To receive a report from the Interim Director of Public Health.

The Interim Director of Public Health went through the report which had been circulated with the Agenda. The Board were informed that the report had been created by an independent body so there would be no bias towards the Council’s services and performance. The Boards attention was drawn to the statistics on ageing which showed that people’s satisfaction and fulfilment were higher for elderly people than 30 – 50 year olds. This came to a surprise Board Members who had expected that younger people would score higher for happiness than older people.

The report detailed the stark contrast in healthy life expectancy between the most deprived and most affluent areas across the borough. This had been highlighted as an area that required focus from all services as the personal and financial cost of this inequality were very significant. The Interim Director for Public Health went through the diagram on page 9 of the report which showed Trafford’s performance in ageing well outcomes when compared to the national average. The Interim Director for Public Health then explained the difference between loneliness and social isolation and how Trafford were good at dealing with social isolation but were still struggling to combat loneliness.

There were a number of areas of concern for Trafford with the main ones being a lack of physical activity amongst adults and children, smoking and the Interim Director of Public Health emphasised the benefits of quitting smoking even amongst the population above retirement age as it was still the biggest cause of preventable illness within Trafford. Despite young people drinking less there were still issues around alcohol consumption as 25% of older people were drinking over their daily allowance. The Board were told that because older people had a slower metabolism they needed to reduce their daily allowances.

Too many people in Trafford were dying in hospital which showed that there was a need to change the conversations which were being had within Trafford and to improve end of life planning. The Interim Director of Public Health reiterated the impact that health inequalities had upon the area affecting both rich and poor alike as rich people in areas with high inequality were shown to have a shorter life expectancy.

After the Interim Director of Public Health had concluded their overview of the report Board Members were given an opportunity to ask questions. The Executive Member for Adults Services stated that Trafford had an issue with the quality of Care Homes within Trafford and asked what had been done in reaction to the age well survey. The Interim Director of Public Health responded that the survey had not gone out to care homes but that this would be done following the meeting. Once all the survey results were received they would be used to create working groups in order to work through the issues identified.

The Chair of HealthWatch Trafford commended the reports length and accessibility. She agreed that Trafford needed to focus upon end of life planning and care. The Chair of HealthWatch then added that older people needed to be able to access psychology services more. The Chair of Trafford CCG stated that they had identified the low use of psychological services by the elderly as an issue and had made GPs aware of it.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services spoke of the importance of increasing the level of activity amongst the population. The Chair of the Board highlighted that the Council and their partners had promoted the daily mile within Trafford and there had been a good level of take up across the borough.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted by the Board.