Agenda item

To receive the report of the Director of Public Health, which outlines that the Annual Report 2023 brings together lived experiences alongside a review of data and evidence relating to ageing well. This report outlines the key findings and recommendations contained within the DPH Annual Report focussed on system wide actions to reduce inequalities and increase the number of years spent in good health.

The report of the Director of Public Health outlined that the Annual Report 2023 brought together lived experiences alongside a review of data and evidence relating to ageing well. This report outlined that the key findings and recommendations contained within the DPH Annual Report focussed on system wide actions to reduce inequalities and increase the number of years spent in good health.

The following attended the meeting to present the item:

·  Victoria Eaton – Director of Public Health, Leeds City Council

·  Tim Fielding – Deputy Director of Public Health, Leeds City Council

·  Helen Laird – Head of Public Health, Leeds City Council

The Chair provided an overview, noting the Director of Public Health had a mandatory duty to publish an annual report describing the health of the population and provide recommendations to improve health outcomes. The report focused on lived experiences and data related to ageing well in Leeds, with the previous year focusing on the health and wellbeing of Children and young people in Leeds.

The Board was provided with the following information:

·  The report contained actions and updates from the previous year’s report so progress can be tracked, and this year’s iteration had clear recommendations in support of progress assessment.

·  A video was played for Members that had been produced to display the range of contributors to the report and the lived experience of people as they age in Leeds. The contents covered the treatment of older people, employment opportunities, transport and accessibility of services, green spaces, social and physical activity, menopause and health care access and how these topics corresponded with feeling happy, healthy and connected.

·  It was clarified that the focus was on ageing well and not older people, but the majority of data had been derived from populations trends and conversations with people who were 50+.

·  Ageing well was understood through pro-active measures and not an acceptance of the inevitability of poor health. Good health was dynamic across generations, with different challenges or implications faced at different life stages.

·  There was a strong base of services, programmes and institutions, such as the Age Friendly Strategy, the Centre for Aging and Third Sector organisations such as Leeds Older People Forum.

·  The report brought together evidence and qualitative data from local people and care professionals to direct future work and service provision to improve the health and opportunities for people as they enter later life stages.

·  An infographic was provided to understand the situations of older adults, as well as geographical information regarding the proportion of older adults who migrate away from city centres, often to more rural settings and the implications this had on needs and services.

·  1 in 3 people in Leeds were over 50, with this specific populations becoming more diverse and also more deprived. Demographic statistics noted more than half of people over 50 had one or two medical conditions and that there was a disproportion of around 12 years between deprived people and more affluent people spent in poorer health in later life.

·  The evidence base informed methods for targeting prevention and early intervention to support older adults in living fulfilling sociable lives and also accessing sustainable public services. 1 in 4 people ages 50+ were deprived, with a system wide aim to address the disparities in health outcomes.

·  Consulting on headline topics with the public and health professionals on the key factors for ageing well had yielded similar results, with healthy living, social connection, transport and finances being integral.

·  The drive for digital first was understood to have both positive and negative implications for social connections, with digital exclusion requiring well thought out plans.

·  Work to encourage healthy ageing was to keep committed to the Age Friendly Strategy, push to raise the profile of the issues, develop further health and care programmes, with a press release published to promote wellness and active lifestyles.

·  A partnership approach was required to improve support and accessibility for community spaces and services. Anchor institutions, businesses, universities and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) were partnered to provide research and improve outcomes.

·  Key findings of the report were: Leeds’s ageing population was changing and becoming more diverse, the number of years that people spend in good health in later life was unequal between different communities, later life was an opportunity to help citizens keep active and stay healthy, identifying health problems and risk factors earlier would help to delay the amount of time that people spend in poor health, having strong, positive, social connections was an important factor in ageing well and people in later life experience ageism and discrimination.

·  The Age Friendly partnership work was essential to sustain the population and services, with increased need requiring future planning as Leeds had an ageing population.

·  The nine recommendations were considered to be ambitious and actionable, with the Age Friendly Board taking account of the recommendations.

Councillor David Jenkins, Chair of the Age Friendly Board, provided an overview of his work and experience on this agenda and thanked Public Health and the Leeds Older People Forum for their dedicated work. It was noted that Leeds was considered a better place to age than previously, and the Third Sector and neighbourhood networks had been integral to these improvements. Members were encouraged to attend an event at Headingley Stadium on the 1^st of October 2024, the International Day of Older People.

During discussions, the following matters were considered:

·  How transport and connectivity improvements linked to WYCA transport plans was queried, as well as processes for advertising free bus passes for people over 60. WYCA was noted to be engaged with the programme, but further partnership work was required. The bus pass issues were to be discussed with the Age Friendly Board and data was to be gathered to identify any barriers of access.

·  To support free bus pass access, communications had been aligned with the bus fare campaign and being clear on barriers to access such as language barriers. The Executive Member for Communities, Customer Service and Community Safety had also worked on promotion through the Council Hubs, including outlining the benefits to the wider determinants of health that accessing green spaces had and assisting with filling out required documentation for free bus passes.

·  A targeted approach, working with partners and communities was required to increase take up of free NHS screenings, with the Marmot city work and Age Friendly Leeds having oversight and monitoring rates. This also aligned with digital access and transport work, but improved communications of eligibility and access was needed.

·  To monitor engagement with the wide scope of agencies that were involved in ageing well, the recommendations addressed accountability, action plans and proposed to review strategies to streamline work and align values. The report was to feed into and inform partnership and the state of the city work.

·  To encourage healthy ageing, further engagement with people aged 30 onwards was needed to influence positive life choices and preventative methods. This would reduce future service pressures and also positively correlate with future health data for people 50+.

·  Drivers for poorer health were inactivity, poor diet and alcohol consumption. Creating healthy living conditions, supported by planning and licensing authorities, would influence healthy lifestyles.

·  Stronger recommendations to address digital inclusion were needed to support service accessibility and social connection options across all agencies. This applied to recommendation three, to be explicit that digital technology did not work for everyone and physically being in a room with people held greater benefits to social connection.

·  Social isolation was to be understood through the lens of being an older person and the experience of discrimination and being stigmatised. It was noted that older people were less likely to be diagnosed with depression which required further study.

·  LTHT strategies had focused on digital and economic poverty, within the context of an ageing population in Leeds. The topic of ageing well was to be discussed at a forthcoming LTHT Executive meeting to revise the approach and best improve social determinants.

·  A headline finding was that men aged 50+ were consuming four times the amount of alcohol than women of the same age group, with more work required to understand and address this issue.

·  Improving social connection, reducing digital and economic poverty, better transport provision and green space access were noted to be essential to driving down inequalities for healthy life expectancy.

·  A future consideration was housing as the rent crisis will have implications on health and wellbeing of people as they age in unsecure housing.

RESOLVED –

·  That the findings and recommendations of the 2023 Director of Public Health Annual Report, be noted.

·  That Members discussions regarding the wide actions that will contribute to delivering the recommendations within the 2023 Director of Public Health Annual Report, be noted.