Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

Members will be asked to declare any Statutory Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Compulsory Registerable Non-Pecuniary Interests and Voluntary Registerable Non-Pecuniary Interests in respect of items on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair to announce the following: ‘In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.’

Any other announcements

It was noted that the meeting was not being webcast.

There were no items of urgent business.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2023.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2023 be approved and signed.

Report of the Chair of the Screen and Prevention Panel

This report sets out the draft final recommendations of the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee’s Screening and Prevention Panel.

Consideration was given to the report of the Chair of Screening and Prevention Panel.

The Chair commented on the Panel’s gratitude for all input into the investigation and development of recommendations. The thinking of the Panel had developed a lot during the course of the investigation and since the interim report, with the establishment of the national context followed by a specific consideration of Camden-focussed issues. At the meeting, feedback would be sought from Councillor Anna Wright (Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care), Kirsten Watters (Director of Health and Wellbeing) and Wikum Jayatunga (Public Health Consultant). Comments had also been received from the Learning Disability Cancer Screening Project Team.

Officers commended the Panel for the report, in which Members had explored the problems in Camden relating to uptake of health screening and prevention programmes from different angles and identified targeted actions for different groups.

On competitive benchmarking for cervical, bowel and breast cancer screening rates, the Chair noted that the data existed but how it was presented was key. The idea was not to compare practice data at an individual level but within performance quartiles. An illustration on what this could look like could be provided in the report.

The Director of Health and Wellbeing noted that, in relation language barriers, the council’s translation and accessibility services were being reviewed. The Chair explained that the action regarding English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) providers concerned setting behavioural expectations on taking care of the resident’s own health, as well as understanding what residents were entitled to expect from the system. The UK Citizenship Test was discussed and how it could be a useful tool for developing an understanding of the screening and prevention offer.

Action 2.3 regarding private GPs was discussed, noting the gap in the data where wealthier residents were receiving screening services privately while understanding the different pathways available to residents. The Director of Health and Wellbeing considered that for population health purposes, the missing data from the private sector concerned relatively small numbers. The Chair commented that the action for Public Health would enable the service to ensure all residents were being covered by screening and prevention pathways.

 The Panel discussed the possibilities for improving access to screening through offering services in community centres. The Chair highlighted an initiative in one community centre to bring in an optician, resulting in many residents accessing the service who had not visited an optician previously for reasons such as language barriers and fear of costs. The Director of Health and Wellbeing noted a number of challenges to the proposal that would need to be addressed to progress it. However, a core offer that was primary care based, with targeted outreach for harder to reach groups, was the aim. With regard to self-sampling for cervical cancer screening, this was still at pilot stage but would require the provision of support and advice once rolled out.

It was agreed that the formatting of the report be amended to make  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

There was no items of urgent business.