Agenda item

The Committee received a joint report of the Corporate Director of Adult and Health Services and Director of Public Health on the 2024 Annual Report of the Director of Public Health for County Durham (for copy of report, see file of Minutes).

The Director of Public Health provided a detailed presentation on the Public Health County Durham Annual Report 2024 which focused on the following areas:

Highlighted Health of our People

Future Health of our People

Health and Social Care

Healthy Behaviours

Wider Determinants of Health

Recommendations and Conclusion

Councillor Hunt welcomed all the work that had been done on the smoking and referred to pregnant mothers who were smoking. She asked if the advice and solution was offered to all pregnant mothers as sometimes, they don’t admit that they are smoking.

The Director of Public Health responded that they had appointed an inequalities midwife who works in the local trust and regionally, so it was underway and stated that she was making a real difference.

Councillor Earley raised concerns around adopting a policy of targeting interventions in certain areas which may lead to an unintended levelling down of health inequalities. He then referred to social prescribing and stated how difficult it was to maintain a viable list that was ad hoc and could be done better.

The Director of Public Health responded that universal work on oral health that may be fluoridation across the whole county and then some targeted work in terms of interventions. She referred to mothers smoking at time of delivery and stated that they wanted every single mum to have that interaction but where they had areas with 33% of mums smoking, they needed to do something more intensive in that area. With regard to social prescribing, they were working hard to update the community book that would have details of local groups and interventions in place, it often comes down to having good relationships locally with the local social subscribing link worker who should also be reaching out into the local areas. If this was not happening, then this would be looked at.

Ms A Stobbart stated that they are wanting people to change their behaviour in a community setting and stated that someone could recognise that and have that conversation. She then referred to social housing providers who would be willing to have those conversations with customers at the right time.

The Director of Public Health responded that they had a training programme that was to make every contact count, she would check to ensure that it was reaching out to housing colleagues.

Councillor Quinn referred to the wellbeing for life programme that was excellent and was working in communities. She then referred to nitrous oxide, drugs and vapes that contributed to most of the issues in communities and stated that more needed to be done around this.

The Director of Public Health responded from a drugs point of view they had just received confirmation that funding from Dame Carol Black “From harm to hope” initiative had been confirmed for the future which was additional funding to the core drug and alcohol contract. They were working closely with the Police and Crime Commissioner and Durham Constabulary on the nitrous oxide and vapes. She stated that they had to be careful due to the benefits that vapes offer to adults to help them to stop smoking as they were safer than cigarettes, but they did not want young children to start vaping and it to be marketed in that way. She continued that they had just put out a survey to young people around vaping and were currently analysing the results that would go back to the Health and Wellbeing Board but could bring the results also back to this committee.

Councillor Adam commented that the theme from today was deprivation and the impact on health and stated that slow progress was been made. He stated that it was about investment in County Durham and that this was the only way to see improvement.

Councillor Lines referred to the figures on the future health of residents that were stark and scary. He was conscious that public health practitioners have a lot on their plate to address some of the challenges and asked what more the Council and partners could do.

The Director of Public Health responded that they were looking at housing, planning and the economic point of view and a development session would be held initially with the Health and Wellbeing Board in February then the Health and Care Partners then a Joint session with the Environment partnership.

Councillor Anderson referred to the healthy behaviours section of the report and mental health and wellbeing and stated that the mental health services in County Durham were stretched and were always the poor relations who were under funded and understaffed. She continued that mental health referrals were on the increase and one in six children and young people have a mental health condition and stated it was around signposting for these people and timely access for the right treatment and stated that unfortunately in County Durham CAMHS waiting lists are high. She asked what work was being done to reduce waiting lists and the retention and appointment of staff.

The Director of Public Health responded that they were carrying out some joint work looking at mental health and bringing things together.

Councillor Hovvels referred to link workers and stated that not all link workers reach out and stated that more work needed to be carried out around this. She then referred to rural communities and she had some concerns and did not want these communities to be forgotten.

Councillor Robson stated that he was concerned about some of the information provided in relation to 2040 and new diseases and issues. He provided an example of people who worked in the pit and how the impacts of cannabis could be one of the diseases in the future and asked for more information on what they are expecting.

The Director of Public Health responded that the legacy from the mining industry people did not understand the health risks and the impact of that was now coming to an end. The newer issues such as access to unhealthy food not been able to do as much physical activity, drinking too much and smoking that are addictive and access to drugs these are the things that lead to the projections becoming a reality. These are the things that they can do now to avoid those 2040 projections coming to bear. The third part of the report about starting to look at actions are the things they need to do to mitigate those projections.

Councillor Hunt referred to the gap between mental health and drug services and how people were self-medicating with street drugs. She stated that the drug and alcohol services won’t take people with a mental health issue that was not been treated so they were in a circle and asked what they were doing to address this.

The Director of Public Health stated that she would take this away and get back to Councillor Hunt.

Resolved: That the Director of Health Annual Report 2024 be noted.