Issue - meetings

Cabinet received the Annual Report on the health of the Buckinghamshire population from the Director of Public Health.

RESOLVED

Cabinet NOTED the Director of Public Health Annual Report and ENDORSED the recommendations below and the draft action plan.

Recommendations within the Director of Public Health Annual Report for Buckinghamshire Council

a)         The council to consider adopting a ‘health in all polices’ approach whereby relevant policies and decisions consider how residents health could be improved and poor health prevented as part of business as usual, e.g. when planning new developments or considering transport policies.

b)         The council to consider opportunities to develop its role as an anchor organisation.

c)         The council to continue to roll out training to front line staff to encourage residents to make simple changes that could improve their health, wellbeing and independence and ensure staff can signpost people to community assets that can support this.

d)         The Buckinghamshire Council public health and prevention team should support Community Boards to consider the health needs of their population and what simple practical steps they could take to improve health in their local area.

e)         To continue to promote the health of the council workforce with good workplace health policies.

Recommendations for Community Boards

f)          Community Boards should work with local communities, public health and wider partners to identify the health and wellbeing issues in their local area and take effective action to address them. Community boards should use their pump-priming wellbeing fund to help improve health and wellbeing in their area.

Recommendations for the NHS and primary care networks

The NHS should:

a)      Increase their focus on preventing ill health and tackling inequalities and ensure this is built into every care pathway.

b)      Consider how to build a health in all policies approach and opportunities to act as an anchor organisation.

c)      Consider how the NHS can best support effective place-based working and community-centred approaches.

d)      Ensure front line staff are trained to support people to make simple changes to improve their health and wellbeing and to signpost people to community assets that support this.

e)      Continue to promote and protect the health of their workforce through effective workplace policies.

Primary care networks:

a)      Should work with their local communities, Buckinghamshire Council public health, Community Boards and other partners to understand and improve the health in their local area.

b)      Ensure front line staff are trained to support people to make simple changes to improve their health and wellbeing and signpost people to community assets that can support their health.

c)      Continue to promote and protect the health of their workforce.

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Cabinet received the Annual Report on the health of the Buckinghamshire population from the Director of Public Health. The Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health reported that the aim was to support a strategic approach in the new council and partners to address the health of the local population. The report also analysed the health of residents at a more local level both at a community board level and at the level of primary care networks. This would enable the new Community Boards to understand some of the health and wellbeing issues in their local area. The DPH annual report provided further detail on the factors that drive health and should be read in conjunction with the Community Board profiles.

The four main health behaviours – smoking, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and

alcohol misuse account for 40% of all years lived with ill health and disability. These behaviours were major risk factors driving the development of long-term conditions

that account for 70% of all NHS and social care spend.

The Director of Public Health reported that this year’s report was more of a stocktake looking back at past years and looking to the future. 140 million working days were lost every year due to ill health that cost the Country £22 billion which was why health was at the core of everything. Buckinghamshire had some of the best health outcomes in the Country; this was due to the high quality environment, good education attainment and higher incomes. Despite this it was important to deal with long term health conditions. There were also variations in Buckinghamshire which was why Community Boards were invaluable in targeting local need. Only a small part of the population lived in the most deprived areas nationally. This has had an impact on the covid-19 pandemic which has hit certain communities more than others.

Looking to the future there was an increasingly ageing population. However, whilst young people were smoking and drinking less there was an increase in obesity and mental health problems. The economic impact of covid-19 was also a health factor; in the last recession in 2008 a 1% rise in unemployment led to 2% rise in long term conditions. It was important to build back better.

During discussion the following points were made:-

·         One in 10 children live in poverty and reassurance was given that this was the Government’s definition of poverty and it was a relative rather than absolute poverty; as areas benchmark against other parts of the Country. They used the percentage below the median income that the family was at to measure poverty; Buckinghamshire’s rate was half the national average.

·         There were concerns about the increased rate of covid-19 within the BAME communities around the susceptibility of getting covid-19 and also their fatality rate. The Council had run workshop sessions with Members to raise awareness of those vulnerabilities in the community including protecting the community as a whole. The Director of Public Health reported that they were working with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8