Agenda item

To receive a report presenting the Director of Public Health (DPH) Annual Report for 2020 which for this year, was focused on protecting the health of our communities from the impact of Covid 19.  (Report and Presentation from Liz Morgan, Interim Director of Public Health and Community Services).

Members received a report presenting the Director of Public Health (DPH) Annual Report for 2020/21 which focused on protecting the health of our communities from the impact of Covid 19.  (Report and Presentation from Liz Morgan, Interim Director of Public Health and Community Services).

Liz Morgan highlighted the following key points:-

·            Directors of Public Health had a statutory duty to write an Annual Public Health Report on the health of the local population.  The report was developed during the 4^th wave of COVID-19 in July 2021 and reflected the situation up to that point.

·            The report focused on inequalities experienced within different sectors of the community such as mortality in people with BAME backgrounds, with disabilities, and those in the most deprived areas.  The effects were not just direct but also indirect including loss of employment amongst young people, some children finding it difficult to study from home and health & social care staff who were at increased risk of adverse mental health outcomes.

·            A lot of mitigation measures had been put in place which were highlighted in a series of videos attached to the report and these had had a very positive impact on Northumberland’s communities. 

·            The report also made recommendations on what more could be done to address the widening inequalities attributable to COVID-19.

·            The videos focused less on health and more on the social determinants of health

·            Video 1 – Introduction and Overview

·            Video 2 – Impact of COVID-19 on income, job security, social isolation and mental health

·            Video 3 – How the wider determinants of health have shaped the experience

·            Video 4 – The groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19, children and young people; digital inclusion.

·            Video 5 – The Council’s response and recommendations

The following comments were made:-

·            There was some disappointment that the report had not acknowledged the valuable, joined-up approach of the LA7 Local Authorities working together during the pandemic for the benefit of the community.  Northumberland County Council’s Officers and Members had worked very well together to ensure that local Members were aware of what was happening on a weekly basis.  It was noted that the aim of the report was to highlight the impact the pandemic had had on the community and about the Council’s response over the last two years.

·            With regard to the quality of housing, every effort was made to ensure that the quality of the housing managed on the Council’s behalf met the required quality standard and had good pathways in place to ensure a rolling programme of routine maintenance and repairs.  It was more difficult in the private rental sector as there was less influence over the quality of the housing.  It could be time consuming to go through the legal processes available to address issues in this area.  A Selective Licensing Scheme could be used in particular areas of Northumberland to improve the quality of housing which also had an impact on other things such as anti-social behaviour, improving social cohesion and health and wellbeing.

·            The Inequalities Summit would focus on inequalities and what could be done collectively across Northumberland to address this.  The pandemic had highlighted that COVID-19 had exacerbated existing inequalities.

·            Following the report at a previous meeting by Dr. Kathryn Bush on excess deaths data, work was just commencing on drilling down into the data to find out where the issues were such as cardiovascular disease or stroke.

·            Some of the data used within the report would also be included within the data pack being used at the Inequalities Summit to focus the minds of attendees on the inequalities that existed.  There would be wide representation at the Summit and there would then be consideration as to how Northumberland could address them and involving many other agencies and including the voluntary sector.

·            The report had been considered at Informal Cabinet and Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny but it was suggested that in future years the draft Annual Report be brought to the Health & Wellbeing Board to enable Members to have some input.

RESOLVED that the recommendations contained within the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report be accepted as follows:-

·            Undertake a COVID-19 Inequalities Impact Assessment and use that to inform the council’s recovery plan to ensure that areas of deepening inequalities are recognised and addressed.  This should inform future budget and planning cycles.

·            Develop an integrated carbon reduction, equality and health inequality approach as part of our policy development and appraisal process.  This would be consistent with the Health in All Policies approach we are developing.

·            Build on the strong community networks and increased social cohesion to ensure residents are at the centre of processes to design initiatives and services which meet their needs and aspirations.

·            Encourage people to shop local, support local businesses, support the local development of skills to enable employment, especially those living in Northumberland who are furthest away from the employment market and exploit the wider social value of the Northumberland pound.