Barrow Borough Council are committed to improving the health of the Borough and reducing health inequalities and we recognise that we must work with partner organisations in order to achieve this.
A persons health is affected by social, economic, environmental and structural issues and so the Councils approach is to work with partners to address both direct and indirect impacts on health and wellbeing. There are a number of different overlapping workstreams that will affect public health but the main ones are listed below.
Cumbria Joint Public Health Strategy
The vision of the Cumbria Joint Public Health Strategy: Tackling the Wider Determinants of Health and Wellbeing is to: “enable Cumbrian communities to be healthy and to tackle health inequalities”. This corresponds with the existing Barrow Borough Council Plan 2017-2020, Priority 3 - Closing the Gap on Health Inequalities.
This is a document which sets out how the Health and Wellbeing Board will work together over the next ten years. All Clinical Commissioning Groups, Local Authorities and NHS England plans should take the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy into account.
Barrow Borough Council agreed to adopt the strategy on 19th March 2019. We are working with partners to agree an implementation plan for this strategy and this will be reviewed at local level through the Health and Wellbeing Forum and at a County Wide level through the Health and Wellbeing Alliance and Health and Wellbeing Board.
Health and Wellbeing Forum
The Health and Wellbeing Forum is a quarterly meeting for partners to work together on local health issues, see more details here.
Cumbria Healthy Weight Declaration
The Cumbria Healthy Weight Declaration recognises the public health concerns about the latest statistics from Public Health England that showed nearly two thirds of adults in England were overweight or obese.
Obesity was a particular problem in the Borough with rates of 4-5 year olds with excess weight greater than the national average in four wards.
The Council Plan recognised the matter by seeking greater use of leisure facilities, engagement in activities to reduce health inequalities and participating in targeted public health campaigns. The Declarations committed the Council through its policies and actions to reduce the number of overweight and obese people in the County.
Barrow Borough Council signed up to the Cumbria Healthy Weight Declaration on 22nd June 2018.
Climate Change
Barrow Borough Council declared a climate emergency on 16th July 2019 and confirmed that it is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and will establish a working group comprising Members, Officers and other interested parties to look at all areas of policy and delivery. A Climate Change Policy and Action Plan will be developed.