Issue - meetings

The Board welcomed the Director of Public Health (DPH), who presented the Public Health Annuary Report (PHAR) for 2023-24 – Healthy Start, Healthy Future.

The PHAR was an important vehicle by which a DPH could identify key issues, flag problems, report progress and therefore, serve their local populations.  It is also a key resource to inform local inter agency action and remained a key means by which the DPH was accountable to the population they served.

For the year 2023-24 the PHAR focussed the impact of empowered young people who had embraced key messages from the Personal, Social and Health Education (PHSE) curriculum, who were inspired to promote change within their school community.  The children and young people were supported to make this change through the work of the Healthy School's Team in collaboration with schools and their partners.  The Public Health Team's Healthy Schools Program worked with schools and colleges to help create a healthy school environment that built lifelong health enhancing habits.  

This culminated in an event where the different programmes that they had developed were shared and their contributions celebrated. 

The PHAR highlighted some of the key health challenges as well as some of the ways that the healthy schools programme tackled these.  Members were referred to the case studies presented with some of Halton’s schools and the different areas of focus such as obesity, vaping, intergenerational initiatives (care homes), young health champions and wellbeing.

The challenges being faced with children and young people taking up vaping were discussed.  The dangers of vaping were still unknown but concerns were raised around the ‘normalisation’ of using vapes and that they were considered to be a safe alternative to cigarettes.  Their misuse, by non-smokers, was on the increase by children and young people, which was a concern for all.

One Member suggested that a video be made by young people, aimed at young people (peers) warning of the dangers of vaping, as a way of communicating this message, which could be played in schools. 

The Board welcomed the Annual Report and supported the recommendations made.

RESOLVED:  That the Board

1)    notes the contents of the report; and

2)    supports the Public Health Annual Report's recommendations