Decision

In responding to the recommendations within the minutes of the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Meeting on 23 September 2025 I propose to take the following action in respect of the Committee's lettered recommendations:-
I will ask officers to:
a)write to the Integrated Care Board identifying the link between coastal communities and poor mental health for them to help seek to address this.
b)highlight to the Committee what the Council is doing to seek to address poor mental health through its Health and Wellbeing Strategy including the interventions to address poor mental health and its drivers; and
c)provide an update to the Committee about the actions that are being taken by the Council to help improve aspiration.

Reasons for the decision

To respond to the recommendations of the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny meeting held on 23 September 2025 which identified how poor mental health and particularly in young people is exacerbated in coastal deprived communities compared to similarly deprived communities inland.
To provide the Committee with an update of what actions are being taken in line with the Council’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy to help deliver interventions to support improvements in mental health and the work being undertaken to support aspiration in young people. No actions are listed in relation to comments from the Committee in relation developing a long term strategy to increase diagnosis of mental health or create local targets as neither of these are the responsibility of the Council.

Alternative options considered

To reject the Committee’s recommendations but I did not follow that option because of the importance of maintaining a focus on poor mental health including in our coastal communities.