Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Health

The Director of Public Health submitted a report (previously circulated) to provide Members with an overview of the health promoting activities in relation to children and young people and the plans to address these issues.

The submitted report provided information about the Darlington Children and Young People’s Profile 2018 and the Healthy Lifestyle Survey 2017 as a means of assessing need to plan services to improve health and wellbeing of local children and young people; and also provided information about the Darlington Childhood Healthy Weight Action Plan 2017-2022 and the Oral Health Plan 2017-2022 (also all previously circulated).

With regard to the Child Health Profile 2018 it was reported that the profile showed the health and wellbeing of children in Darlington was varied compared to the England average, with 11 of the 32 reported indicators for Darlington being significantly different when compared to England, with four significantly better and 11 significantly worse. These were mainly the high number of children admitted to hospital and this is an ongoing priority for all partners.

The areas that showed some improvement in the 2018 profile from the previous years included the percentage of children aged 5 years with decayed, missing or filled teeth which had decreased from 35.4 per cent in 2017 profile (2015/16 data) to 26.4 per cent (2016/17 data) and Darlington is now significantly similar to the England average of 23.3 per cent.

An area highlighted for improvement from the profile was childhood obesity which showed that 10.6 per cent of children in Reception, (similar to England) and 22.5 per cent of children in Year 6, (worse than England) are obese.

The Healthy Lifestyle’s Survey 2017 is a further tool in understanding local need and gathers and analyses information from children and young people in Darlington about their attitudes and behaviours across a range of health related topics.  Surveys had been conducted in secondary and primary schools and the key messages from the 2017 survey were attached as an appendix to the submitted report.

The Darlington Childhood Healthy Weight Plan 2017-2022 sets out a whole system approach to tackling childhood obesity and reducing inequalities by ensuring the healthy weight agenda is integrated in other relevant plans aims to increase the percentage of children leaving primary school at a healthy weight.

It was reported that although the main causes of obesity were poor diet and low levels of physical activity, environmental changes can have the most impact on reducing obesity; and tackling environmental issues requires a co-ordinated partnership approach from a wide variety of stakeholders to enable effective and sustainable environmental change.

The Darlington Oral Health Plan 2017-2022 complements the work of the Childhood Healthy Weight Plan as a high sugar diet is a risk factor in dental decay as over a third of children in Darlington aged five years old start school with the experience of dental decay.  The plan proposes a ‘whole system approach’ to tackling dental decay, improving oral health and reducing inequalities.

Members discussion ensued on energy drinks and the caffeine drinks which young people appeared to be purchasing as an alternative; the number of young people aged 10 to 24 years admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm which remained higher than the England average; and the participation of schools in the Healthy Lifestyles Survey.

Members also discussed ways to encourage parents to walk their children to school and the ‘walking train’; how to challenge parents lifestyle choices; the level of physical activity within schools and the influence that the authority can have within schools and in particular the academies; how to promote eating within schools as a social event and to address any anxieties that young people may have around eating in public; and to examine ways to restrict the number of hot food takeaways across the borough.