Agenda item - Chair's Communications

The Chair of the Board will start the meeting with a short update on recent developments on health and wellbeing.

29  Chair's Communications

29.1    The Chair delivered the following communications.

Rob Persey

I would like to inform the board that Rob Persey, Executive Director of Health and Adult Social Care has now left the Council. Steve Hook is the acting statutory Director of Adult Social Services and is present at the Board today. I would like to thank Rob for his contribution to the Board, the Council and health and care across the city over the past seven years. Rob goes with our best wishes for the future. 

Councillor West told the Board that Rob Persey brought passion to his role through challenging times during his time at the council. He said that Rob Persey’s shoes would be hard to fill.

The Chair echoed Cllr West’s remarks and thanked Mr Persey for all his work at the council.

.

Measles and MMR

Measles is an infection that spreads very easily and for some people can be very serious. There’s no specific medical treatment for the disease; so it’s vital to get vaccinated as it’s the best protection against becoming seriously unwell. 

You may be aware that there have been outbreaks of measles in the West Midlands, London and the North in the last 4 months although we have not seen any confirmed cases locally yet.

            The best protection against measles is 2 doses of the MMR

 (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine – which are routinely offered as part of the childhood Immunisations schedule.

The uptake of MMR in Brighton and Hove for children

under 5 is statistically similar to the national and regional rates; for one dose         it is 92.3% and for two doses it is 84.4%. This means that many of our residents are not adequately protected against the virus. 

The Council’s Public Health team are working with partners including the UK Health Security Agency and the NHS to ensure we are prepared to respond if there are cases or outbreaks locally. There is a communications plan in place, including raising awareness of measles and MMR with communities who are most at risk of low MMR uptake. We are promoting to all residents that anyone can request their MMR records and, if necessary, an MMR vaccine at any age from their GP surgery.

I want to encourage parents and carers to check their children are up to date with their MMR vaccinations; if you’re not sure whether your child is due a vaccination or has missed a vaccination, you can check your Red Book or contact your GP surgery.

            Health Counts

            I am pleased to confirm that the 4^th Health Counts survey will launch on the 18^{th of} March 2024.

This survey has taken place in Brighton & Hove approximately once a decade since 1992.

The survey gives us our main source of detailed data on health issues and health behaviours in our local population – looking at lifestyles, health and wellbeing, and the building blocks of health. 

We will be able to analyse data by protected characteristics and other inclusion groups and it gives us important evidence of inequalities within the city.

We use this as source evidence for our needs assessments and understanding of equalities, and to help us to develop strategies and design services and interventions that meet the needs of communities and residents.

This year is especially exciting as we anticipate an unprecedented level of participation. In previous years we sent the survey to 2% random sample of the local adult population. This year we will be sending the survey link by text from GP practices to all patients aged 18+ with a mobile number, and who haven’t opted out of communications in this way and all GP practices have in the city signed up to support this.

As not everyone will be registered with a GP or be able to take the survey online, the research team are attending a number of settings and events to ensure the greatest possible participation in the survey.

The research is funded by the public health grant and is being led by the University of Brighton, and we are working in collaboration with NHS Sussex, Healthwatch, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, and Brighton & Hove GP Federation.

Key findings will start to be available in Summer 2024, with further information published throughout 2024/25.

(This is such an exciting and important survey, and we encourage everyone to take part if they can).

Referral from HOSC

            Item 36 on today’s agenda is a report on mental health and policing referred to the Board by the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee. Under the Council’s Constitution reports may only be referred from one committee to another for information, not for debate, so we are not able to discuss this issue at today’s meeting.