Issue - meetings

[To consider the Public Health Annual Report 2018-19]. 

The Director for Public Health presented the Public Health Annual Report 2018-2019.  He had a statutory duty to deliver an Annual report.  He stressed it was important to get the basics right in life to ensure people remained in good health this included good housing and living in a good community.  The Annual report included a section at the back of the report on individual ward profiles.  He was particularly pleased with the work Public Health had completed in partnership with health partners on health checks.  Organisation had been the key to success in both the increased uptake of health checks and flu vaccinations. 

A Member of the Panel commented that she felt the ultimate strapline from the report was that if you wanted to live longer it was important not to be poor.  They stressed the importance of living in good quality housing and the value of the enforcement work the Council carried out in private sector housing.  They believed the enforcement team had halved in strength in recent years. 

The Panel discussed the ward profiles and the differences in life expectancy. Comments were made about breaking the cycle of deprivation within families.  A Panel Member asked about the amount of alcohol related hospital admissions in Wolverhampton and what action could be taken to bring the level down.  The Director for Public Health responded that alcohol abuse was a key problem for the City to address.  It was important to promote sensible drinking practices and have an effective intervention service.  The Wolverhampton alcohol intervention services were well respected nationally. 

A Panel Member asked about the homeless figures for Wolverhampton.  The Director for Public Health offered to write to her with the formal definitions of rough sleeping and homelessness as they were different.

The Chair remarked that it was most concerning that nearly a third of local children aged 0-15 years old were living in poverty (31.3%).  He asked what definition of poverty Public Health were using in the report and what they were trying to do to change the situation.  The Consultant in Public Health responded that Public Health were using a well-established national indicator for child poverty in their report.  Nationally there was a database of all the families in receipt of child tax credits.  A child was deemed to be living in poverty if they lived in a household in receipt of child tax credits and the household was receiving income support or job seeker supporter, or if they were living in a family receiving child tax credit and were deemed to be in the bottom 60%. Wolverhampton did not compare well to the rest of the country and that was largely down to the deprivation rate in Wolverhampton.  The child poverty figure in Wolverhampton was similar to Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall.  The only way to improve the figure was to increase the employment rate and improve household incomes. Jobs, skills, strong and stable homes and opportunity were key.

The Chair asked what the contributing factors  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6