The meeting reviewed the North East London Integrated Care System's (ICS) strategic approaches to meeting new population needs, received an update from Healthwatch Newham, and discussed action on diet for better health outcomes. Finally, it reviewed the Newham Health Equity Programme and the North East London Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy. The board noted the recommendations in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy and noted all other reports discussed.

North East London ICS Strategic Approaches to Meeting New Population Need

The board received a verbal update on this topic.

The meeting discussed work being done by the North East London ICS in response to population growth in the borough. This work has involved a review by PA Consulting, which identified a number of key interventions that the ICS will look to implement. These interventions are supported by neighbourhood working and the development of integrated neighbourhood teams.

Councillor Jason Arthur raised concerns about plans, discussed at the Clinical Advisory Group (CAD) the previous day, to locate a mental health facility at Fighting Mary Wharf. Councillor Arthur was concerned that such a facility would not be suitable to meet the needs of Newham residents. Councillor Arthur was particularly concerned about the travel time to the facility for many Newham residents.

It's just for us in Newham, it's just not feasible.

Councillor Arthur went on to raise further concerns about the lack of accountability to the board over decisions about health infrastructure in the borough.

Where is the accountability to that in terms of us as, you know, the mayor who's chair of this board and why is our cabinet representative, in terms of decisions?

The board asked for a written report on the work being done by the North East London ICS to be brought to future meetings.

Healthwatch Newham

The board received Healthwatch Newham's annual report.

The meeting discussed a report on the work of Healthwatch Newham. This work has included improving the experience of patients going through the diagnosis process for special educational needs, improving access to continuing healthcare for diabetes patients, and a project to improve access to council services like dentistry, freedom passes, and blue badges.

The meeting discussed how Healthwatch Newham ensures that its work reaches all communities in the borough, especially seldom-heard groups. This includes a community listening project and ongoing work to diversify the membership of the Healthwatch Newham Advisory Board.

The Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, asked about the impact of Healthwatch Newham's work.

I've read the various sections of the annual report that talked about the scale of resident involvement that you've been able to initiate in order to generate insights that you then pass on to various bodies within the local health system, and you can produce six reports. I'm quite interested in understanding what that can be led to in terms of changes to system-wide practice in those areas identified.

The board discussed how it could work more closely with Healthwatch Newham in the coming year. The Mayor suggested that Healthwatch Newham could play a key role in the board's work on health inequalities by commissioning research on the topic. The Mayor also asked Healthwatch Newham to consider how it might support community-led responses to major incidents like fires.

Councillor Neil Wilson said:

Clearly stakeholders in that sense I hope would include those of us who are community elected representatives.

Action on Diet

This item was discussed without a formal report. Slides were shown during the meeting, but these have not been made public.

The board discussed the importance of action on diet in the context of improving health outcomes for residents.

We've had this discussion before. I mean, you know, I've been on this from the journey of being vice chair to London Food Board.

• Councillor Neil Wilson

The board heard about the success of the council's work to promote healthy eating in schools, including the borough's pioneering role in introducing universal free school meals. The board also discussed the importance of culturally appropriate marketing campaigns that appeal to the borough's diverse communities.

Councillor Wilson suggested that the council could use some of its advertising estate to promote healthy eating.

The Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, highlighted the importance of online trends in shaping young people's attitudes to food, particularly the trend of Mukbang.

And over the last four years, it's exploded and you can see over the period of 12 months, someone young, and there's one probably causing controversy on TikTok called Jelly Bean, who's gone from hair to hair in 12 months, and gets normalised to eat him to the world. And kids are popular. So when we're talking about a systems-based approach to eating, and it's about primarily how we impact the eating habits and lifestyles of the younger generation, in part influencing their parents, but their parents and we are up against cultural power moves online.

The Mayor also spoke about the challenge of persuading parents to feed their children healthily when they are struggling financially.

Parents are trying poor because they're needing to survive. And it's easy to make pasta with a little bit of already made sauce.

Newham Health Equity Programme

The meeting discussed the Newham Health Equity Programme.

Basically, everyone is going to be part of the FBI team that's going to ensure that health equity is taken seriously and is a golden thread in everything that we do.

• The Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz

The meeting heard from Tom Thomas, Chief Executive of Newham University Hospital, about the work being done at the hospital to promote health equity. Mr Thomas explained that the hospital has been using a roadmap developed by the Newham Health Equity Programme to assess the hospital's progress in this area. Mr Thomas said:

there's no point starting this with a lie, there's no point lying to ourselves about where we think we honestly are.

The meeting heard that the hospital has made progress on reducing waiting times for elective care and learning disability patients, but that there is still a long way to go.

Adeola Ogunade, Consultant in Public Health at London Borough of Newham, asked members of the board to consider how their organisations are addressing health equity and to share their progress using the roadmap.

Councillor Wilson said:

It should be just part of our business as usual thing.

Councillor Arthur highlighted the importance of health literacy and called for better communication with patients who do not speak English as a first language.

North East London Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy

The board considered the North East London Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy.

So we're not going to present the slide pack and we're definitely not presenting the strategies, we'll just talk you through some elements, given the time.

• Simon
  

The meeting received a presentation on the new North East London Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy. The strategy has been developed in partnership with local authorities and health partners across north east London. The board heard about some of the successes of the strategy so far, including a 40% increase in the use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and a three-fold increase in the number of people accessing PrEP.

The board also heard about the challenges of delivering sexual health services in a fragmented system. Councillor Wilson highlighted the stigma still associated with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, particularly in some Black and minority ethnic communities.

There's still stigma, which is clearly within communities, with some racially and religiously, as a morality.

The Mayor highlighted the importance of providing culturally appropriate sexual health services, particularly for the borough's significant trans community. The Mayor said:

I can't underestimate the challenge around the practice enhancement and some of the testimonies that I've heard directly from our trans and even white LGBT communities when they're going through important transition moments, sorry, forgive the pun in terms of age as well. There's still quite a lot of unconscious prejudice and bias that we're going to have to contend with.

Councillor Arthur highlighted anecdotal evidence that waiting times for LARCs are still too long, asking:

I know there are really quite long waits for women to get that, especially in sites like them or East, I think it's up to kind of two or three, you know, they might call and those like two or three months wait for larc, and we're still getting that kind of feedback. So it's just something to take away. I don't know whether it's similar to other boroughs.

Councillor Arthur also raised the issue of the new women's hubs being commissioned by the NHS, and how these would interact with existing sexual health services, asking:

And the other thing that's coming our way is the women's hubs. So I don't know if you've had to get experience, it's just started with Tar Hamlets, they've set one up in City and Hackney, and I think it's really important to kind of make sure that that's all kind of integrated within that sort of sexual health side as well.

The board noted the recommendations in the report.