Chamber and committees

That is great. Thank you. Prevention is the other aspect that I wanted to pick up on, because commercial determinants of health are not really referenced at all within the NPF but, as we know, they have a massive impact on people’s wellbeing.

Emma Congreve touched on things not speaking to each other across the whole piece. How can we track and tackle some of those commercial determinants of health within the updated health outcome to make sure that we take a broader environmental view of the landscape to make sure that what is done has the impact that we need it to have?

What are the witnesses’ views on the proposed revision to the health outcome? To what extent is the proposal appropriate in placing a renewed emphasis on mental health and physical activity?

Absolutely. From the previous panel of witnesses, we heard concerns about the siloed nature of the NPF and the need for links between the portfolios in order to have good outcomes as a whole. Does more need to be done on the links between, for example, fair work and health and the determinants that they have in relation to each other, to ensure that the NPF can realise its aims?

I will go to Carol Calder, as she is nodding.

Prevention is another aspect that the NPF notes but does not have a lot of detail underneath it as to how we actually get there with policy. I am particularly interested in the commercial determinants of health and in health-harming products. Does there need to be a broader emphasis in the NPF about the factors that influence public health? If so, what strategies could we put in place or embed underneath the national performance framework to ensure that we address those commercial determinants of health?

North Lanarkshire Council has recently increased the distance at which secondary school pupils are eligible for school buses, with the roll-out to primary schools proposed for next year. As we head into winter, many parents are concerned about the proposed walking routes, because many are poorly lit. The alternative that has been given to parents is public service buses, but my office has heard several stories of such buses driving past groups of schoolchildren or being too crowded to allow any more on. The local authority cites budget issues as one of the reasons for cutting the routes. Will the cabinet secretary meet me to find a solution and ensure that financial decisions are not put ahead of the wellbeing of children in North Lanarkshire?

That was great. Thanks.

Given the whole range of priorities, frameworks, performance metrics and all those things for IJBs, with limited resource, how can we support IJBs in collecting the good and useful data that can drive some of those outcomes? IJBs have so many performance and measurement frameworks that they legally have to report on, while, as a whole system, we are trying to drive better data, but there are only so many people to do all that work.

With the previous panel, we heard about local improvement support team—LIST—analysts in IJBs. Do your IJBs have those posts? What value do they add to the IJBs? What other measures could be put in place to support IJBs with data gathering, given the range of performance management frameworks to which the IJBs have to contribute? How do we get the shift to recording the right things for integration across the piece?

Given what Pat Togher said about different IJBs having different things in place, how do we ensure that we do not overcomplicate the picture for the IJBs that may or may not have some of those things delegated to them?

Good morning. I feel that we have talked about data for years—what we should be collecting, what we are not collecting and what we could be collecting. Is it the case that, sometimes, we need to talk about collecting different data, rather than simply more, and joining it up to ensure that it covers priorities across health and social care as a whole, to deliver outcomes for people as a whole? How do we get there from where we are now? What do we need to encourage IJBs and others to do to ensure that we can get to that reality, where data can be used in a rounded way?

I see Michael Kellet nodding, so I will pick on him first.

Good morning. According to the stakeholders whom the Accounts Commission spoke to, current data does not provide good evidence across the whole system or show how one part impacts another, and data does not help to inform improvements for better outcomes. There is too much focus on data that is used by individual bodies for their governance and operational purposes rather than on collective and joint priorities, and there is no whole-system approach to performance management and reporting. Given the variability in the capacity of IJBs, what can be developed to guide data collection and reporting to enable more accurate comparisons and benchmarking and to move towards a whole-system approach to performance management and reporting?