To share the Director of Public Health Annual Report 2023 with the Health and Wellbeing Board. The focus of the 2023 report is improving health in older people, and it is titled “Ageing well in Herefordshire”.

The Chair thanked the Director of Public Health, on behalf of the board, for the work he has done at the council and out in the community, and wished him the best for the future.

The Director of Public Health thanked the Chair and the board and acknowledged the positive things that are ongoing in Herefordshire supporting public health.

The Director of Public Health proceeded to provide an overview of the DPH Annual Report 2023.

Stephen Brewster thanked the Director of Public Health for the recognition of the VCS in terms of its contribution and asked what specifically can be done in relation to physical activity in order to reduce, for example, the risk of falls.

The Director of Public Health responded that there is a ‘physical activity deficiency’ where people do not realise how much physical activity they need to do. More can be done on social prescription on lighter physical activities such as dance which can be promoted. There is also more structured work that can be done on falls to target people who are more highly at risk of falls.

The Chair noted that it is difficult to find out who those people are who are lonely if they do not come out of their homes. It was added that this is more acute among people who live in more rural settings across the county.

The Director of Public Health responded that people are coming along to events because they are able to form social connections and the physical activity became secondary.

David Mehaffey noted that funding has been received from DWP to run the ‘WorkWell’ service which will enable a service to be put in place to allow people who are at risk of falling out of employment due to ill health then they can access this new service to help them overcome the barriers that help keep them in work.

Jane Ives pointed out that the numbers are getting worse including the healthy life expectancy particularly for men, for example. The figures are from four years ago and it was asked if there is newer data available to understand it better in real time.

The Director of Public Health responded that the data is not available and it is difficult to say what has happened in the time since.

Jane Ives asked about performance on health checks and how they are tracked.

The Director of Public Health answered that Herefordshire is one of the best in the West Midlands for the number of people being invited for NHS health checks and completing health checks. This has been successful in large part with respect to the partnership with Taurus. In terms of tracking health checks, this is something that can be done in the future.

David Mehaffey added that on health checks, the ICB is particularly interested in relation to the health inequality issues surrounding health checks.

The report recommendation was proposed, seconded, and approved unanimously.

Resolved

That:

a)    That the board note the content of the report, and for board members to share with respective organisations and networks to consider the recommendations contained within.