Health and Wellbeing Board	24 September 2025
Report of the Director of Public Health

Progress Against Goal 5 in the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2032

Summary

1. This paper provides the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB) with an update on the implementation and delivery of Goal 5 in the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2032. It also includes information on performance monitoring.

2. The Board are asked to note the report.

Background

3. At their March 2023 meeting Health and Wellbeing Board members agreed an action plan and population health outcomes monitor to gauge delivery of the goals and priorities in the current Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Progress reports on the action plan have been provided at HWBB meetings over the last two years.

4. At their meeting in March 2025 HWBB members agreed a revised action plan for the next two years. Progress reports on the actions within this will be presented to HWBB members over the course of the next 18 to 24 months.

5. The population health outcomes monitor agreed in 2023 remains the same and regular updates will be provided as annexes to these progress reports.

6.  At the last meeting of the HWBB updates were given on Goals 3 and 4 in the strategy. This report sets out updates on the five actions associated with Goal 5 in the current strategy ‘Reverse the rise in the number of children and adults living with an unhealthy weight’.

7. Population Health Outcomes Monitor: this is linked to the ten big goals and is designed to provide board members with a holistic view of whether the strategy is making a difference to the health and wellbeing of York’s population, using outcome data rather than data on what health and care services are ‘doing’. Today’s updates at Annexes A & B to this report provide information on Goal 5.

Progress Updates

Goal 5: Reverse the rise in the number of children and adults living with a healthy weight:

8. Updates on these actions have been provided by the Public Health Team who are leading these 5 actions on behalf of the HWBB

9. Action 13: Support adult residents to achieve improved health behaviours in relation to eating, moving and mental wellbeing, as part of a wider shift to a compassionate approach to weight.

Ø The Health Trainer service continues to provide support to residents of York, in a holistic person-centred way. The service helps residents to identify and define, realistic goals relating to movement, eating and mental well-being. The service is making a conscious move away from any weight-centric outcomes (e.g., weight loss, BMI) to weight-neutral (happiness, engagement with community, wider health measures – blood pressure, mental wellbeing scores). The compassionate approach to healthy weight will be gradually introduced across Public Health, and the wider local authority over the next 3-6 months. There will be a paper coming to Health and Wellbeing Board in early 2026 to discuss the approach in more detail.

10. Action 14: Continue to deliver the National Child Measurement Programme and offer targeted support to families with children and young people in bigger bodies (>91st centile).

Ø The NCMP programme continues to be delivered by the Healthy Child Service, to children in Reception and Year 6. In 2023/2024, 95.4% of children in those year groups were measured, which is in line with the national average of 94.2%. The Public Health team are in the final stages of developing a Healthy Families programme, which will offer targeted support around movement, eating and healthy routines. It will be a family centred model, based upon the needs of each individual family with outcomes based upon goals set by the family. The service is in the final stages of development and due to launch in Jan 2026.

11. Action 15: Deliver the Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Strategy across the city, to support parents to make informed feeding choices and practise age-appropriate introduction of solids; and ensure that families are supported to achieve their feeding goals by professionals with evidence-based training

Ø York’s Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding Partnership is a multi-agency group consisting of representation from key stakeholders across the city, including families through the Maternity Voices Partnership. A multi-agency delivery plan, led by Public Health, has been developed to start to remove the practical, emotional and cultural barriers to breastfeeding, reduce health inequalities, and create an enabling environment for all women who want to breastfeed. The vision is to support all families with infant feeding, however they choose to feed their baby.

Ø Work is ongoing across the various workstreams, outlined in the delivery plan, and currently the key priorities are progression of the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation; and to make York a “Feeding Friendly City”.

Ø BFI is an evidence based, staged accreditation programme that will support CYC to improve breastfeeding and infant feeding by setting standards for sustainable improvement, providing training for professionals to give consistent information and personalised support to families; and gaining feedback from families about their experiences of care. This programme of work also helps families in building close parent-infant relationships and supports with good mental health for both parent and baby. Work is underway to achieve Stage 1 accreditation.

Ø Key achievements against the delivery plan are: provision of training for the Healthy Child Service; staff and service user audits and feedback; review of all policies and guidance related to infant feeding; development and mobilisation of a Specialist Feeding Clinic; funding of a health visitor to become a Lactation Consultant; provision of supervision for clinical staff around feeding; implementation of a Food Insecurity Pathway.

12. Action 16: Deliver the HENRY approach in our 0–5-year population

Ø The HENRY programme continues to be delivered across the city. Four courses have been delivered in 2024/2025, two from The Avenues and two from Hob Moor children’s centres. The programmes consistently receive positive feedback, with 100% of attendees rating the courses as good or great. The HENRY offer continues to grow, with additional Child Development Workers attending training in October 2025 to enable them to deliver the HENRY programme. This will enable more courses to be delivered, with a phased increase to 2 courses per term (6 per year).  

13. Action 17: Support the implementation of HENRY awareness for professionals

Ø HENRY “Raise, Engage, Refer” training has been delivered to all Health Child Service staff. Within the Healthy Child Service there is dedicated HENRY programme lead, who is overseeing the programme uptake, working with colleagues to see who is referring and where improvements to the referral process can be made.  

Consultation and Engagement

14. As a high-level document setting out the strategic vision for health and wellbeing in the city, the current Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy capitalised on existing consultation and engagement work undertaken on deeper and more specific projects in the city. Co-production is a principle that has been endorsed by the HWBB and will form a key part of the delivery, implementation, and evaluation of the strategy

15. The actions in the action plan have been identified in consultation with HWBB member organisations and those leading on specific workstreams that impact the ten big goals.

16. The performance management framework has been developed by public health experts in conjunction with the Business Intelligence Team within the City of York Council.

Options

17. There are no specific options for the HWBB in relation to this report. HWBB members are asked to note the update and provide comment on the progress made.

Implications

18. It is important that the priorities in relation to the current Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy are delivered. Members need to be assured that appropriate mechanisms are in place for delivery.

        Recommendations

19. Health and Wellbeing Board are asked to note and comment on the updates provided within this report and its associated annexes.

Reason: To ensure that the Health and Wellbeing Board fulfils its statutory duty to deliver on their Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2032.

Contact Details

Author:	Chief Officer Responsible for the report:
Compiled by Tracy Wallis Health and Wellbeing Partnerships Co-ordinator	Peter Roderick Director of Public Health
	Report Approved	√	Date	12.09.2025
Specialist Implications Officer(s) None
Wards Affected:					All	ü
For further information please contact the author of the report

Annexes:

Annex A: HWBB Scorecard (for Goal 5)

Annex B: HWBB Trends (for Goal 5)