Agenda item

The Chair of Council, Councillor David Nevett, made the following announcement:-

“As you may be aware, this will be the last Council Meeting that a number of Councillors will be attending as they have chosen not to stand again to represent their Ward at the Borough Council Elections in May.

On behalf of the Council, I would like to place on record, our best wishes and acknowledge their contribution to the Borough and the manner in which they fulfilled their duties as Ward Members, during their Terms of Office.”

Following this announcement, Councillor David Nevett allowed Members to make personal statements in relation to retiring Councillors, with heartfelt thanks and tributes paid to Councillors Elsie Butler, Ted Kitchen, Pat Knight and Sue Knowles, along with Geraldine Morton, Head of Revenues and Benefits, who was retiring from the Authority at the end of March, 2017.

“I would also like to announce that last Friday, it was my great pleasure and privilege to welcome Fred Adamson and his family to the Mansion House. Fred, who is 97 years old and a D-Day Veteran, has been awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French Government which is given to those who fought and risked their lives to secure France’s liberation during the Second World War.

It was a great honour to meet Fred who kept us entertained with his stories from the war. On behalf of the Council, I would like to send our congratulations to Fred on receiving this honour.”

The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Glyn Jones, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Equalities, made the following announcement:-

“I would like to announce that we are launching the ‘Your Life, Your Way’ Campaign shortly from Adult Social Care, which promotes people to be more independent and to enable them to live their lives to the full. There are lots of different things that the Council can help with, but help from the community is also a key element to this.  It was to be launched on the 6th March, 2017, and with a lot of publicity to raise awareness of this. I am looking forward to the good take up.”

Councillor Pat Knight, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, made the following announcement:-

“Thank you, I ask for discretion in allowing me on my last Full Council, to speak longer than the allotted time.

I will start with the Well North Project at Denaby. This was launched in September of 2015 and is supported by the national Well North Programme. The founder, Aidan Halligan, set up this scheme to help disadvantaged communities in the North of England. Doncaster put in a bid for the project and won. Denaby was chosen for the project due to its level of deprivation and potential to benefit from the work. Following the closure of the library in the previous year, the community hub had been lost. Consultation was undertaken which involved joint working with partners and communities in order to find out from local residents, what they felt to be important to their community. Over the course of a year, different aspects of the community started to come together and the library has now re-opened with the help from Re-Read.  Local residents have started caring again for their village, litter picks are carried out, allotments cared for and events held for residents to come together. Local initiatives similar to this would be rolled out in different villages across the Borough as a result of its success.

With regard to the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board, firstly, they have begun the task of producing a BME Health Needs Assessment. This is well overdue and is an extensive piece of work, and its main focus would be on engagement with key groups who represented the many BME populations.  The makeup of the BME communities in Doncaster was changing and the Director of public Health report in 2015 identified the inequality of health outcomes between Doncaster communities. An ‘evidence safari’ had been held with many actions linked to BME communities identified. There would be a great deal of work to be done on this over the next few years.

In terms of smoking, in Doncaster, there is a Tobacco Control Alliance which brings together local partners to review plans and actions related to the control of smoking in the Borough. It is estimated that 54000 people smoke in Doncaster, which in percentage terms, is 3% higher than the national average. Smoking is a very important public health concern and impacts greatly on health and social care, with the cost to the NHS, estimated to be in the region of £15 million per year.  More needs to be done to help smokers quit and help and advice should be given to everyone staying in Hospital which is something that is not currently done, but it is something that will be looked at by NHS England in the future. Hospitals now have a smoke-free policy across their sites, but a lot more could be done to support people to stop smoking, with an appropriately skilled clinician employed in Hospitals to oversee and drive forward a smoking cessation service with practitioners employed in every Hospital, and Hospital Boards should be fully involved in delivering smoking related action and actions plans.

Moving on to suicide prevention, this is another initiative by the Health and Wellbeing Board, and our Suicide Prevention Plan was being looked at in order to make it more robust. Suicide prevention was a priority for DMBC as part of our Public Health responsibilities and the development of this Plan would be led by the Suicide Prevention Group, chaired by Dr Niki Seddon. There have been specific areas identified to target, including raising awareness of suicide in men, looking for signs of crisis and improving the skills of those who work in prisons, particularly male prisons, as well as those who work alongside children and young people, especially those who are mentally ill and have a history of self-harming. Additional work could be done to ensure that the safer prescription of anti-depressants and analgesics was promoted, better access to services in order to reduce isolation and improve the awareness of the availability of support services, including the promotion of the ‘Safe Haven’ bus and the development of the ‘Crisis Café’. Finally, work needed to be done to regularly monitor and review local suicide occurrences.

As you can see, there is and has been a lot of work undertaken by Public Health and this is only the beginning. A lot of work has been done to see these studies completed and to make sure they are ongoing and not forgotten. I have started the work for my successor and I wish Mayor Jones and all colleagues in the Chamber today, continued success on making Doncaster a proud place to live, work and visit.

I would also like to thank Dr Rupert Suckling and the Public Health Team, for all their advice over the last 4 years. They have been patient and supportive when I have changed things and are a great Team, dedicated to their jobs.

Simon Wiles, Director of Finance and Corporate Services, made the following announcement:-

“I have two announcements.  I would like to express my thanks to Geraldine Morton, Head of Revenue and Benefits, who retires at the end of March; so there will be the opportunity for people to say good bye between now and then.  I would like to thank her particularly for her professionalism, integrity and good management that she has shown for many years at Doncaster.

I would also like to inform Members of the sad death of Diane Glancy, who many of you will know worked within the Emergency Planning Team.  Her funeral will be held on Wednesday, 22nd March in the Chapel at Rose Hill at 12 noon if anyone wishes to attend.”