At its meeting on 16 January Enfield Council's Health Scrutiny Panel will be briefed on the Council's strategies to tackle public health and health inequalties by Tessa Lindfield, Director of Public Health, and Glenn Stewart, Assistant Director of Public Health.
The briefing paper provided for the meeting notes that
"The role of public health is to advise on the design of Council and NHS services and the design of Enfield as a place to promote health and reduce inequalities. This recognises that health is at least determined as much by life-chances and socio-economic factors as it is by local authority / NHS services."
And points out that
"Public Health supports the Council’s wider work programme which acts to prevent deprivation through a strong education and preschool offer and economic growth that provides sustainable employment for Enfield residents. Services such as housing and environmental health are key to prevent and mitigate the effects of deprivation on our residents and they are supported by public health The direct work of the public health team is only a small part of the jigsaw of policies and programmes in place to tackle inequality in Enfield."
The following graphic has the title Life expectancy at birth and at 65 (2010-2014), but unfortunately there is no key to the colour codes.
The joint health and wellbeing strategy requires that public health work is targeted towards populations that experience the greatest inequalities. The Health and Wellbeing Board's four current priorities are;
- Best Start in Life
- Obesity
- Mental Health Resilience
The briefing describes work being done in support of all these.
One of the programmes tackling obesity is Healthy Streets. The work includes ensuring that public health is embedded in planning policy; piloting three school street closures at the beginning and end of the school day to encourage walking, cycling and scooting to school; and enabling residents to apply for Temporary Play Street Orders.
The Public Health team also provides support to the Cycle Enfield team.