To receive the Director of Public Health Annual Report.
Minutes:
The Director of Public Health, Wendy Burke, presented her Annual Report 2022/23 which was titled Back Home: 10 years of Public Health in North Tyneside. The aim of the report was to provide a look back at the previous 10 years when public health had been returned to local government and to look forward to the next set of focuses.
The Director stated that local authorities understood the importance of “place” in promoting wellbeing, building partnerships and the local opportunities for education, work, leisure, and socialising.
Along with changes in a growing population, lower birth rates and an older overall population with improvement in life expectancy, it was noted there was a decrease in healthy life expectancy at birth for both males and females, but most significantly females.
There have been improvements in a range of health outcomes e.g., increase in breastfeeding rates, fewer teenage mothers, and fewer adults smoking with the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control. However, there was an increase in children who are an unhealthy weight and fewer adults being physically active.
The Director noted the decrease in public health allocations to local authorities, and an increase in prevention work along with the work in supporting the benefits for physical and mental health. Alongside further cuts, the commissioning of health visitors and family nurses transferred over from the NHS was welcomed as the final part of the overall public health transfer.
As part of a wider Violence Reduction Unit, the public health team worked with colleagues in community protection, the police, early help and the VCS to form Project VITA which was designed to steer young people away from anti-social behaviour through engagement / opportunities.
During the pandemic, public health was at the centre of measures to tackle the pandemic nationally and locally. An unintended positive consequence was the strengthening of both local partnerships and North East public health systems.
The Public Health Directorate of the Council now has a wider reach, now including community safety, emergency planning, licensing, trading standards and environment health.
The Director of Public Health stated that in the next 10 years of public health in local government the focus must be on social determinants of health such as decent homes, access to good education and skills development, good employment opportunities with a living wage, active transport, good air quality, green spaces and safer communities.
On behalf of the Board the Chair thanked the Director of Public Health and acknowledged the challenges and successes of the past decade. Members of the Board reiterated these tanks, pointing out the importance of collaboration.
The Deputy Chair asked for some further comment on the Authority’s progress on childhood obesity. The Director of Public Health responded that this issue was both a challenge of social and commercial factors and currently there were limited powers to tackle the fast-food industry. Currently, the service were looking at the business usage of restaurants as takeaways. Much like the work done with tobacco, legislative changes were also needed.
It was agreed that the Director of Public Health Annual Report be noted.