Agenda item

Report and presentation of Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing

The Board considered a report and presentation of the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing concerning her Annual Report for 2017/8 ‘Healthier for Longer, Securing Healthy Futures for our Communities’, a copy of which was set out at an appendix to the report. The report included recommendations for health and wellbeing partners across Coventry. The report was a statutory report produced each year. This year the report focused on healthy aging and the health of older people. It had been produced in partnership with Adult Social Care.

Information was provided on the health of Coventry’s older population, with the city having an estimated 50,400 residents aged 65 and over. The population of those over the age of 75 was projected to increase by nearly 50% over the next 20 years. Reference was made to the gap between healthy life expectancy and life expectancy. In Coventry men could expect to live just over a fifth of their lives in poor health whilst women could expect to live almost a quarter of their lives in poor health.

The annual report took the opportunity to highlight the importance of prevention and early intervention in promoting good health in later years, and managing the demand for health and social care services. The Board noted that Coventry was still behind the England average on many healthy behaviours and risk factors.

The report highlighted activities across the city to promote good health and prevent ill-health across all age groups to support increases in healthy life expectancy which included:

a) Tackling loneliness and social isolation

b) The new Healthy Lifestyles Coventry services commissioned by the Public Health team

c) Supporting those at risk of fuel poverty

d) Interventions from the Adult Social Care team to promote early help and maintain independence

e) Reducing delayed transfers from hospital

The report also highlighted the progress and commitment across health and wellbeing providers to make sure that residents received the right care when they needed it and in a way that met their needs and achieved their outcomes. Throughout the report there was a focus on an individual family and other members of the community to provide examples at living longer in good health.

The presentation provided information on aging in good health; what influenced healthy life expectancy; taking care of your body and mind; and the health and care services for the older population of Coventry. Attention was drawn to the recommendations of the Annual Report which were as follows:

Identify older people community assets

Promote community-based groups to combat social isolation

Encourage the further reduction of health inequalities including Marmot City

Increase the profile of ill health prevention

Improve immunisation rates through partnership working

Encourage co-design of services with older people

Design health and care pathways to deliver high quality care for older people.

The presentation concluded with an update on the recommendations from the 2016/17 Annual Report ‘Shape Up Coventry, The Urgency of Promoting Healthy Weight Among Children and Young People’.

The Board discussed the implications of the Annual Report for the partner organisations, highlighting the importance of their integrated work. Reference was made to the importance of and the opportunities that will be provided by the Year of Wellbeing to be able to make a difference to people’s healthy life expectancy. Other issues raised included the benefit of having indicators to measure progress; the benefits of the Fitness in the Parks initiative; and the importance of making the best use of community assets to combat social isolation. It was acknowledged that making the best use of communities and their assets would be fed into any strategies.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The content and recommendations of the 2017/18 Director of Public Health’s Annual Report be noted.

(2) The dissemination of the report be supported.

(3) The actions proposed be endorsed.