Agenda item

The Health and Well Being Board considered the 2021 Director of Public Health Annual Report. The report, which was the seventh Annual Report authored by Dr Suckling, described the course of the global COVID-19 pandemic in Doncaster in 2021 and included a rapid assessment of the state of health in Doncaster in 2021.  The report also demonstrated how the public health grant was being used locally, and highlighted the proposals for implementing the new borough strategy ‘Doncaster Delivering Together’.

The report made the following six recommendations for Team Doncaster and partners:-

•     Continue to recognise, celebrate and support the roles of ‘Key workers’, local people, groups, institutions, businesses and communities in the way Doncaster works

•     Maintain sufficient local capacity and capability to respond to and learn from the continued COVID-19 pandemic

•     Implement Doncaster Delivering Together, including updating and publishing a set of Impact Assessments to continue to guide and shape local recovery and renewal

•     Secure long term locality working including asset based, community centred approaches to improve health and wellbeing working with and for communities, in the present and for future generations

•     Revitalise approaches to health inequalities, poverty and social exclusion taking into account the new Geneva Charter for Wellbeing and establish a Fairness & Wellbeing Commission

•     Develop new relationships with the Office of Health Improvement and the UK Health Security Agency, the successor bodies to Public Health England and establish a new method for assurance of local public health services

The Report had been considered & approved by Full Council at its meeting in January and was presented to the Board in order that Members could consider how the recommendations could be taken forward in future strategy and delivery plans.

Discussion followed, during which the Board commented on various aspects of the Report that related to their areas and how moving forward they could put the recommendations into practice, including the following:-

• Dr David Crichton highlighted the significant changes that would arise from the Health and Care Bill currently going through Parliament.  He also spoke of the positive lessons learned from the pandemic, and outlined the measures being taken to improve patient access to health care services, including GPs.

• Councillor Nigel Ball highlighted the reference in the Report to the World Health Organisation’s Geneva Charter for Wellbeing, and stated that this raised the question of how the health, wellbeing and happiness of Doncaster communities could be effectively measured by way of indicators.  In reply, Dr Suckling explained that there were two main drivers in this regard.  Firstly, through HM Treasury and how it accounted for new infrastructure projects, he explained that the Green Book was changing and moving from solely economic outputs to also include social outputs.  Secondly, he explained that at a South Yorkshire level, a six capitals approach was increasingly being used, which was concerned with measuring social capital and tracking investment in places.  He stressed, however, that this work was at an early stage of development.

• Phil Holmes explained that work was being undertaken to identify ways of implementing a more joined up approach when various services areas/Directorates within the Council and partners were engaging with local communities across the Borough.

• Councillor Cynthia Ransome stated that her main concern was the increasing problem of obesity, particularly amongst young people and the prevalence of fast food outlets in areas of high deprivation.  She felt that more could be done through the Planning process to control the number of fast food outlets in deprived areas and that there needed to be a more joined up approach with colleagues in the Planning department in this regard.  During subsequent discussion, the Board recognised that it was more costly for families to eat healthily and that with the current cost of living crisis, there was even more reliance on cheaper fast food instead of healthy nutritious meals.  Easier access to fresh fruit and vegetables and making healthy options available to people would help to address this.  In reply, Dr Suckling acknowledged that obesity was a major challenge in the Borough, and he suggested that an update on this subject could be brought to a future meeting of the Board to outline the measures being taken to tackle this issue. 

• Referring to the discussion on obesity, Lucy Robertshaw explained that while the Dance On sessions held across the Borough were not specifically aimed at tackling obesity, they were an effective means of encouraging people of all ages to move more and be more active.  She added that the Dance Strategy was due to be re-launched in May and suggested that it might be useful to bring a presentation to a future Board meeting on the Strategy, including the work being undertaken in relation to workforce development and rolling the Strategy out across communities in the Borough.

After the Chair had asked all Board members to consider the recommendations in the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report and how their respective organisations could take these forward in future strategy and delivery plans, it was

RESOLVED that the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report for 2021, be noted.