Agenda item

To receive the annual report of the Director of Public Health 2021/22 and support the high-level recommendations contained within it.

Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health, Lancashire County Council presented the Annual Report 2021-22 to the Board.  The report (Appendix 'A' in the agenda pack) details an analysis of key indicators of health, outcomes and equalities in Lancashire.  It was noted that the Annual Report would also be presented to Lancashire County Council's Cabinet on 3 February 2022 and Full Council on 24 February 2022.  Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health also thanked the Public Health Team for the Annual Report as well as wider partners who had also been involved in the compilation of it.

Directors of Public Health have an annual duty to describe the state of health and wellbeing and highlight challenges and point to areas of collective actions as a society and continue to promote good health and prevent illness and deaths.  The Board were informed that how healthy somebody was, is determined by a wide range of factors, ie 20% is influenced by the NHS, health care and clinical services and 80% is determined by the wider/social determinants of health.

It was reported that there are two key measures that are globally recognised to describe the health of society and how it is distributed within communities:

i)  Life expectancy at birth

ii)  Healthy life expectancy at birth

In Lancashire the life expectancy at birth for:

i)  Females is 82 years

ii)  Males is 78.3 years

And for healthy life expectancy for:

i)  Females is 62 years

ii)  Males is 60 years

This highlights that 75% of your life is spent living healthily with 25% not in good health, which is a stark realisation.

The Board were informed that throughout the COVID pandemic is has highlighted how intrinsically health and economy are linked and it is imperative to be prepared for responses to future threats and to reduce inequalities in Lancashire.  The immediate priority in Lancashire is school readiness and cuts across shared goals, whilst not losing focus on issues such as overweight and obesity in children.  During COVID it was noted that the community effort in Lancashire in communities, voluntary community and faith sector (VCFS), volunteers rose to the challenge to help each other in times of need which recognised the value of the VCFS colleagues that are helping to improve health and wellbeing and will continue to embrace that and support the sector.

It was highlighted that there were three "E's" that were key levers to improving health and wellbeing more than anything else and they are:

i)  Education

ii)  Environment

iii)  Economy

The Board also noted that alliances and partnership working on mental health had already commenced with various programs across Lancashire and also working with employers to address the issues surrounding mental health.

It was outlined to the Board, the key findings detailed in the covering report and the six high level recommendations included in the Annual Report which were:

i)  Adopt a health in all policies approach to reducing health inequalities across Lancashire.

ii)  Work more closely with wider system partners to support and improve how we do things, working alongside the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector as more equal partners.

iii)  Harness the relationships and ways of working which have developed during the pandemic to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people and reduce child health inequalities.

iv)  Align health and climate goals, working with partners and our communities to transition away from carbon and build resilient communities that are well adapted to respond to climate change.

v)  Ensure all key interfacing strategies in Lancashire have a healthy ageing focus and to demonstrate commitment to healthy ageing by signing up as a co-signatory to the Public Health England (PHE) Healthy Ageing Consensus statement.

vi)  Address low in-work productivity, as the biggest single contributor to Lancashire’s productivity gap, through work-based health programmes, supportive workplace practices and closer working relationships with key agencies such as Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

Following the presentation, the Chair formally thanked Dr Sakthi Karunanithi and the Public Health Team for the excellent Annual Report and requested that his thanks be passed on to the Team.

It was also suggested that the economy be restructured to tackle inequalities across Lancashire and that groups within communities are set up to tackle the issues of loneliness, particularly with men.

In terms of the what the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board can do going forward with regards to the information highlighted in the report is that it needs to link the report with the Board development conversation and its' work programme to ensure the Board moves forwards in a different way and look at members being champions/ambassadors for a particular topic, as well as a commitment from the Public Health Team and wider health and wellbeing teams across Lancashire to support the endeavour in bringing more intelligence on what works and good practice in terms of polices.  It was agreed that Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health would speak further with regards to this in how to move this forward, with individual Board members.

Resolved:  That the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board:

i)  Received the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health 2021-2022

ii)  Supported the high-level recommendations contained within the Annual Report.

iii)  Agreed that Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health, Lancashire County Council speaks individually with members of the Board on how the Board can support the Annual Report and be ambassadors/champion issues for better outcomes in Lancashire.