Cllr
Lucia das Neves, Cabinet Member for
Health, Social Care and Well-being, began this item by setting out
some recent developments in her portfolio area:
- Mental
health was a key priority area and the public health team had
recently held a workshop with mental health providers across the
borough from the statutory and voluntary/community sectors to
discuss existing services and possible gaps. She acknowledged that
Councillors had been concerned about some of the casework that they
had picked up around mental health issues and wanted to see more
preventative action and the addressing of gaps in
services.
- Gambling harms was also an important issue and, while the
Council was limited in how it could prevent gambling establishments
from opening in the High Streets, efforts had recently been made to
look at support services. A summit had recently been held around
gambling harms and a government White Paper was expected
soon.
- On the
issue of Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG), Cllr das
Neves had recently visited a secondary
school in the Borough along with a worker from Solace Women’s
Aid and had a good conversation with young women about what they
experience in schools. This raised questions about ensuring that
girls and boys in schools across the whole borough had access to
those type of conversations. The Council would soon begin the
process of commissioning VAWG services and this would involve
Councillors and people with lived experience. The reach of services
had been increased to include older women and LGBTQ+
women.
Cllr das Neves then
responded to questions from the Panel:
- Cllr
Connor noted that the Overview & Scrutiny Committee had
recommended in 2022 that research be undertaken in Haringey to
strengthen the evidence base on gambling harms, which could
potentially be used as part of a decision to refuse applications
for gambling licences. Cllr das Neves
said that the Council had been waiting for some considerable time
to hear about potential funding for this. She added that some
useful conversations had emerged from the recent summit with people
who were interested in being involved with this work so it was
hoped that progress could be made on this soon. However, she was
not persuaded that the research would necessarily enable the
Council to refuse licensing applications due to the emphasis of
national legislation on permitting applications and so the content
of the Government’s forthcoming White Paper would have to be
looked at closely. In response to a question from Cllr Opoku about what Councils can do collectively, Cllr
das Neves said that she had been
speaking to some of her NCL counterparts about this and one option
could be a collective written response to the Government’s
White Paper after it was published.
- Asked
by Cllr Abela for further details on
the support provided to residents dealing with gambling addiction,
Cllr das Neves said that people could
access a helpline but there were two workers who were going to come
in to provide coaching and psychosocial support, including by
having a presence on the High Street. Cllr das Neves said that she could provide further details
about this work through a written response.
(ACTION)
- Cllr
Connor requested further details about the commissioning of VAWG
services and the likely timescales for this. Will Maimaris, Director of Public Health, said that the
‘Protect Our Women’ project that was being delivered
with Solace was an innovative programme that had been recognised at
a recent London-wide meeting as being an example of good practice.
However, it was a small project and it would be continuing until at
least April 2024 so any recommendations for change from scrutiny
would be welcome. Cllr das Neves added
that feedback from young women at a Haringey school had included
that they felt objectified by society and so it was important to
listen to those messages and to ensure that these issues were
acknowledged in all schools.
- Cllr
Mason noted the recent legislative change through the Domestic
Abuse Act with children classed as victims and asked what support
was being provided to children in such circumstances. Will Maimaris explained that an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate
(IDVA) for children had recently been commissioned and would be
linked to children’s social care services.
- Cllr
Mason highlighted the importance of children themselves being
advocates for change in terms of the culture around VAWG. Cllr das
Neves agreed with this and reiterated
the strong clear voices of the young people that she had heard at
the school recently who she hoped would be supported to lead on
this issue.
- Asked
by Helena Kania whether there were any
figures available on the number of NHS health checks (for those
aged 40-74) being carried out, Will Maimarisexplained that the budgets for this were
under significant pressure and so a decision had been made some
time ago to prioritise the east of the borough due to the higher
prevalence of cardiovascular disease. It had been difficult to get
GP surgeries to pick up those checks, particularly during the
Covid-19 pandemic, and so the GP Federation had recently been
commissioned to improve this. The figures for the NHS health checks
could be provided to the Panel in writing. (ACTION) Vicky
Murphy added that health checks for children and adults with
learning disabilities were at 72.5% in Haringey as of January which
was the highest rate in the NCL area. Asked by Cllr Peacock why the
health checks stopped at age 74, Will Maimaris said that the checks were intended for
prevention and that those in the older age brackets should
typically be seeing their GPs on a regular basis for other
reasons.
- Cllr
Brennan noted that the Solace programme had been active in some
schools and asked whether there was a target for it to reach all
schools in the Borough. Cllr das Neves
said that there was not a specific target but that the issue was
resourcing the programme and prioritising the areas that it ought
to reach sooner rather than later. However, she felt that young
people had responded well to the Solace worker and that ideally
they would be going into every school as soon as
possible.
- Asked
by Cllr Peacock about action to support residents with dementia,
Cllr das Neves said that she had
recently attended virtual reality dementia training in Wood Green
which aimed to simulate dementia and this training would be used by
people working with residents who have dementia. She added that
there were good dementia services in the Borough and that a new
dementia coordinator would be starting soon to help boost outreach
work.
- Cllr
Connor asked whether new dementia hubs could be established,
similar to those in Wood Green and Tottenham, as these could help
to attract residents and provide support in a more focused way.
Cllr das Neves said that this was a
good question that could be wrapped into a conversation about
localities and what could be made available, perhaps though the
JHOSC (Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee). Cllr
Brennan commented that there were some good dementia services in
the Borough but that more needed to be done to communicate this to
residents. Beverley Tarka responded
that this would be an important part of the new dementia
coordinator role and help to build a Borough-wide support network
for people with dementia. Cllr das Neves said that there needed to be information
provided in both electronic and print formats and that this was
part of a larger piece of work within the Council of communicating
better with residents about all the services available to
them.
- Cllr
Connor raised a concern that had emerged from a recent Carers Forum
meeting where it had been understood that carers of people with
disabilities who were on Income Support would have to pay a charge
to the commissioning unit. Vicky Murphy clarified that this was a
communications error and that this information was not correct. She
explained that anyone receiving benefits would not be expected to
pay the kind of amounts that had been mentioned. Everyone would
have an individual financial assessment and it had also been agreed
that an advice surgery would be held once a month at the
Winkfield Centre to support people with
learning disabilities and their families/carers in going through
this process. Cllr das Neves suggested
that a written response could be provided to help clarify this
matter and provide some reassurance to those with concerns.
(ACTION)