To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

The Director of Public Health provided the introduction, with Trafford in the process of shaping the approach to health inequalities. The Committee were informed that the public health team works closely with several council services, including closely with the Corporate Director for Children’s Services. She spoke to the wider determinants of health inequalities, and the impact of these on children. Public health was adopting a partnership approach to reducing health inequalities, which was to be complimentary to the Greater Manchester (GM), fairer health for all. She ended by saying that children live in families, and that you could not think about children’s health inequalities without thinking about their wider families.

The Public Health Consultant began by informing the Committee that the report was an overview of a wide-ranging agenda, so was happy to comeback on any questions from Councillors. The Public Health Consultant said that the drivers of health inequalities are complex and referred to the evidence of this in the report. The Committee were advised that the Public Health Consultant had tried to structure the paper to a way that it was helpful, and the simplified model that considers the social or wider determinants of health. These things then determine the opportunities people have to live healthily. 

The Public Health Consultant informed the Committee that the paper had focused on the second and third layers of health inequalities, with a focus on some of the core groups that are not covered if you take only a geographical or deprivation-based look at inequalities.

The Public Health Consultant referred the Committee to the key figures of what inequalities looks like. She drew the committee to a couple of these, including the significant focus of the paper on the early years provision, particularly from conception to age two.

The Public Health Consultant further referred to the report to improvements that are being seen, which have been covered in the report, and spoke of key data in the West of the Borough. She drew the committee to the data on the national child measurement programme, which was done at reception age, and had shown inequalities in excess weight, had been eliminated since 17/18, with the gap between the most and the least deprived having massively reduced.

Mental health and emotional wellbeing had also been referenced in the report, with an increased need and complexity for these young people. The Public Health Consultant provided some information about what was being done to target and support these young people.

The Public Health Consultant spoke about the decrease in take up of immunisations since COVID, an issue also seen nationally. She informed the Committee of the targeted work ongoing with the GP practices in the North of the borough, to spark a conversation about why less people are booking in for vaccinations, especially for young children under 5.

The Public Health Consultant summarised the report and referenced the strategic items at the end of the report.

The Chair thanked the officers for the report and asked if Councillors had any questions.

Councillor Ennis felt it was important to make full use of the Broomwood community centre. He asked for more of a focus on mobile gambling, which he saw as a real problem for young men.

The Public Health Consultant responded that there was a new alcohol, gambling, and substance misuse partnership in Trafford, which was taking a real focus on gambling. This had involved lived experience in the room, and that really took over the last meeting. Various discussions had been being had around the groups that were most impacted by this, and discussions had begun to embed these things into the service.

The Director of Public Health responded the need for a focus on Broomwood, which could often be forgotten about as it was in the South of the borough. She assured Councillor Ennis that there was work going on to make greater use of this service.

Councillor Sutton asked what work was being done around sexual reproductive health and access for young people to identity services. He shared that he felt this was grossly underfunded and often subject to hostile attacks in the public sphere. The Public Health Consultant welcomed this, and assured Councillor Sutton of developments with CAMHS partners. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services said there had been safeguarding issues around gender identity being one of the factors. There had been discussions being had at local and regional level, to increase conversations on these.

Councillor Procter spoke of how in her ward, four schools were very close to the M60 and added that she has lot of anecdotal evidence on the increase of asthma, when being around petrol fumes. Councillor Procter raised concern about asthma rates and absence from schools, as well as the knock-on effect from being in a school so close to a motorway and asked if public health had any better evidence of this. The Director of Public Health responded that they do not have it to hand, but this could be provided. She did assure the Councillor that there was air quality monitoring ongoing and would send across more high-level data regarding this. Councillor Procter spoke of local group in her ward who had done some work on this.

Councillor Butt asked about dental treatment mentioned in the report, with the focus being on urgent treatment, without mention of prevention, asking how public health planned to tackle this. The Public Health Consultant responded that it was important to work on focusing on poor dental health. She spoke of work ongoing closely with the health visiting team, as well as other schemes also in place to work on this issue.

Councillor Paul raised concern for under 18 consumption of alcohol and also the data on vaping. She asked what steps were being taken to warn children of this, so that the number would reduce. The Public Health Consultant responded that the vaping data had been of real concern, with work on the response to vaping ongoing. She mentioned that it was about encouraging vaping for adults who smoke, but also projecting the message that it was bad for young people who had no past experience of this. As for the alcohol statistic, these had been concerning, and work was ongoing in this area for both adults and young people. The Public Health Consultant finished by saying that there was work ongoing in secondary schools to raise awareness.

The Chair thanked all the officers for their input.

            RESOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That the Director of Public Health provide Councillor Procter with data on the impact of children going to school near a motorway.