Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Public Health which sought views on the proposals for the future of the Probation Health Trainer Service, as part of the engagement currently being undertaken. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)           The Probation Health Trainer Service was jointly commissioned by Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council. The County Council had been commissioning the Probation Health Trainer Service since 2019 and the current contract began in 2022 and would end on 31st March 2025. As a separate Local Authority the County Council was entitled to make its own decision on whether it continued to commission the service and if so what format the service took. There was no specific statutory duty on the County Council to provide the service, however a case could be made that the service came under the Public Health department’s overall duty to improve the health of people living in Leicestershire.  Leicester City Council had not yet announced their proposals for the Service and the matter was still proceeding through their governance processes.

(ii)         The Probation Health Trainer Service had 3 full time equivalent members of Ingeus staff that covered the Leicestershire area. It was possible that if the service was decommissioned those 3 members of staff could be made redundant. There were also some volunteer positions associated with the service that could be affected.

(iii)        In 2022/23 the Service worked with 40 individuals from Leicestershire and in 2023/24 this rose to 119. A member asked what percentage this was of the overall offenders released from prison during those periods and in response it was explained that the statistics were not held by the County Council but the matter could be investigated and the statistics included in the report to Cabinet if available.

(iv)       In response to a question from a member about the level of impact the Probation Health Trainer Service had on offenders it was explained that this was hard to measure because of the variety of factors that affect a person’s life and the different services that worked with offenders.

(v)         Whilst the Probation Health Trainers Service was separate to the work of the Probation Service, the two services worked closely together and had a good relationship. Conversations were taking place with the Probation Service regarding how the health of offenders would be managed if the Probation Health Trainers Service was decommissioned. The impact of the decommissioning was likely to be most strongly felt by the Probation Service.

(vi)       Members noted that the County Council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy 2023/24 – 2026/27 included a requirement for Public Health to save £90,000 by 1st April 2025 through a review of commissioned services and therefore understood why it was being proposed to decommission the service. Given the small amount of people the service worked with it was questioned whether it was value for money. However, members sought reassurances that the work would be picked up by other organisations when it was no longer funded by the County Council. It was queried whether the Police and Crime Commissioner could fund the service and the Director of Public Health agreed to look into this. The Director also emphasised that whilst it was proposed that Public Health would no longer fund the specific service for offenders, some of the other services that Public Health provided could tackle health issues faced by offenders such as substance misuse. Work needed to take place on the pathways for offenders to be referred into the services to ensure that offenders would get the help they needed.

RESOLVED:

That the proposal to decommission the Probation Health Trainer Service be supported, but the Director of Public Health be requested to note the Committee’s desire for some support for the health needs of offenders to remain in place.