Issue - meetings

The Board considered the report of the Director of Public Health which presented the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report 2022.

Through discussion of the report with the Board, Dr Debbie Chase highlighted that this year had been about exploring in more depth health inequalities arising from the Pandemic, how we can make improvements and reduce risk going forward through the adoption of a framework that aimed to:

·  Give every child the best start in life

·  Enable all children, young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives

·  Create fair employment and good work for all

·  Ensure a healthy standard of living for all

·  Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities; and

·  Strengthen the role and impact of ill-health prevention

The report concluded with 5 recommendations:

1.  Amplify leadership across agencies to celebrate, sustain and protect our local commitment to reducing health inequalities;

2.  Maximise the impact of our core business on the ‘causes of the causes’ of health, wellbeing and inequality;

3.  Continue to do what we know works;

4.  Commit to a new way of working with and alongside our communities – a different relationship is good for us all

5.  Harness and assure the benefit of system working to improve health.

RESOLVED:

(i)  The Health and Wellbeing Board supported the recommendations set out in the report;

(ii)  In recognition of the significant impact that local organisations have on the local population’s health and wellbeing, Health and Wellbeing Board partners support joint work as Anchor Institutions. Specifically, this would involve considering their organisation’s role in collective action to increase the impact of local employment, procurement and estate on health and wellbeing as well as consideration of environmental impact.