Agenda item

This paper informs the Health & Wellbeing Board on the structure and overview of content, including key messages, of the upcoming Oxfordshire County Council Director of Public Health Annual Report (2023/24) focussed on climate and health.

Directors of Public Health are required to establish an annual report highlighting key public health priorities for their area. 

This work is timely and closely aligned with the UK Health Security Agency’s first Health Effects of Climate Change report (published December 2023), the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change report (published December 2023) and the British Medical Journal’s editorial on treating the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency, co-signed by 200 major health journals (published October 2023).

The Board is RECOMMENDED to endorse the:

Call to action for system partners to ensure that every health action, policy and strategy should mitigate for and prevent negative health impacts of our changing climate, and similarly every climate action, policy and strategy should identify the impacts and maximise the benefit for our health and wellbeing.

The report informed the Health & Wellbeing Board on the structure and overview of content, including key messages, of the upcoming Oxfordshire County Council Director of Public Health’s Annual Report (2023/24) focussed on climate and health.

The Corporate Director of Public Health & Community Safety, Ansaf Azhar, highlighted that health was forgotten when it came to climate change, considering the immediate and positive health benefits for individuals., families and communities which could be delivered through climate action. Amidst mounting pressure in our NHS, tackling the impacts of the changing climate across Oxfordshire would save lives and money, and conserve resources for those most in need. It would also benefit the building blocks of our health: providing homes which can be heated and cooled affordably,

infrastructure for people to walk and cycle to keep communities active, connected, and healthy, and green spaces to boost mental health and store carbon. It would also support delivery of a range of plans that seek to support climate action in Oxfordshire.

Ansaf Azhar thanked everyone that had been involved.

The 2023/24 annual Director of Public Health report mandates accelerated and stronger action on many of the objectives set out in local ‘green’ plans. These actions have the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of residents in Oxfordshire immediately, and for future generations.

Rosie Rowe, Head of Healthy Place Shaping, gave a presentation to the Board on why there was an increased focus on climate and health. It was reported that there was a full day dedicated to health at the COP2023. The five key areas were Temperature, Air, Water, Food and Nature. There were many reasons for focussing on the impacts now such as higher temperatures, bettering air quality in Oxfordshire has improved health, increasing flood events, disruption to supply chains resulting in shortages, increased prices and increased food insecurity and greener neighbourhoods and more exposure to green space correspond to better general and mental health, reduced cardiovascular mortality, reduced stress, reduced incidence of low birth rate and maintaining a healthier weight.

Plenty of action was being undertaken such as supporting residents to increase the energy efficiency of their homes, the introduction of zero emission buses, reducing emissions of supply chains and reducing food waste. There was a call for everyone to do more.

The three key messages from the presentation were that health impacts of climate action were immediate, actions taken to improve climate health, also immediately improve our health and the health of others and every climate action, policy and strategy should identify the impacts and maximise the benefit for our health and wellbeing and by the same token, every health action, policy and strategy should mitigate for and prevent negative health impacts of the changing climate.

Points discussed by the Board included:

·       Organisations working in silo with separate agendas and the need to work together.

·       Birth rate decline in Oxfordshire and closure of small village community schools.

·       The Director of Public Health had already looked at inequalities and then healthy weight and both had been very successful.

·       Collaborative working with anchor organisations.

·       Focussing on what could be done now that showed results to show people results and then engage.

·       It was a great time for joined up working.

·       The Community would be engaged by appropriate comms, inclusion of lived experiences and by reaching out to residents and stakeholders.

RESOLVED: that the Board endorsed the call to action for system partners to ensure that every health action, policy and strategy should mitigate for and prevent negative health impacts of our changing climate, and similarly every climate action, policy and strategy should identify the impacts and maximise the benefit for our health and wellbeing.