Agenda item

As part of the work to refresh York’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment a number of reports are being prepared to describe inequalities within the population of York. These are intended to offer a more detailed insight into health and wellbeing in York and to help focus resources and effort into areas of greater need. The first of these is focused around the starting and growing well theme in the joint health and wellbeing strategy 2017-2022 and is attached at Annex A to this report.

The board received a report from the Corporate Director of Children, Education and Communities on inequalities within the Starting and Growing Well Theme of York’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).

It was reported that there was an error on page 34 of the agenda papers. The papers state that nearly 44, 000 children in York live in poverty. This was an incorrect figure and should read that nearly 4,705 children in York live in poverty.

It was noted that there were three areas of focus, childhood obesity, hospital admissions for self harm and childhood poverty.

Officers explained that this was a new way of working for the board that involved workshops relating to key issues around health and inequality. This would allow the board to have a sharper focus and understanding of the inequalities and to ensure deployment of resources into areas of the city and to the individuals who need it most.

The first of these HWBB workshops was on childhood obesity and key issues raised in that session, were highlighted from the report.

The Board agreed that it would be a good idea to involve parents on the Healthy Weight Steering Group, it was suggested that the Healthy Weight Steering Group (HWSG) should consider how best to engage with parents and foster co-production.

The Board questioned whether statistics were available to show the direct link between income and obesity in York.

The Executive Director for Primary Care and Population Health, NHS Vale of York CCG, informed the board that:

-      statistics were available for individual schools through the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), however it was not possible to compare these statistics to household income across York;

-      there was a direct correlation between schools showing the highest levels of obesity and the schools that take children from the poorest areas of the city;

-      poverty wasn’t the cause of obesity. The issue was that in an affluent western country the availability of food is based on price and if you are comparatively poor, the food you will access will be the cheaper, higher calorie products.

However, the challenge is achieving an early behavioural change as there is much evidence to prove that intervening effectively with children can have a positive impact on adult health.

Members suggested that perhaps the Healthy Weight Steering Group could engage with ‘Energise’ to co-ordinate the delivery of activities.

The Director of Public Health suggested the Healthy Weight Steering Group continue to work with Public Health England, looking at all partners and how further proposals can be developed to tackle childhood obesity. It was also noted that this was a good opportunity to pilot the ‘Health in All Policies’ approach and how any proposals fed into the work of the YorOK Board.

Resolved: That the HWSG should continue their work to identify and develop proposals to reduce childhood obesity, with a focus on behavioural change rather than treatment led interventions.

That these proposals be brought back to a future meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Reason: To help address the inequalities around childhood obesity