Agenda item

Senior Public Health Specialist provided a presentation and spoke to the report (details in the published pack).

Director of Public Health thanked the Commission Members and welcomed input, insight and challenge.

The Commission was advised that Mental Health is a pressing issue across whole country.

There was a discussion about housing and mental health, and the Commission was advised that, as yet, there was no agreement from the city-wide roundtable meeting that was in October as to the best approach; that there needs to be further conversation between relevant partners.  Housing and mental health will be further discussed at the next Health & Well-being Board in December.

Members raised questions regarding how the data could be used and how outcomes were measured, and were told that in terms of data Bristol compared well will other parts of the country; although it was a challenge measuring mental health, unlike physical health which could be measured more easily, including access to services. 

Regarding mental health, the Thrive programme is linking with Mind, local academics, the national Thriving at Work Leadership Council  and others to identify key indicators which will help us measure the impact of the Thrive programme on improving mental health in our City. A number of indicators are being agreed to measure the impact of interventions on mental health in the workplace. Levels of sickness absence could also be utilised, and this is important to businesses as there is a a recognition of a financial benefit to people being well.

The IMF and ONS had begun to look at well-being as well as traditional GDP to analyse progress/growth.

For the schools programme it was the expectation to see better attendance and less exclusions. 

The Centre for Mental Health produced a report for Bristol on children and young people’s mental health, highlighting priorities and making recommendations. These have been incorporated within the Thrive action plans.

The Deputy Mayor said that there was a focus on what data to use when Thrive was launched – some were now in the performance report. 

It was agreed that there was a need to make performance indicators more visible.

Members asked if there were resources coming into schools for this focus, and were advised that NHS colleagues are needed to answer this fully.  There was no mechanism for money to go directly to the schools themselves; money would come in tranches, which needed to be applied for by the CCG.

The Commission welcomed the work with Somali communities and asked whether there was similar engagement with other BME communities.  The Deputy Mayor advised that Community Access Support Service (CASS) had launched the BME mental health thriving group; that there is little direct resource provided by Bristol Council but this is a city-wide approach, working with partners. 

There was a discussion about budgets, and the Commission was advised there was no dedicated budget for Thrive, that what had been found was that there had been support from organisations and partners and momentum had increased.

The Deputy Mayor said that Thrive was not just driven by the Local Authority, the success of Thrive had been seen through partnership engagement, whilst money was taken out of the equation.

There was a discussion about young people’s mental health, and the Commission was advised that there wasn’t the data available to say how many out of the estimated 10,000 children with mental health issues had engaged with CAMHS.  

The Director of Public Health advised the Commission that pathologising mental health should be avoided, and there had been a focus on supporting families and building resilience; and prevention; that the determinants of health include education, housing and work, rather than access to services.

The Chair said that there had been a great deal of progress, that 30 years ago the medical profession didn’t think children could have depression or anxiety,  so we had come a long way.

RESOLVED:

That;

·         Thrive should be brought back to scrutiny the next municipal year,

·         request for further information about how much resource for Thrive had been allocated to schools should be made to the NHS,           

·         children and young people’s mental health should be brought to the Health scrutiny sub-committee or the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee.