Report of the Director of Population Health and Wellbeing

This report provide an overview of the population health plan for the city, as it pertains to work and health and an overview of how commissioned programmes support residents with long term health conditions access the labour market.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Population Health and Wellbeing, which provided Members with details of the Manchester Population Health Plan with specific reference  to Priority 2 of the Plan, Strengthening the positive impact of work on health.

The Consultant in Public Health referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:-

·                Work had a major positive impact on health and wellbeing through both economic reward and participation in society;

·                Manchester had a well established work and health programme  which had been endorsed by the health and Wellbeing Board and Work and Skills Board;

·                High rates of health related worklessness had persisted in the city during times of economic growth and gaining employment increased the likeliness of reporting good health and quality of life;

·                31,000 people were claiming sickness related out of work benefits in Manchester,

·                increasing the skills of and employment opportunities for families would contribute to the wider ambition to reduce their social exclusion and health inequalities;

·                A key part of a proactive approach was maximising opportunities to refer residents to health and employment services and connect residents to community assets;

·                Training and support would be required to improve access to jobs in the major employment sectors.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

·                Why was mental health not a priority area within the Plan as this was one of the main contributors to worklessness;

·                How did social prescribing work in practice;

·                Was there a payment package associated with social prescribing;

·                What work was being done amongst the BAME communities to raise awareness  around the need to look after their health;

·                What work was being done to help those in what could be considered ‘poor’ employment; and

·                Was there any work being done to look at the linkages between employment and alcohol consumption

The Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Health advised that mental health was a much larger issue that needed addressing and the priorities within the Plan had been identified based on achievability.  Since 2017 there had been a new Mental Health Trust in place which was responsible for reviewing the services provided as well as the structure.  The trust was aware of the gaps in service especially in the north if the city and was committed to addressing this.

In terms of social prescribing, it was explained that this was based on a premise that 10 to 20% of GP patients  did not have medical related issues and GPs were not equipped with the knowledge to help these patients.  As such social prescribing  allowed GPs to refer patients to link workers within communities which could assist in accessing services and sources of support to help build resilience.

It was reported that there was some significant barriers in accessing employment opportunities within BAME communities and further work was needed with employers to improve these opportunities. 

Officers acknowledged the comments made around ‘poor’ employment and there was a significant number of employers that did not see the relevance of supporting their staff and this resulted in a high turnover of staff.  Support was offered to employers using local intelligence to try and promote amongst employers the benefit  investing in employee’s health.

The Committee was advised that there was very few social prescribing schemes that made any provision for financial support to voluntary or third sector organisations and instead there was a lot of work undertaken in helping organisations access existing funding schemes.

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)       Notes the report; and

(2)          Requests that the full Population health plan is circulated to all Committee Members