Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Health

The Committee took part in the penultimate evidence gathering session into the review of children’s oral health in Gateshead.

Committee was advised that the local authority is statutorily required to provide or commission oral health promotion programmes. It must also provide or commission oral health surveys in order to facilitate monitoring of oral health needs, planning and evaluating promotion programmes and provision of dental services.

Principles of commissioning better oral health for children and young people were outlined;

·         A life course approach - improves health and reduces avoidable health inequalities

·         Children, young people and families at the heart – about understanding what works for the population, an asset based approach puts communities at the heart of decision making

·         Partnership working – support from a range of partners to ensure an integrated approach so that oral health is embedded in all children’s services

·         Information sharing – a range of data is held by key partners

·         Support in a range of settings – through the environments that people live in

·         Workforce development – implementing ‘Making every contact count’ with all child care professionals

·         Leadership and advocacy – clear local vision for oral health improvement through strategies

·         Access to quality local dental services – NHS England responsibility but local authorities can plan and evaluate local dental services

A map of dental practices across Gateshead was provided, it was noted that the number of practices in certain areas is in response to the level of need, for example more are needed in central Gateshead than in other areas. It was noted that there is geographical variation particularly in the west of the borough.

A Public Health England toolkit reviews oral health improvement interventions for 0-19 year olds.  The toolkitassesses each of the five key intervention areas;

·         Supporting consistent evidence informed oral health information

·         Community based preventive services

·         Supportive environments

·         Community action

·         Healthy public policy

It was queried who would be responsible for mobile dentistry. It was noted that Public Health  do not hold the funding for this and such a response would not be within Public Health’s remit. It was acknowledged that any professional in contact with young people has a responsibility as bad oral health is a form of neglect. It was also noted that the Oral Health Promotion team works in schools and that any school with a high tooth decay rate will be worked with, this includes pupils and staff, however it was acknowledged that it is still difficult to engage parents. Committee was advised that the service offered by the oral health promotion team is currently free and particular schools are targeted through the information in the five year old survey which highlights decay rate.  Staff in schools are educated around the links between oral health and safeguarding. The point was made however that the oral health team is only five people working across the south of Tyne and Wear dealing with 0-19 so engagement with schools is only a small part of their work.

It was questioned whether any schools in Gateshead have refused the support offered by the oral health team. It was confirmed that there are some schools in Gateshead which have not engaged and this is due to time and resource, it was also noted that some schools have refused to participate in the five year old survey.

It was suggested that more needs to be done centrally, for example targeting Government and manufacturers around impact on oral health in children.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That the Committee noted the content of the report and

its comments be noted.

                                    (ii)        That Committee agreed to receive the interim report in

March 2017, which will contain the evidence gathered and recommendations for future commissioning and integrated working arrangements.