Glasgow Health Commission: recommendations
In the Spring 2009 edition of CHEX-Point (#33) (to view, click here) Duncan Booker, Glasgow City Council, provided an article detailing the work of the Glasgow Health Commission. At that point, the Commission were consulting on draft recommendations to tackle the city’s record on health. We asked Duncan to provide this update on the Commission's progress for the latest issue of CHEX-Point (Autumn 2009) but, due to space considerations, we were unable to include it. We now present the article here.
The Health Commission was established by the Leader of Glasgow City Council to take a fresh look at the city’s health challenges and to make recommendations for improving health and tackling inequalities. It is chaired by the Principal of Glasgow Caledonian University and has a diverse group of members.
The Health Commission is formally independent of the city’s main agencies, but has worked closely with them in the expectation that they will take responsibility for implementing its recommendations.
The Health Commission stuck to a tight timescale for its work. Members met for the first time in the summer of 2008. They issued draft recommendations for consultation at the beginning of 2009 and published their final report in the summer of this year.
The Health Commission received presentations and briefings on various health issues, particularly through the support of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. Discussions focused on three key areas, which have formed the main themes of the Health Commission’s report. They are:
- People & culture
- The environment
- Changing services.
In the previous article, it was stated that the Health Commission intended to consult widely with Glasgow’s communities on its draft recommendations. This was undertaken across February to May this year and Health Commission members presented on their draft recommendations to a number of community groups across the city. These included Glasgow’s 13 Community Reference Groups, the Equalities Networks Forum, and Public Partnership Forums.
Significant changes were made to the detail and shape of the final recommendations as a result of this engagement and the Health Commission is keen to explore further links with communities in seeking implementation of the recommendations.
The report and recommendations of the Health Commission were launched at an event in the Pearce Institute, Govan on 25 August. There are 20 recommendations, which Health Commission members believe are within the power of Glasgow’s partners to implement and which collectively can make a real difference to the health of the city’s communities.
They include a very strong focus on better community engagement as a means of improving health and wellbeing; an acknowledgement that support for the early years is a key means for getting long term health improvement; and a continuing emphasis on the importance of tackling inequalities.
The next steps for the Health Commission report are already in progress. Council services and Community Planning partners are being asked to respond to the Health Commission recommendations and to say what they intend to do to support their implementation.
The Health Commission has made it clear that they intend to hold partners to account for the recommendations and to report back on how things have gone in a year’s time. Indicators and measures of progress will be developed with the support of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health so that Glasgow’s communities can see whether and how the recommendations have been implemented.
The report of the Health Commission is available via the website address www.glasgow.gov.uk/healthcommission or by calling Duncan Booker on 0141-287 5573. The Health Commission members have wanted to be as open as possible in their work and so have also published all minutes and briefing papers on-line at the website address.
Published: 11 Dec 2009
