Agenda item

Director of Public Health Annual Report 2020

a)   Report of the Director of Public Health

b)   Presentation by the Director of Public Health

 

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Director of Public Health which provided details of the 2020 Annual report of the Director of Public Health for County Durham (for copy see file of minutes).

 

The Committee received a presentation from the Director of Public Health (for copy see file of minutes).

 

The Director of Public Health highlighted the importance of Durham Insights which was a key website that provided statistical information covering a broad range and allowed everyone to access this information.  The Durham Insight website included a COVID dashboard that provided information on the vaccine rollout as well as other information relating to COVID in County Durham.  The website also included information and in-depth work such as the health assessment of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and other areas including health inequalities.

 

The Director of Public Health emphasised that a huge amount of work had been undertaken with schools to ensure that when they reopened it was as safe as possible and this work would continue following the Easter break.

 

Whilst there had been a lot of work undertaken in key settings in relation to the COVID Outbreak Management Plan, the Director of Public Health advised that work had continued in relation to all the key priority areas but gave an update specifically relating to good jobs and places to live, learn and play, where an impact assessment in employment, particularly with regards to young people would be important going forward.

 

Work with Housing Solutions in relation to fuel poverty had taken place and she summarised work undertaken in relation to the Best Start in Life and how the work of the health needs assessment of children with special educational needs and disabilities had helped the service to understand the needs of the children and also their families and those who worked with them.  Smoking in pregnancy was another area of work which included the use of a mobile phone application to assist with this.  The Director of Public Health also highlighted the work on children and young people’s mental health in school settings which was continuing.

Councillor Coult asked whether there had been an increased demand on mental health support due to COVID-19 and asked whether there was enough support to help the young people.  The Director of Public Health advised there had been an additional impact on mental health and that during the course of last year Harrogate District NHS Foundation Trust who delivered the service on behalf of the Council had enhanced the support around bereavement and there was also a strong level of support from Investing in Children, which was a voluntary sector organisation.  There were plans to review services to consider increasing the provision and she suggested that the Committee may consider that a dedicated item was necessary to review at a future meeting.

 

J Bruton, Co-opted Faith Representative and Head Teacher of a Primary School, confirmed that there had been an increase in mental health issues which was challenging as Primary Schools did not have school Counsellors.  She suggested that it would be useful for a list of contacts to be recirculated.  The Director of Public Health confirmed that information was sent out weekly from senior members of staff to all Head Teachers and she would ensure that the information was included.

 

Councillors Jewell and Hopper thanked the Director of Public Health for the work that had been undertaken.

Resolved:

 

That the report be received.

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