Agenda item

To present the annual report on the health of the people of Berkshire for 2021/22.

Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz (Director of Public Health – Berkshire West) presented the item on the Annual Report from the Directors of Public Health (Agenda Item 9).

It was highlighted that for sustainability reasons, the document would only be made available online.

Directors of Public Health could present reports on the state of the population’s health in general terms or in a thematic way. The latest report focused on sustainability, climate change and food production and had been prepared as a pan-Berkshire report.

Members were encouraged to share the report with their networks. 

Since it was an online document, video case studies of local community groups had been included. These looked at where people could get sustainable food from as well as issues such as packaging and the impacts that farm-reared food had on the environment.

Members asked about how the report would be communicated to local residents and what the Council’s Communications Team could do to support this.

It was explained that there would be more targeted communications activities in September, once the report had been taken to each of the Health and Wellbeing Boards.

A question was also asked about the impacts on the Public Health Service as a result of Slough Borough Council being declared bankrupt. It was noted that for pan-Berkshire initiatives and the Ukraine Homes project, colleagues from Slough were still taking part. However, it was suggested that the Director of Public Health for Berkshire East would be better placed to comment on the impact on local public health initiatives.

A comment was made about food sustainability being a global issue with poorer countries / populations being most adversely impacted. Concern was expressed that that the report put the responsibility on individual action, but this was reliant on people having enough money to implement these actions. It was suggested that the benefits system needed to be changed.

Tracy Daszkiewicz acknowledged the points about global food production and distribution and stressed that food banks should not be the focus for supporting families in the UK. She recognised that there was a looming financial crisis which would implications for food poverty and child poverty, and agreed that a wider system changes was needed to support families in a meaningful way without judgement and stigma.

Members praised the report for being easy and enjoyable to read. It was recognised that the report gave practical advice to those who were able to act upon it, but there were many who would struggle to do so. It was also noted that a culture change was underway with many people already eating less meat. Praise was given to practical examples within the report where ‘people power’ could make a difference.

It was suggested that the advice within the report should be pulled out and communicated in bite-sized formats so people did not have to read the full report.

A question was asked about how the Directors of Public Health chose the theme for the annual report and whether it was tied into the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. It was noted that the report’s themes had not been discussed at previous meetings.

It was explained that topics were chosen because they were either very high-profile or had not had sufficient ‘air-time’. Recovery from Covid through the eyes of children had been discussed as a possible a future topic – this could be produced with local schools in a comic strip format and could be linked to the priorities of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Topics were currently determined solely by the Directors of Public Health, but it was suggested that the Board could be involved in deciding the themes of future reports.

It was noted that the report referred to reducing meat consumption and reducing food imports.  it was asked if this would translate into policy changes in future.

Tracy Daszkiewicz commented that there was lots happening in this area globally, with food production and transportation being discussed at environmental summits. However, she noted that a lot of activity was consumer driven, e.g. the move to soft fruits and berries being available all year round. She indicated that the cheapest and healthiest option was to source food locally and to use as few ingredients as possible, avoiding processed foods. However, she recognised that this was an ideal solution, which would not suit everyone. She highlighted the impacts of farmed animals in terms of the agricultural land used and the methane emissions they produced. Additionally, she noted that much of the meat produced in the UK was exported to other countries. She suggested that consuming locally produced meat, farmed in ways that minimised environmental impacts could make a significant difference.

It was suggested that there should be Health and Wellbeing Strategy targets related to the Director of Public Health Annual Report.