Agenda item

To present an update from the Public Health Directorate on the following work areas: New model for 0-5 year olds’ public health services; Due North; and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Arif Rajpura, Director of Public Health presented an update from the Public Health Directorate on the following work areas: New model for 0-5 year olds’ public health services; Due North; and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

He explained that the new model for 0-5 year olds’ public health services offered eight structured visits (previously five) from a Health Visitor for mothers during pregnancy and until their children had reached 3.5 years old. The key aim, based on research, recognised the importance of early life development with increased opportunities for early help support to ensure children were prepared for starting school.

The Lottery funded Better Start Programme (2015-2025) also involved a significant investment over ten years of £45million for families and children particularly in deprived areas. He added that Blackpool Teaching Hospitals was on the Better Start Board and the maternity workforce was being developed appropriately.  He emphasised that over time it would be possible to ‘break the cycle’ of deprivation.

The new health visiting model would be launched on 1 April 2018.

Councillor Cross added that Public Health England had commended the new model. She added that breastfeeding was part of the new Health Visiting service and volunteers had been trained to offer peer support for mothers.

Members agreed with the importance of good early development for children and ensuring that they were ready to start school although not all parents were proactive. Members also supported the £1.6million investment in local parks and green/open spaces. Dr Rajpura re-iterated that the Better Start Programme also aimed to develop parents to better support their children.

Dr Rajpura referred to the Due North Report (2014) which had reviewed health inequalities and aimed to:

·         Tackle poverty / economic inequality in the North (and with the rest of England)

·         Promote healthy early childhood development

·         ‘Share’ power for resources / public able to influence spending (improve health)

·         Health sector to promote health equity (fairness)

Members queried whether health inequalities had improved over the last four years. Dr Rajpura reported that the inequality gap had not narrowed in the last four years. Life expectancy was a key inequalities measure and had been going up across the country including Blackpool but increases had been faster elsewhere. This year had been the first drop in life expectancy for some years.  For babies born in Blackpool now, life expectancy was five years less than some other areas.

He referred to the wider determinants of health such as poverty, employment and housing. Transience was a significant issue with access to cheap quality housing. Councillor Cross agreed that access to quality housing was a key priority.

The Chairman referred to councils who had used planning policies to restrict the number of fast-food takeaways in areas where a ‘saturation’ point had been reached of these outlets. Councillor Cross acknowledged the issue and options. She explained that alcohol premises could be restricted through licensing laws where there were alcohol related issues. Licensing could not be used for limiting the number of fast-food premises but planning was an option being considered.

Dr Rajpura referred to progress with the Health and Wellbeing Strategy aims:

·         Housing

·         Tackling substance misuse / alcohol / smoking

·         Community resilience / reducing social isolation

·         Early intervention

The Chairman noted that options for the new smoking reduction service would be considered at the next meeting. He referred to Public Health England advocating the use of e-cigarettes and how this was being considered. Dr Rajpura acknowledged that Public Health England was promoting harm reduction. He had concerns that internationally e-cigarettes were still not recognised in that respect and there could be risks and unknown factors. He added that older people who had struggled to quit smoking might benefit but there was a risk that younger people were taking up e-cigarettes in high numbers and then might move onto cigarettes. He advocated a precautionary approach.