Agenda item

Reports of the Director of Public Health

Lynne McNiven, Consultant in Public Health, presented information on Public Health to the Area Committee. Public Health are able to offer health and fitness support, and hoped to start a conversation with Area Committees about the direction and priorities for each area. Lynne provided the following information on areas that Public Health is already keen to support, and actions already taken:

(a)  Many of Public Health’s desired outcomes are social, such as educational attainment, reducing worklessness, improving housing and improved transportation. These aims all impact greatly on public health.

(b)  The ward profiles will be available on Nottingham Insight, and will be updated approximately every 18 months.

(c)  School nursing, sexual health, and health services are all being commissioned by Nottingham City Council.

(d)  More work surrounding children’s services is planned, and this information will be added to the profile for 0-4 year olds.

(e)  The ward health information is delivered in 16 school group clusters. The profiles include poverty and attainment. Health improvements and educational attainment often go hand in hand, and one cannot be achieved without the other.

(f)  There are young people in Nottingham City with significant morbidity. There are high levels of emotional and mental health issues, sexual health issues, and weight problems across all school profiles.

(g)  Some interventions can have a significant impact. For example, the introduction of free school meals for Key Stage 1 pupils is already showing better behaviour and concentration. Food For Life is a campaign being introduced across all city schools, which helps pupils to understand food provenance.

(h)  Whilst mental health services are not being directly commissioned by public health, it is a huge area of priority.

The Committee provided feedback, comments and questions:

(i)  It is very useful to have all the Public Health information in one place, and it reveals a greater picture of all the issues facing citizens across the area.

(j)  Gardening clubs are offered in some primary schools with available land, and are very popular. There could be scope to link up with primary schools without the resources to host their own gardening clubs. Gardening clubs promote healthy eating, encourage exercise, and provide greater knowledge of where food comes from. Better use could also be made of waste ground and community gardens.

(k)  Children’s dental health is also a key issues. A recent national study showed that the inequality link between dental health and poverty was weaker with 3 year olds than with 5 year olds. Public Health commission dental health promotion, rather than direct dental health services. They are currently out to tender for a new promotional service. Scotland’s strong dental health promotion has taken 10-12 years to show a marked benefit.

(l)  More babies, toddlers and young children need to register with dentists. Education and knowledge of early registration is important, but there is often a lack of promotion of early registration within dentists surgeries. Not all parents access children’s centres, where the importance is often highlighted. As dentists are individual businesses, it can make promotion of services difficult, as Public Health can not be seen to be favouring a provider. There are 39 NHS practices, 32 of which are currently accepting NHS patients, which is the best average in the City for many years.

(m)  Analysis will inform future resource allocation and commissioning priorities.

(n)  The statistics show that there is still deprivation present in areas of the city which are considered more affluent or middle class.

(o)  If anyone has any further comments or suggestions for Public Health, they can contact Lynne directly: lynne.mcniven@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

RESOLVED to thank Lynne for the informative presentation, and note the information provided.