Agenda item

The Committee received a joint report of the Corporate Director of Resources and Director of Public Health on the 2023 Annual Report of the Director of Public Health for County Durham (Appendix 2) (for copy see file of Minutes).

A Healy, Director of Public Health gave a detailed presentation on the Public Health County Durham Annual Report 2023 that highlighted 10 years of Public Health being part of the Local Authority that had been ideally placed to embed and enhance action to improve the populations health through a collaboration with partners and inform Public Health.  She highlighted the current priorities of the Health and Wellbeing Board and what had been achieved over the last 10 years with a range of initiatives and programmes of work in County Durham to promote positive, interdependent relationships between Health and Wellbeing.  She emphasised the good work that had be achieved with the reduction in the number of people smoking and stressed the areas of challenge with unhealthy weight, mental health issues and the harm caused by alcohol. 

Councillor S Quinn thought the presentation was very informative on the work that had been done and continued to be done.  There was still a long way to go as trends changed but was confident that working with partners would continue to bridge the gap.

Councillor K Earley asked if the Council followed the Marmot principle like Coventry Council who were name a Marmot authority.

The Director of Public Health responded that the Council used the Marmot principle as they worked well to describe problems but they were not a marmot authority.  There were talks to investigate the implementation of Marmot further but there were elements of marmot that were challenging on what to do locally when issues were on a nation level. 

Councillor J Higgins noted from the report that there had been a reduction in the number of people smoking. He was concerned about the number of young people vaping and queried whether vaping would lead to smoking.

The Director of Public Health explained that both the Adults, Wellbeing and Health Overview and Scrutiny meeting and the Children and Young Peoples Overview and Scrutiny meeting had considered vaping as they did not want young people vaping.  They were used by adult smokers as an aid to stop smoking as there was evidence that legal vapes were less harmful than cigarettes.  The Government were working to stop people smoking by increasing the age of sale and reduce the promotion of cigarettes.   

Councillor P Jopling was concerned with figures relating to obesity.  She understood that it was difficult to lose weight but unless doctors bought into obesity to coax people to lose weight at appointments any initiative would fail. She acknowledged that it was a difficult topic to broach in schools and what happens at home.

The Director of Public Health identified that healthy weight was a number one priority and noted that the Healthy Weight plan had just been refreshed with key elements.  Work had been undertaken to look at how this uncomfortable topic could be talked with the NHS producing modules on how to talk about difficult things. She acknowledged it was a difficult topic as there was food all around the environment in adverts.

Councillor P Jopling thought this needed to be flagged up with doctors.

The Director of Public Health agreed to take this away.

Councillor L Hovvels thought that the work carried out by public health was very important and should influence policy.   She had experience from the other end of the spectrum with homelessness in her community and malnutrition with people starving and relying on foodbanks.  This had a huge impact on people’s mental health with the threat of suicide.  The cost of living crisis was challenging and should be addressed.

Councillor T Stubbs asked if this generation of teenagers were experimenting more with vaping instead of underage drinking that was linked to teenage pregnancies that had decreased.

The Director of Public Health did see young people experimenting with vapes which is a gateway to smoking.  She could not say conclusively if vaping had replaced young people drinking alcohol.  There were adverts and sponsorships with alcohol that was in the public arena that young people would see along with accessible and affordable alcohol on the market but she was not sure if there was a difference in the culture with young people turning to vaping over alcohol.  She agreed to take this away.

Councillor D Haney felt that gambling especially in young men was becoming a huge issue and queried if this was being investigated.

The Director of Public Health commented that work on both alcohol and tobacco was carried out closely with 7 authorities that had seen the campaign of alcohol is toxic campaign.  Work was to be undertaken on gambling as this was an issue as people had easier access to it with phones and shops.  This would create opportunities to look at the housing agenda going forward if people lost their homes through gambling but this would be challenging.

Councillor D Haney was concerned young people would get into gambling with the amount of online special offers.

Councillor P Jopling was concerned that alcohol companies were producing more flavours of gins and ciders making them taste more like pop creating the danger of people getting drunk not realising how much they had drunk. The Director of Public Health had seen the increase in people drinking more alcohol with hard low cost ciders. Councillor P Jopling stated these flavoured ciders were also calorie laden that would in turn impact on obesity rates.

Councillor S Quinn was concerned about the different trends within different generations that came about.  She noted that when she was young the thing to do was glue sniffing. She was worried about people drinking energy drinks. The Director of Public Health stated that would did reflect on trends and focused on things that were important.  Work was ongoing around energy drinks.

Councillor V Andrews questioned if there was a link between child obesity and social environment groups.

The Director of Public Health confirmed that there was a link that showed unhealthy weight being greater in area of deprivation as unhealthier foods tended to be cheaper.  She noted that targeted intervention was carried out in these area within County Durham.

Councillor C Lines asked if the trend of snus tobacco was on the public health radar as to whether it was harmful given that it seemed to be promoted by professional footballers.

The Director of Public Health was aware as Fresh kept them up to date. 

Resolved

That the report be noted.