To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Emsley and R. Massey, Dr. Alam and Sharon Hubber.

Apologies were also received from the following advisors to the Board: Steve Rumbelow, Maddy Hubbard, Chief Superintendent Nicky Porter, Sam Lawton.

Dr. Jiva attended as a substitute for Dr. Alam

Charlotte Mitchell attended as a substitute for Sharon Hubber

DCI Round attended as a substitute for Chief Superintendent Nicky Porter

Members are required to declare any disclosable pecuniary, personal or personal and prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests relating to items on this agenda and/or indicate if S106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.   

There were no declarations of interest received.

To determine any items on the agenda, if any, where the public are to be excluded from the meeting.

There were no items for exclusion of press and public.

To determine whether there are any additional items of business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair decides should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business received.

Members are requested to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th June 2023

Resolved that the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th June 2023 be approved as a correct record.

To approve the notes of the inquorate meeting of 6^th September 2023

Resolved that the notes of the inquorate meeting of the Board held on 6^th September 2023 be approved as a correct record.

To consider a report of the Director of Public Health – Item for ratification

The Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health which sought to inform of loneliness and isolation as key cause of population’s ill health and early mortality. This was a new and increasing priority area for which a number of initiatives were ongoing but often happening in silos and a more strategic and coordinated approach between all interested agencies and stakeholders was necessary.

The Board had received a presentation at its last meeting and an in depth conversation had taken place. However, as the meeting was not quorate, the report had to be resubmitted to today’s meeting for approval.

Resolved:

1.    That the current position and ongoing loneliness related initiatives in the Borough be noted;

2.    That requests and suggestions for future work related to loneliness and isolation as outlined in the presentation appended to the report be noted;

3.    That loneliness and isolation be maintained as a Public Health priority;

4.    That a more coordinated approach to addressing loneliness and isolation be endorsed.

To consider a report of the Director of Public Health – Item for discussion to agree a collective response to Government’s consultation

The Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health which outlined that smoking continued to be the lead cause of preventable deaths in the UK, representing approximately 74,600 deaths a year in England. In Rochdale, approximately 15.3% of the population smoked; this percentage was higher than the England and North West average and represented approximately 25,000 people. Each year, smoking costed the Council £90.3M and this figure included productivity loss, health care costs, social care costs and fire related costs.

The report also informed that vaping was safer than smoking and it was an effective stop smoking tool, but it was not risk free and it was not for children and non-smokers. However, vaping amongst children and young people had increased over recent years, particularly with the proliferation of disposable vapes.

The UK Government was keen to achieve the target of a smoke free England by 2030. To achieve this, the Government planned to ban the sale of tobacco products to future generations, to provide a million vapes to encourage smokers to “swap to stop”, to increase funding for stop smoking services, to improve resourcing, capacity, and powers of trading standards, to tackle youth vaping and increase funding for smoking awareness campaigns.

The UK Government had launched a consultation titled “Creating a smoke free generation and tackling youth vaping” which covered three main areas: smoke free generation policy, tackling youth vaping and enforcement.

The Board agreed to undertake the consultation at today’s meeting as a collective exercise and to formulate a cross system response.

This is how the Board responded to the consultation.

Creating a smokefree generation

1.    Do you agree or disagree that the age of sale for tobacco products should be changed so that anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be legally sold (and also in Scotland, never legally purchase) tobacco products?

• Agree
• Disagree
• Don’t know

Please explain your answer and provide evidence or your opinion to support further development of our approach. (maximum 300 words)