Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 14
First Report - Prevention in health and social care: healthy places
Published 19 Jan 2024
Paragraph 56
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Prevention in health and social care All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We have previously recommended that all ICBs should include a public health representative, such as a public health director, and that DHSC considers making this a mandatory requirement. In response, the Department said it agreed that prevention needs to be a priority, but emphasised the importance of protecting ICS autonomy. The evidence that we have heard in this inquiry reaffirms our view that having the right people in place is crucial to ensuring the prevention agenda is not crowded out. Given what we have heard about impact that these individuals can have in ensuring a longer-term focus, we recommend that DHSC reconsiders the case for mandating representatives in this role.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, First Report - Prevention in health and social care: healthy places (HC 484), paragraph 56, 19 January 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 May 2024 (deadline 19 March 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it accepts some of the Committee's recommendations on healthy places but declines others, and states that it has carefully considered all of them.
- On the Decent Homes Standard, it accepts the recommendation, saying the Renters (Reform) Bill will bring the private rented sector under a standard for the first time and that it "intend[s] to publish our consultation on an updated DHS soon".
- On Awaab's Law, it accepts the recommendation. It will publish a consultation response and bring forward secondary legislation for social housing "as soon as practicable", but says the private rented sector needs "a different approach".
- It declines to consult on design and space standards, stating: "we do not believe it is necessary to consult on our design or space standards at this time."
- It declines to make OHID a statutory consultee, saying new statutory consultees would need to be "clearly justified", and that it is "not currently looking to extend the list of statutory consultees".