Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Democratic Services Manager.

The report provides a summary of the discussions and conclusions of the workshops held at the Public Health/ Health Promotion event held at the last Health Scrutiny Committee meeting on 22 January 2013.

The Scrutiny Committee is recommended to note the report.

Officer contact: Jonathan Vali, 0161 474 3201, jonathan.vali@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Democratic Services Manager submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) summarising the outcomes of the workshops held at the Health Promotion event at the Scrutiny Committee held on 22 January 2013.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted and the outcomes be referred to the Health & Wellbeing Board.

The Chair invited feedback from the Health Promotion workshops:-

(i)            Cancer Prevention and Increasing Screening Uptake in Stockport

Dr Vicci Owen Smith summarised the discussion had during the workshops and highlighted the following issues:-

·         difficulties in engaging all residents and encouraging them to undergo screening, and recognising that there may always be individuals who wont engage with services;

·         opportunities to use the powerful stories of those who had been ‘saved’ by screening programmes;

·         using word of mouth to encourage take up, through children and spouses, as done with smoking cessation campaigns;

·         improved sharing of information between agencies to better target communications and campaigns.

(ii)          20mph Zones and promoting walking and cycling in local communities

Dr Stephen Watkins summarised the discussion had during the workshops and highlighted the following issues:-

·         the contrast between improving road safety but the high incidences of child pedestrian death;

·         the need to better promote the idea of ‘home zones’ to residents;

·         the impact on the levels of heart disease if residents chose to walk or cycle for shorter journeys rather than driving; and

·         the need to improve the perception, and reality, of cycle safety.

(iii)         Healthy Eating – impact of takeaway outlets

Donna Sager (Service Director) summarised the discussion had during the workshops and highlighted the following issues:-

·         questioning whether current policies on takeaways remained fit for purpose;

·         the possibility of providing community cooking lessons;

·         encouraging takeaways to provide healthier options and displaying health information; and

·         targeting messages around healthy eating to grandparents.

(iv)         Alcohol Strategy: Minimum Alcohol Pricing and other opportunities

Jerry O’Keefe (Associate Director of Public Health) summarised the discussion had during the workshops and highlighted the following issues:-

·         the importance of the Alcohol Strategy;

·         the wider impact of alcohol misuse beyond health and crime and disorder;

·         the need to change the culture of alcohol usage as there was a limit to how far services can seek to overcome the widespread availability and falling cost of alcohol. The importance of Minimum Unit Pricing was emphasised; and

·         a need to be clearer on the message around alcohol consumption as the public did not necessarily understand alcohol units.

(v)          Safer Winters for Vulnerable People. 

Sarah Newsam (Head of Health & Wellbeing) summarised the discussion had during the workshops and highlighted the following issues:-

·         particular prevalence of seasonal deaths amongst older people;

·         isolation was a key issue – there was a need to ensure access to services was maintained or just simple ways of maintaining contact;

·         improvements to housing and access to support through winter fuel allowance, and better ways of identifying vulnerability were noted as possible factors in decreasing seasonal deaths; and

·         the importance of the community as a vehicle for supporting vulnerable residents.

Representatives of Life Leisure also attended the meeting to encourage councillors to sign-up for Active Life as a way of monitoring levels of activity and identifying opportunities for increasing exercise.

RESOLVED – (1) That councillors and officers from the Public Health service be thanked for their attendance and participation.

(2) That the Democratic Services Manager be requested to circulate copies of the presentations to councillors and to provide a report to the next ordinary meeting summarising the discussions at the health promotion workshops.

The Health Scrutiny Committee will be holding a special event on Health Promotion. The timetable is as follows:-

(i) Welcome and Introductions

Councillor Tom McGee, Chair of Health Scrutiny

(ii) Public Health Transition – Integration, Innovation and Delivery

Councillor John Pantall, Executive Councillor (Health and Wellbeing)

(iii) The Health of Stockport – JSNA Update

Dr Steve Watkins, Director of Public Health

(iv) Taking forward the Wellness Agenda: Promoting Health and Wellbeing in Stockport

Dr Vicci Owen-Smith, Deputy Director of Public Health

(v) Workshops -  Key Issues for Local Councillors

(vi) Feedback and Next Steps

(vii) Active Life:  Local Sign-up

The Chair welcomed everyone who had attended the meeting for the Health Promotion event.

The Executive Councillor (Health & Wellbeing) (Councillor John Pantall) reported on the transfer of public health functions to the Council from April 2013 and the opportunities this created for integrating services and overcoming operational silos. He referred to the recent announcement of the Public Health financial settlement and stated that work was underway to ensure that the best value for money would be gained from this resource.

The Director of Public Health (Dr Stephen Watkins) made a presentation providing an overview of the key health statistics and health profile of Stockport. Overall, the average health of Stockport residents was close to the national average, but that this masked significant inequalities. It was also stressed that the ‘wellbeing agenda’ was not a luxury but was epidemiologically linked to the causes of mortality.

The Deputy Director of Public Health (Vicci Owen-Smith) made a presentation on mental wellbeing and the evidence available to support increased focus on this to improve the overall wellbeing of residents.

The Chair then invited councillors to take part in a series of workshops on key public health issues.