issues. Displays of information and advice are also provided to coincide with national events such as 'No Smoking Day', 'Work Aids Day', 'Alternative Transport Day' and 'Drinkwise Day'. Each month there is a health at work item in RBK's information sheet, "Staff update" which is circulated to all employees with pay slips.
Building on the health promotion work, which the Council has undertaken, RBK is committed to achieving the Health at Work Award. As part of the process in working towards the Award, employees are offered lifestyle assessments to assist in determining the health needs of employees.
Partnership with other Agencies
The Council has worked in partnership with the Health Authority on the development of the Health Improvement Programmes and the plan for 2000-2001 will combine the Health Improvement Programme with the Community Care Plan. The Council works closely with the Health Authority, the Health Trust, the Primary Care group and the voluntary sector in the joint planning of services. The planning arrangements are overseen by a Partnership Board of all these agencies.
A number of services for people with mental health and learning disabilities are jointly managed between RBK and the Kingston and District community NHS trust. A number of other Council service areas also work in partnership, both across departments and with other agencies, to improve the health of RBK residents.
These include the drug and alcohol action teams, the Community Safety Partnership, the Environment 2000 working groups, the Homelessness Forum, the Refugee Liaison group and many others. Many of these partnerships have produced joint strategies or jointly bid for funding for projects, which improve health.
A group including Health Authority, RBK and voluntary group representatives has helped to set up a community group, which is pursuing an application for a Healthy Living Centre in Norbiton. (See appendix 1)
RBK is committed to developing partnership across directorates and between agencies to meet health needs. The Healthy Kingston Co-ordinator will work with the Healthy Kingston Group and individual directorates to identify the potential for more partnerships to tackle health needs in Kingston in line with Health Improvement Programmes priorities. A partnership approach has already helped to develop the local smoking strategy and to tackle the health of homeless people and refugees.
Addressing inequalities
RBK will integrate the annual Health Improvement Programmes priorities for inequalities into the RBK health action plans.
The Council is committed to aligning its policies and implementing action to respond to the recommendations in the Acheson Report and the Director of Public Health report to address inequalities in health. (See appendix 2)
Action Plans
The Council will produce annual action plans, which will include targets and describe how it aims to work towards meeting these targets and setting milestones to measure achievement.
These action plans will include:
Targets identified by the Healthy Kingston Group to develop joint working across departments and between agencies.
Individual Directorate targets
These action plans feed into the Health Improvement Programme and are updated annually. Monitoring and Evaluation The Healthy Kingston Group will monitor the action plans every six months. The outcome will be reported to the Policy and Resources committee.