To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Maddy Hubbard, Councillors J. Emsley and N. Emmott

Members are requested to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th November 2023

Resolved that the minutes of meeting held on 8^th November 2023 be approved as a correct record.

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 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 consider a report of the Director of Public Health – The Health and Wellbeing Board is being consulted on the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy which will go for decision to Cabinet at the end of February 2024

The Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health and Communities which sought to inform of the Rochdale Borough’s Anti-Poverty Strategy. As part of the consultation before requesting the approval of Cabinet on 19^th March 2024, the Board was asked to comment on the draft strategy and to support the approach outlined in it.

The Public Health Specialist and the Public Health Development Manager were in attendance to present the draft strategy and to answer the questions and comments of the Board. They were accompanied by a resident from the Borough who opened the meeting via sharing with the Board her journey.

The resident informed the Board that her son and she lived in relative poverty. Speaking as a mother, she had suffered domestic abuse and used her life savings to be in Court to keep custody of her son. The resident noted that nobody looked like us and she did not know who to turn to. Life was very difficult, waking up to frost inside her windows and scared to put the heating on. Poverty had shortened hers and her son lives. Relationship with food was dislocated. She lived with fear of not being able to cover the costs. Fear her son could lose a parent due to poverty.

43% children in the Borough lived in poverty. Poverty left young people vulnerable to exploitation and shorted their life experience.

The resident added that she had become an anti-poverty campaigner and noted that there should be a starting point to be not afraid to improve signposting and betterment, support to people on front line and give voice to lived experience. The resident continued noting that it was important to recognise own internal barriers and hard work to address inequalities in Rochdale. Education should be seen as high priority. Having basic grasp of budgeting for young people. Peer support and empowering programme. There was no single face of poverty. Unpredictability of poverty made it difficult for those who experienced it and it was important that people knew that things could change.

Board Members thanked the resident for her contribution and for sharing her experience with them.

The Public Health Development Manager informed that the draft strategy had tried to capture the journey described by the resident and it was based on core principles such as compassion and protect each other from harm. Collective responsibility to do something and not leave people behind. Possible to make some difference.

The strategy set out the visions for Rochdale and the priorities and plan of action. The strategy would tell what poverty is and cost of living crisis and what the Council and its partners had done so far to tackle this issue. It informed about why poverty existed and it based on the principle of social justice. It moved away from idea that it was people’s fault to be in poverty and that things in Rochdale could not change.

The strategy referred to case studies and it was informed by the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

To consider a report of the Director of Public Health – for information and discussion – Report to follow

The Board received a presentation on health inequalities, jointly delivered by the Senior Public Health Specialist, the Public Health Registrar and the Greater Manchester (GM) Integrated Care Partnership’s representative.

Officers informed that inequalities were avoidable, unfair and systematic differences between different groups of people. They could be related to differences such as income, gender and sexual orientation, ethnicity, disabilities, health issues and age.

The inequality gap was widening. The indices of multiple deprivation 2019 comprised of seven distinct domains of deprivation such as income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing and services and living environment. The index showed that 32.5% of the Borough’s population lived in the most deprived 10% nationally in 2019.

Inequality affected life expectancy and health. The Equality Act 2010, brought together various anti-discrimination laws into one single piece of legislation and outlined the protected characteristics which are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

GM Independent Inequalities Commission’s report recommended devising a framework for GM and its localities to guide the approach to inequalities and look at what tools could be developed at region level to support the localities. The aim would be to work with people and what resources were available in each locality, and how they were distributed with different communities, in light of their needs and assets.

The GM representative informed that it was pivotal to understand how the workforce represented the community and think of creating healthy places. The GM Framework enabled the localities to put principles into actions. Two resources were being co-deigned at moment: 1) Intelligence Hub to link all the public sector data and support other organisations to use GM data and utilise it. To understand the root cause of inequality and interrelation with health. 2) Academy – space where partner organisations could come together to share learning to tackle issues. 2030 was the target to reduce differences in life expectancy and understand variation in morbidity and illnesses. GM Integrated Care Partnership was liaising with each locality to understand how they are going through this trajectory. Partnership approach: supporting the GM ICP Strategy.

The Board discussed the Core20plus5 – population most in need and where to focus geographically to design universal services. The Board agreed that this conversation needed to continue.

Resolved that the Board note the content of the presentation.