Director of Public Health Annual Report 2017
'Everyone in Warwickshire Counts: Valuing the Vulnerable' is the title of the Director of Public Health Annual Report 2017.
Released Wednesday 6 September, the Director of Public Health’s report informs local people about the health of their community, as well as providing necessary information for decision makers in the local public sector on health gaps, health inequalities and priorities that need to be addressed.
The theme of this year’s report is vulnerability and its impact on health and wellbeing.
Read the report at: warwickshire.gov.uk/publichealthannualreport
Health and wellbeing is generally reported as good compared to England. This is to be celebrated – however it does mask significant variation in different areas across the county (see pages 8, 9, 10 of the report).
There have been some improvements in core areas:
- The rate of teenage conceptions continues to fall from 22.9% in 2014 to 19.5% in 2015
- Physical inactivity in adults has reduced from one in three down to one in four
- However there are areas where health outcomes have deteriorated; for example hospital admissions as a result of injuries in childhood (0 to 14 years) are at a higher level than the national figure.
- Life expectancy has been rising – but while it is good that we are living longer, much of the additional time is spent in poor health – around 12 years for men and 16 years for women. Years spent in poor health impact on families and workplaces, and increase pressure on health and especially social care services.
A hard copy of the report has been sent to every Headteacher in Warwickshire. The report is also available to read online at warwickshire.gov.uk/publichealthannualreport
What do you think of the report? We welcome your feedback: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/dphannualreport2017
Read the press release.
For more information please contact phadmin@warwickshire.gov.uk
Flu vaccination campaign and infection guidance
Flu vaccination campaign
Public Health would like to ask for your support with this year's flu campaign - please find a factsheet for frontline staff, which we would be grateful if you might share as widely as possible.
Please find all of our poster/campaign resources here:
warwickshire.gov.uk/flu
coventry.gov.uk/flujab
You can also find information about our targets here.
New Infection Control Guidance
Please also see here for newly published infection control guidance for schools and childcare facilities.
With winter looming, and the winter vomiting bug "Norovirus" starting to circulate, may we recommend Chapters 3,4, 6, 9 and Appendix 3 in particular.
Soil Association Food for Life - New Event
Would you like to demonstrate that your school is doing fantastic work to improve pupils’ health outcomes, behaviour and attainment? Food for Life in Warwickshire provides a package of support including resources, training and advice to create a culture of healthy eating and great food education …and thanks to Public Health Warwickshire the FFL Awards package, which usually costs £500, is available for all schools in the county absolutely free until 2019.
Here are just some of the many benefits of FFL:
- Pupil Health and Wellbeing: Independent evaluation of our programme demonstrates our unique, whole school approach makes a positive contribution to pupil health and wellbeing with many schools reporting a clear impact on their Ofsted report in terms of pupils' personal development and wellbeing.
- Ofsted: FFL shows that you are meeting Ofsted’s Common Inspection Framework requirement to support children and learners to keep themselves healthy. “Schools who are working towards or have gained their Food for Life Schools Award will already have started to collect evidence of a positive food culture in action.” (Ofsted)
- School Food Standards: FFL award holders demonstrate they are meeting DfE’s mandatory School Food Standards.
- Training, support and resources: We offer a wealth of resources, specialist support and training, developed and delivered by experts.
- Curriculum: FFL supports national curriculum requirements on cooking and uses food growing and food linked education to enhance the curriculum and foster enterprise skills.
Feedback from a teacher at FFL school in Warwickshire:
“The pupils thoroughly enjoy the gardening and other FFL activities. It has been noticed that it has had a calming effect on pupils who struggle with behavioural issues. It has influenced attainment by actively engaging pupils through first-hand experience, creating a high level of engagement and deeper understanding. Children are more engaged in writing and maths when FFL activities are involved, such as instruction writing about how to make chutney. The pupils are consuming more fruit and vegetables, talking about what they are eating and encouraging others to eat them as well.”
If you would like to find out more about Food for Life and how to enrol then please book a place on our New Schools Event by contacting Local Programme Manager, Valerie Meehan, at vmeehan@soilassociation.org or call 07736 888462 to arrange an alternative appointment if you are unable to attend.
Our next New Schools Event is on Wednesday 8th November 2017 from 3.30pm to 4.30pm at:
Cotesbach Educational Trust,
Main Street,
Near Lutterworth
LE17 4HX
We hope to see you there!
Choose How You Move - Active Travel
This recently launched campaign across Coventry and Warwickshire aims to get people to travel differently to work or to school, using more sustainable and active travel options, and to leave the car at home!
Walking or cycling is good for health and wellbeing, and helps reduce air pollution.
The website http://warwickshire.gov.uk/activetravel helps people plan journeys, and gives tips and advice on a variety of active travel options. It also has animations on active travel and will soon have case studies of people who have made the change to more active travel.
We particularly want to work with schools to increase walking and cycling to school and to reduce car idling outside schools which can add to pollution levels.
Please share the website link and also encourage people to visit our Facebook and Twitter pages:
Twitter @ChooseMoveCW
Choose Move Facebook
We really want to start some conversations about active travel that lead to change, even if it's only doing a journey differently once a week, little changes make a big difference.