Agenda item

Helene Denness, Public Health Consultant for Nottingham City Council, delivered a presentation and report updating the Board on children and young people’s health and wellbeing in the context of the Nottingham City Council’s Children and Young People Plan 2016-20, with particular emphasis on smoking in pregnancy, obesity and emotional health and wellbeing.

The following points were highlighted:

Smoking whilst pregnant

(a)  Smoking whilst pregnant is dangerous for mother and child as it doubles the risk of still births, babies being born smaller, babies being malformed with cleft lips or squints, and other long-term health problems such as diabetes and obesity; 

(b)  The ‘Love Bump’ campaign was launched in March 2019 to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking whilst pregnant as well as the benefits to mother and child of giving up smoking;

(c)  ‘Conversation Cards’ have been developed for GPs and midwives to hand to pregnant women if they need them;

(d)  The reasons why people smoke in pregnancy are complex, and it’s hard to address the dangers of smoking to mothers when pregnant as they have so much else going on for them. It may also be dependent on if the mother’s family smoke;

(e)  17.2% of mothers in Nottingham smoke whilst pregnant, but this data doesn’t capture those who smoke at other points in pregnancy. This is the fifth highest rate amongst Nottingham’s statistical neighbours and significantly higher than the average for England;

(f)  NHS England funding has gone into two dedicated smoking in pregnancy posts, both on a fixed-term contract for 18 months;

(g)  A social media campaign for ‘Love Bump’ has been launched;

(h)  Community engagement has been taking place in the Aspley and Bulwell wards;

(i)  Packs for midwives and health visitors have been distributed;

(j)  The campaign is part of a wider ‘healthy pregnancies’ initiative to encourage healthy weight through a balanced diet, a strong support network, exercise and a healthy environment;

Children’s obesity

(k)  In 2017/18, 26.7% of reception-aged children in Nottingham were classed as overweight or obese. This increases to 40.8% by Year 6;

(l)  Factors such as emotional issues and stress contribute to obesity;

(m)Actions taken nationally to tackle childhood obesity include the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), mandatory calorie labelling and ensuring new takeaways aren’t opened near schools;

(n)  Locally, the 0-19 service is providing a Healthy Child Programme, a Healthy Weight Support Programme and targeted interventions with breastfeeding peer support, Healthy Start Vouchers, healthy weaning programme and Cook & Eat sessions;

Emotional health and wellbeing

(o)  Free Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training has been provided to schools in Nottingham with:

·  38 members of school staff attending the 2-day Youth MHFA;

·  13 school staff trained on the 1-day Youth MHFA Champions course;

·  37 schools now have at least 1 member of staff trained on one of the courses;

(p)  250 members of the Children’s Workforce, which includes youth workers, school nurses and social workers have been trained;

(q)  The Emotional Health and Resilience Charter was setup last year by a partnership of local services, including MH2K and the Youth Cabinet, who work with schools on mental health and emotional wellbeing. Schools sign up to the charter to demonstrate their commitment to promoting the mental health of their pupils and staff. The target is for 20 schools in Nottingham to sign up to the charter and 13 have signed up so far;

(r)  The Self-Harm Awareness and Research Project (SHARP) offer self-harm clinics in 20 secondary schools across the City of Nottingham including monthly workshops for children and young people on managing exam stress and managing self-harm. They also provide resources and recommendations for schools;

(s)  SHARP has provided free training to schools and 5300 frontline professionals;

(t)  MH2K has trained 30 citizen researchers to visit schools and organise events across Nottinghamshire to promote mental health awareness and wellbeing through conversations with young people. So far they have engaged with 500 of their peers;

(u)  The MH2K contract has been extended to 2020 with the aim of recruiting a new cohort of citizen researchers to deliver roadshows to reach 1000 young people. Leaflets and a short film have been produced to help with promotion.

Questions from the Board were responded to as follows:

(v)  It is difficult to link obesity to the use of food banks as the data doesn’t exist;

(w)  There is still a stigma from staff and pupils around talking about mental health which needs to be challenged;

(x)  Stress can be caused by the pressures for good and excellent exam grades from the school;

(y)  It would be helpful for young people for schools to give good mental health priority over teaching;

(z)  There is a need for more advertisement and accessible places for pupils to access mental health support;

(aa)  Headteachers can provide strong leadership on this issue;

(bb)  Reduced budgets for schools means that it is a challenge to deliver mental health support.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report and the presentation.