Agenda item

Report and Presentation by Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health.

Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health, and David Johns, Consultant in Public Health gave a presentation summarising the Ward Health Profiles and Local Health Priorities for the Dales, Mapperley and St Ann’s Wards. They highlighted the following points:

(a)  There have been a lot of changes within the NHS in recent years and it is important to keep up with the health issues that are affecting citizens at a ward level;

(b)  The County of Nottinghamshire, excluding Bassetlaw has been divided into 3 partnership areas, City, South County and Mid Notts. Within the City partnership there are 8 Partnership Care Networks (PCN’s), these PCN’s mostly align with the City Council Area Boundaries, the PCN for this area is Nottingham City East;

(c)  The Ward Health Profiles are available on-line and aim to start a conversation with partners regarding the health demographic for each ward;

(d)  There is an 8 year gap in life expectancy between the least deprived and the most deprived areas of Nottingham City, with male life expectancy being 77 years, and female life expectancy being 81.1 years. Both of these figures are less than the England average;

(e)  Healthy life expectancy is also below average, with females born in Nottingham having a healthy life expectancy of 53.3 years – this is 10 years less than the England average and means females born in Nottingham can expect to spend more than a third of life in poorer health;

(f)  the impact of environmental factors on health should not be underestimated. Risk conditions such as poverty, unemployment, lack of social support, isolation and poor social networks all contribute to ill health;

(g)  smoking prevalence is higher in both St Ann’s and the Dales wards than it is across the City.

(h)  There are a high proportion of children in year 6 that are overweight or obese in St Ann’s and Dales Wards than the Nottingham average

(i)  6 out of the 7 GP Practices within the three wards record significantly higher prevalence of mental health illness than the England average;

(j)  The introduction of Link Workers and Social Prescribers has begun to tackle to environmental factors impacting on citizens health;

(k)  The Ward Health Profiles are designed to give a snapshot of the demographic of the Ward and to give an overview of health priorities;

Following questions and comments from the Committee the following further information was highlighted.

(l)  Mental health is a significant issue within the area. Despite a more open approach to talking about mental health there is still stigma attached to mental health issues and in some communities it is still not talked about. Breaking down the stigma and allowing people to access support is one of the main tasks in this field;

(m)The Ward Health Profiles will be published on line along with other health and wellbeing information. This will aid commissioning of services and allow the third sector to establish what services to plan, as well as link with similar services in different areas.

(n)  There are not statistics available at a ward level on levels of malnutrition. It is accepted that deprivation can lead to a poorer quality diet and restrict access to good quality, nutritious food. There are a number of third sector organisations working to address this issue and holiday hunger with the city;

(o)  Members of the Committee commented on the access to good quality fresh food in the wards, indicating that there were more fast food  take away than there were shops selling fresh, healthy foods;

The Committee asked for further information on accessing services and health fairs etc within the Wards. This will be distributed so that Councillors and Officers have the details to give to citizens.

The Committee invited Alison Challenger and David Johns to return to the Committee to report on progress in 12 months time.

Resolved to note the information presented in the ward profiles and to feedback opportunities for partnership working as they arise.