Agenda item

Officers from City and Hackney Public Health to be heard.

The Committee noted the verbal update of the public health consultant working with City & Hackney Young People’s Service (CHYPS) providing a range of health and wellbeing services, noting that the CHYPS contract (total value of £540K) has not been extended beyond 30 November 2023 due to poor performance. The Committee noted that there appeared to be no signs of recovery after the pandemic, and was not reaching its target audience of under-18s in the City of London. The Committee heard that no replacement has been commissioned due to the availability of alternative local provision including sexual health services, and consideration of other strategies. The Committee noted that there were no CoLC savings associated with the decision to end the service.

A Member asked how a young person in the City of London might know which service to access. The meeting heard that the commissioning and delivery landscape is complex, and a key focus in the review is ways to improve the navigation and signposting of such services. 

A Member noted that there were no state secondary schools in the City of London, noting that those seeking sexual health services did not necessarily have to go to a local provider and were freely available nationally. The meeting noted that work to engage secondary schools in sexual and relationship education is ongoing.

A Member asked whether there was unmet need. The meeting noted that young people in the City of London had not been accessing services, though it was not clear whether those people were accessing other services in other areas. The meeting heard that there did appear to be some unmet needs around sexual health services in particular, and that it was critical that young people have reliable knowledge of how and where to access such services (which was not being provided by CHYPS).