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Agenda item

Report of the Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity, presenting the Public Health Annual Report for 2019/20, circulated separately for Members of the Committee.

 

A covering Report is attached to the agenda and the annual report is a separate document, available on the website (https://www.devonhealthandwellbeing.org.uk/aphr/2019-20), also posted in hard copy to all Members of the Council.

Minutes:

(Councillors Biederman, Connett, Dewhirst, Greenslade, Hannaford and Whitton attended remotely in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 and spoke to this item).

 

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity, presenting the Public Health Annual Report for 2019/20, which was available on the website at https://www.devonhealthandwellbeing.org.uk/aphr/2019-20. A hard copy of the full Report had also been sent to all Members of the Council.

 

The Cabinet noted that the Director of Public Health had a statutory duty to write an annual report, and the local authority has a statutory duty to publish it in line with section 73B [5] & [6] of the 2006 NHS Act, inserted by section 31 of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.

 

The Annual Public Health Report before the Cabinet was the thirteenth in a series of annual reports on the health of the population of Devon which began in 2007/08.  Each Report covered the general health of the population of Devon; although increasingly the detail about health and wellbeing could be found in the annual Joint Strategic Needs Assessment available at:  www.devonhealthandwellbeing.org.uk/jsna.

 

The current Report focussed on planetary and human health, given the global increase in concern about the effects that human beings were having on the health of the planet, and subsequently the impact on public health, for example climate change.

 

The structure of the Report covered different aspects of the environment and health and explored the evidence, the impact and what could be done to manage this and create greater resilience. It also complemented Devon’s new Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-25: ‘Healthy and Happy Communities’. Its overriding purpose was to explore that human dimension: the relationship between the health of people and that of the planet, and to make recommendations accordingly.

 

The thirteen recommendations of the Public Health Annual Report were therefore;

 

1.     to recognise and mitigate (wherever possible) the impact of changes to the health of the planet on health and social inequality;

2.     that the wider public health community contribute to the Climate Emergency response;

3.     that Local Authority policies describe their impact on planetary health as well as public health;

4.     that policies on cutting greenhouse gases and improving the environment should also be used to ‘level up’ and reduce inequalities in health;

5.     to embed sustainable commissioning, by ensuring providers were reducing carbon footprints;

6.     to use the Government’s plans for housing / new developments to embed health in ‘place’ (e.g. improve air quality, increase active travel, building Passive Houses etc);

7.     take every opportunity, individually and collectively, to increase active travel;

8.     to support the understanding of, access to and use of the natural landscape to promote health and wellbeing;

9.     to promote ‘reduce’ and ‘re-use’ as extensively as recycling;

10.  to promote healthy eating advice (advocating a diet rich in vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruit);

11.  to improve air quality in those areas / those times of day when air pollution was increased;

12.  actively support the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals; and

13.  at an individual level and change behaviour.

 

The Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Community, Public Health, Transportation and Environmental Services referred the meeting to page 6 of the Report which outlined some of the various pledges that individuals could take to support this agenda.

 

The matter having been debated and the other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability (including carbon impact), risk management, equality and legal considerations) set out in the Director’s Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

 

it was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

 

RESOLVED that the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health 2019-20 on ‘Planetary and Human Health’ be received and the recommendations, as outlined above, be noted.

Supporting documents:


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