To consider a report from the Director of Public Health.

The Director of Public Health a gave a short introduction to the item before handing over to the Commissioning Support Officer who delivered a presentation to the Board, which covered the content of the report that had been circulated with the agenda.

The presentation detailed that the number of alcohol caused deaths per 100,000 within Trafford was 11.8, which was lower than the Northwest average, and that Trafford ranked 11^th highest out of their 16 statistical neighbours. The Board were then informed of Trafford’s aims and objectives for reducing alcohol use. The Board were provided with feedback from recent collaborative work which included positive comments about the level of understanding of the issues, peoples’ needs, and the importance of data gathering. The outreach team were delivering a programme of training around alcohol abuse and Early Break were working with young people about the dangers of alcohol across the borough.

From work in the community the team had gained good insights around how best to communicate information and key messages, especially in relation to the use of social media. The Board were then shown the proposed timescales for the completion of the JSNA concluding with the draft JSNA coming to the Board for approval in October and were given an outline of what the draft JSNA structure would be like. The presentation ended with a brief overview of upcoming alcohol related work including the commissioning of Early Break to deliver engagement with under 18-year-old drivers.

Following the presentation, the Chair noted that the deaths listed were those directly caused by alcohol rather than alcohol related deaths. The Chair spoke of her own experience of alcohol caused death and how those who struggled with alcohol addiction often hid it from family and friends. The Commissioning Support Officer acknowledged that the hidden aspect of alcohol abuse was one of the biggest challenges when tackling alcohol abuse.

The Chair noted the number of cases of foetal alcohol syndrome and the issues that it could cause. The Commissioning Support officer informed the Board that work was starting within the young people’s service and there were plans to broaden the work to incorporate commissioners.

The Chair welcomed the feedback on communications, especially that the Council would not simply rely upon social media to engage with residents and she added that it was important for the Council’s partners to aid in ensuring messages were shared with the public.

The Managing Director of the Trafford Local Care Organisation informed the Board that when the community health services screened people, they asked them about their mental health and gathered some good information. The Commissioning Support Officer asked that any information gathered be fed back so that it could be added to the JSNA.

The CEO of Trafford Leisure spoke of how, in her experience, positive messaging saying what to do had more impact than traditional negative “do not do x, y, z” messaging. One example of this was encouraging people to exercise through a physical activity prescribing approach rather than pointing out the negative impacts of alcohol. The CEO of Trafford Leisure told the Board about the lifestyle questionnaires given to members and how they had been surprised by what they found. It seemed that many people who were being more active then felt that they could drink more. The CEO was looking forward to wider lifestyle questionaries going out and seeing if there would be any other surprising responses.

The Commissioning Support Officer recognised the difficulty people had speaking about these areas of their life and informed Board Members of the work Early Break were doing to engage with young people. The CEO of Trafford Leisure added that the challenge was to normalise speaking about health with others. The Commissioning Support Officer asked whether it would be worth the outreach team doing some work with leisure centre staff to help them in asking those questions and gathering information.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the update be noted.

2)    That all Board Members are to feedback any information gathered to be added to the JSNA.

3)    That the Commissioning Support Officer contact the CEO of Trafford Leisure to discuss the possibility of the Outreach team aiding Trafford Leisure staff in speaking with members about their health.