Agenda item

The Council received the 2020 Annual Report of the Director of Public Health for County Durham (for copy see file of Minutes).

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, one of the statutory requirements of the Director of Public Health was to produce an annual report about the health of the local population.  The local authority had a duty to publish the report.  The government had not specified what the annual report might contain and had made it clear that this was a decision for individual Directors of Public Health to determine.

The Director of Public Health annual report for 2020 focused on the following:

a)       Health and wellbeing across County Durham

b)       Response to COVID-19

c)       Approach to Wellbeing

d)       The Taylor’s Community

e)       How the Council had worked with partners to impact on the Health and Wellbeing of residents living in County Durham

f)       An update on the seven public health strategic priorities

g)      A focus on the following strategic priorities and recommendations for their future work:

i. Good jobs and places to live learn and play

ii. Every child to have the best start in life

h)       An update on recommendations from 2019

i)        A set of recommendations based on the two priority areas of focus

Councillor L Hovvels, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Adult and Health Services thanked the Director of Public Health for the presentation of the Annual Report.  The response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a specific focus to this year’s Annual Report.  The pandemic was one of the greatest public health challenges in living memory with significant repercussions to health and wellbeing of families and communities.  The response clearly demonstrated that health and wellbeing was everybody’s business and the vital part that individuals, communities, businesses, services and organisations played in controlling the virus in working alongside residents.