The Health and Housing Scrutiny Committee met to discuss a new Homes Strategy for the borough, the Darlington Better Care Fund, health and safety compliance in council housing, chronic illness prevention, and performance indicators. The committee supported the submission of the draft Housing Services Fire Safety Policy to the cabinet and agreed to update the Work Programme to reflect the decisions of the Scrutiny Committee. Members also received updates on the Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Consultation on a Homes Strategy for the Borough

The committee considered the Homes Strategy for the borough, which had been agreed for consultation at Cabinet on 8 July 2025. The draft Homes Strategy 2025-2030 provides a framework for the actions of the council and its partners with regards to housing, with a focus on providing high quality homes across all tenures, meeting local needs and addressing the borough's housing challenges.

The strategy sets a high-level vision, and three key objectives focused around building new homes, improving standards, meeting the needs of the ageing population and supporting people to live independently.

The three objectives are:

• Building homes, with an emphasis on affordable and social homes, to meet local needs
• Improving the standards of existing housing, achieving net zero carbon and revitalising neighbourhoods
• Meeting the needs of the ageing population and supporting people to live independently

The previous strategy covered the period from 2012 – 2017.

The committee was asked to consider the draft Homes Strategy and make any formal comments as part of the consultation.

Darlington Better Care Fund 2024/25 End of Year Programme Report

The committee received an update on the annual report of the Darlington Better Care Fund (BCF) for the 2024/25 Programme. The BCF supports people to live healthy, independent and dignified lives, through joining up health, social care and housing services seamlessly around the person.

The two core BCF objectives are:

• Enable people to stay well, safe and independent at home for longer
• Provide the right care in the right place at the right time

The report included the delivery against 4 key metrics of:

• Avoidable Admissions: Per 100,000 population
• Falls: Emergency Hospital Admissions due to falls in people aged over 65
• Discharge to Usual Place of Residence: Percentage of People who are discharged from acute hospital to their normal place of residence
• Residential Admissions: Long term support needs of people aged 65 and over met by admission to residential and nursing care homes

The committee noted the approval of the Darlington 24/25 Plan and the programme review underway during July /August 2025.

Director of Public Health Annual Report 2024-2025 Across the Life Course: The Health of Darlington

The committee received the Annual Public Health Report from Lorraine Hughes, Director of Public Health, which provided a snapshot of health across the life course, describing some of the key health issues for Darlington and celebrating the work happening across the Borough.

The structure of the Annual Public Health Report is based on the framework used within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, highlighting health and wellbeing needs across the life course of Starting Well, Living Well and Ageing Well.

The report made a number of recommendations:

Starting Well

• Develop an oral health promotion strategy and action plan for Darlington.
• Expand toothbrushing schemes to more early years settings.
• Use data to develop a better understanding of rates of smoking in pregnancy within Darlington, to ensure support can be targeted at those areas with the highest rates.
• Build upon the recent success with increasing rates of breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks, with a clear focus on reducing the inequalities in breastfeeding that exist within Darlington.
• Undertake work to understand the variation in uptake of childhood vaccination across Darlington, working with primary care and the school age immunisation service to increase the uptake of routine childhood vaccinations.
• Take steps to understand why there has been a reduction in the percentage of children in care who are up to date with the vaccine schedule, and use this information to implement action locally to improve uptake.
• Undertake an audit of hospital admission data for unintentional and intentional injuries in children, using the findings to develop an action plan to address identified priorities

Living Well

• Develop and deliver a multiagency suicide prevention action plan, informed by the evidence base set out within the Suicide Prevention Strategy for England and local suicide data and trends, to support a reduction in rates of self-harm and suicide.
• Engage with local employers to inform the development of a healthy workplace offer for Darlington.
• Continue to increase the numbers of people with drug and / or alcohol addictions accessing treatment and recovery support, through reviewing all pathways into the service and working with local stakeholders such as the prison and probation services to increase referrals.
• Develop the rehab provision available to Darlington residents.
• Continue to increase the numbers of people accessing the smoking service and the number of successful quit attempts.

Ageing Well

• Build upon the delivery of the NHS Health Check Programme to identify opportunities to reach a broader cross section of the eligible cohort, to ensure those who could benefit most are accessing the offer.
• Review and strengthen pathways into services from NHS health checks, including stop smoking services and drug and alcohol services.
• Develop a public health approach to ageing well.

