Health and Wellbeing Board

 

8th May 2024

 

Report of the Chair of the York Health and Wellbeing Board

 

Chair’s report and updates

Summary

1.    This paper is designed to summarise key issues and progress which has happened in between meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB), giving Board members a concise update on a broad range of relevant topics which would otherwise entail separate papers.

 

Key Updates for the Board

2.    An update provided by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust focused on North Yorkshire and York Urgent and Emergency Care is at Annex A to this report and contains information on crisis and home-based treatment teams and mental health and emergency care pathways.

3.    The School Health and Wellbeing Survey was commissioned by City of York Council Public Health team. This is the second large scale survey on the health and wellbeing of children and young people in the city carried out between 2021 - 2024. The aim of the survey is to inform and support policy and decision making across the local authority, in schools, and among other key stakeholders in the City. The survey was carried out between November 2023 and January 2024 and five-year groups across all publicly funded schools in York were invited to participate: years 4 and 6 in primary schools and years 8, 10 and 12 in secondary/sixth form schools. In total there were 2956 responses from 15 primary schools and 6 secondary/sixth form schools. The results from the survey can be found at: https://www.healthyork.org/

 

4.    Health Scrutiny recently considered two public health reports, on Vaping in York and Cardiovascular and metabolic disease and the York Healthcheck programme.

5.    The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is currently going through parliament, a once-in-a-generation chance to end smoking as a possibility for those born after 2009 – see Smokefree Coalition briefing for more information SFAC-smokefree-gen-brief-240223.pdf(d2z8x79ef6cyvd.cloudfront.net)

6.    The York Climate Commission was launched in February 2024 and has set up a number of sub-groups including one on Health. This is chaired by the Director of Public Health and met for the first time in April 2024.

7.   We are continuing to monitor with our North Yorkshire Council and Police partners the national position and trends on synthetic opioids, which have been linked to at least 100 deaths nationally – we know that at least 7 of these have been in York. The Drug and Alcohol Partnership have received a letter from government  setting out recent legislation, border intensification, enhanced surveillance and other national action, and have been assessing our Drug and Alcohol Related Death (DARD) Action Plan 202, including the effectiveness of our local Drug Information System (LDIS) protocol for North Yorkshire and York, which is our agreed method to assess and communicate known and/or potential risks from purity/contamination of illicit drug supplies in circulation, new psychoactive substances, also known as NPS or legal highs diverted prescribed medications, drugs recently seized by North Yorkshire Police, and health protection alerts related to substance use. This linktakes professionals to the protocol site and also contains the Drug Alert submission form.

8.   To share some good news, Naloxone nasal spray, which can reverse the effects of opioid overdose, has been issued to more than 250 frontline police officers across North Yorkshire and York, with NY Police joining 28 other UK police forces by rolling out Naloxone to Response and Neighbourhoods Policing Team officers in the initial phase. This was picked up by BBC Look North. Other organisations / staff groups may wish to consider being trained in overdose awareness / Naloxone administration through Naloxone Knights.

9.    Pertussis, also known as Whooping Cough, is a highly infectious disease. Vaccination against Pertussis is part of the primary childhood schedule and following a Pertussis outbreak in 2012 where the highest incidence of disease was among infants under 3 months, the vaccination programme for pregnant women was introduced. Data in March 2024 from UKHSA shows there has been a continued increase in pertussis cases at the start of this year, with 553 confirmed in England in January, compared with 858 cases for the whole of last year (2023) and shows 57 cases of confirmed and suspected In York local authority between 01/10/2023 to 25/04/2024. Primary Vaccination uptake in children is around 91%, with the booster dose uptake at around 83%. Uptake for pertussis in pregnancy is around 82.5%. There are plans to work collaboratively with NHSE, Primary Care and maternity services to look at ways of improving uptake of vaccination in pregnancy. We are also looking to prioritise uptake of the MMR vaccine, with a continuing high number of measles cases nationally (no confirmed cases in York so far this year).

 

10.  Smoking: The council will be in receipt of an additional £196,000 per year for the next 5 years, via a grant from the Department of Health and Social Care. The grant conditions stipulate that this must be spent on expanding the local authority stop smoking service, while maintaining current stop smoking provision. The proposals are outlined within a paper that is going to the Council Executive on 9th May 2024. Nationally the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is progressing through Parliament. The Bill has now had its second reading and received a majority of votes in support of the Bill. It moves to the committee and report stages next, where amendments are put forwards. Once these are agreed it goes to the third reading, and if supported will progress to the House of Lords. It includes a new law to stop children who turn 15 this year or younger from ever legally being sold cigarettes or other tobacco products, alongside measures to crack down on youth vaping and strengthen enforcement of these new laws. This is in addition to a broader package of measures to tackle youth vaping – including banning the sale and supply of disposable vapes under environmental legislation and the new excise duty on vaping products announced in the Spring Budget.

 

 

Author:

Responsible for the report:

Tracy Wallis

Health and Wellbeing Partnerships Co-ordinator

 

 

 

 

Cllr Jo Coles

Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care

 

 

Report Approved

 

Date

  

26.04.2024

 

 

Specialist Implications Officers

Not applicable

 

Wards Affected:  

 

All

b

 

For further information please contact the author of the report

 

 

Annexes

Annex A: North Yorkshire and York Urgent and Emergency Care Update