The committee agreed to accept the recommendations of the Annual Director of Public Health Report and make use of the report to support understanding of the population health and wellbeing needs across the life course.

Health and Safety Compliance in Council Housing 2024-25

The committee received an update on the health and safety compliance standards for council housing stock and performance against these in 2024-25. The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) sets a number of consumer standards, which social housing providers must comply with, including a condition that they must take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of their tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.

The report set out the health and safety compliance arrangements for 2024-25 and performance against these:

• Asbestos Management Survey Programme 100% compliance.
• Asbestos General Housing 100% compliance.
• Asbestos Blocks of Flats 100% compliance.
• Damp and Mould There are no specific measures currently for compliance in relation to reports of damp and mould, although all work in relation to damp and mould reported in 2024-25 has been completed. Awaab's Law¹ being introduced later this year will require the council to monitor compliance with the new requirements, and this will be reported next year in the 2025-26 compliance report.
• Electrical Safety General Housing 96.17% compliance.
• Electrical Safety Sheltered and Extra Care Schemes 100% compliance.
• Electrical Safety Blocks of Flats 100% compliance.
• Fire Risk Assessments Sheltered and Extra Care Schemes 100% compliance.
• Fire Risk Assessments Blocks of Flats 86.73% compliance (these are all now completed).
• Fire Door Installations 39.56% completed of our 3-year programme.
• Fire Door Inspections 21.24% compliance. This programme only commenced in quarter 4 of 2024-25. Additional staffing resource has been recruited and is therefore due to be fully completed in 2025-26.
• Gas Safety Sheltered and Extra Care Schemes 100% compliance.
• Gas Safety General Housing 99.56% compliance.
• Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms 99.24% compliance.
• Legionella Sheltered and Extra Care Schemes inspection and monitoring 100% compliance.
• Lifts 100% compliance.
• Stairlifts 94.34% compliance.

The committee noted the health and safety compliance performance set out in the report.

Chronic Illness Prevention

The committee received a report providing an overview of the impact of long-term conditions (LTCs) on Darlington's population. Long-term conditions (LTCs) are ongoing health issues that cannot currently be cured but can be effectively managed with the right support, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and hypertension.

The report described a three-tier prevention model—primary, secondary, and tertiary—each offering a framework for targeted interventions to prevent illness, support self-management, and improve the sustainability of the health and care system.

The committee was asked to acknowledge the disproportionate burden of long-term conditions in Darlington's more deprived communities, note the increasing prevalence of LTCs and projected growth, endorse a system-wide approach focused on early detection, personalised care, and community-based support, and continue leading efforts to reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes for those most affected.

Performance Indicators Year End Quarter 4 2024/25

The committee reviewed performance data against key performance indicators for 2024/25 up to year end March 2025 (Quarter 4).

Thirteen indicators had 2024/25 Quarter 4 information to compare with that from 2023/24:

• 6 of the 13 indicators figures increased.
• 7 of the 13 indicators figures decreased.

There were eight indicators that did not have 2024/25 information but had been updated since the 2024/25 Quarter 2 report:

• 5 of the 8 indicators figures increased.
• 3 of the 8 indicators figures decreased.

The committee agreed to review and note the performance information provided in the report, and raise relevant queries with appropriate Director, Assistant Director or Head of Service.

Work Programme

The committee considered the work programme items scheduled to be considered during the 2025/26 Municipal Year and considered any additional areas which Members would like to suggest should be included.

The committee noted the current status of the Work Programme and considered any additional areas of work they would like to include.

Item No. 10 - Appendix 4.pdf provides questions for scrutiny committee members to ask, including:

• Will the proposal/project result in an increase in carbon emissions?
• How will you reduce emissions?
• Will the proposal have any impacts on biodiversity (positive or negative)?
• Does the proposal incorporate/promote the development of renewable energy?
• How can you minimise emissions from transport?
• How will you make the proposal/project resilient to the impacts of climate change, such as more frequent severe weather, floods and heatwaves?

Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee

The committee received the minutes of the Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 8 May 2025. Councillor Cooper was elected as Vice Chair of the Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee for 2025/26.

The committee discussed the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Quality Account for 2024/2025 and the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust Quality Account for 2024/25.

Health and Wellbeing Board

The committee received the minutes of the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting held on 13 March 2025. The Darlington Safeguarding Partnership Annual Report was presented, and the Better Care Fund and Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment were discussed. The NHS Planning Update Presentation was given, and the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy was discussed.