Report attached.

Contact: Berni Lee, Consultant in Public Health, Shropshire Council

The report of the Consultant in Public Health was received – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which updated Board Members on progress with development of Shropshire’s Weight Management Strategy and sought the support of Board Members in progressing the plans.  The Consultant in Public Health amplified her report and gave a presentation – copy of slides attached to the signed Minutes.  The presentation covered the following areas:

·         Context

·         Excess Weight statistics

·         Adult Obesity

·         Inequality in Excess Weight

·         Weight Management Strategy

·         Engagement and Next Steps

The Consultant in Public Health reported that obesity was an extremely complex and growing problem and was a priority for both the STP and this Board.  She took Members through the data for Shropshire and compared it to the national data for England and the West Midlands populations.  She also looked at inequalities whereby those from more deprived backgrounds were more prone to obesity

The Consultant in Public Health explained that a Weight Management Strategy using a whole system approach to obesity was required and suggestions for how this might be achieved had been set out in the report. 

Jackie Jeffrey, VCSA commented that food poverty was not just about healthy choice as an easy choice, it was about understanding nutrition and understanding how people on low incomes or in temporary housing cannot feed themselves healthily because they don’t have the facilities.  It also highlighted how council tax support also impacted on people’s ability to eat healthily and afford nutritious food.  She stressed that it was a complex and nuanced situation and was important that any multi-agency working tied in with the work of the Social Task Force which she also sat on, because they were recommending the same things. 

The Consultant in Public Health agreed and explained that from the outset of this work one of the first contacts she made was with Emily Fay from the Food Poverty Alliance and would be working hand in glove with her moving forward.  The Chairman explained that he also chaired the Covid Social Task Force and could refer her through to it, if appropriate.

Zafar Iqbal, Associate Medical Director, MPFT informed the Board that his background was in Public Health so he was really pleased to see this paper and fully supported the prevention agenda and agreed that intervening early was the correct way to go.   He explained that in relation to supporting adults, the numbers were so large in terms of number of adults who were obese that it would be virtually impossible to offer support to adults to lose weight sufficiently however, he felt that it was worth providing intensive support for those patients who were at very high risk, eg existing cardiovascular disease or diabetes etc, and the other group, who were generally missed out as being high risk, those people with mental illness, especially those with severe mental illness who had very poor life expectancy.

The Associate Medical Director, MPFT informed the Board that a review had recently been undertaken of the effectiveness of digital apps for improving healthy lifestyles, which had been found to be getting a lot better as time went by and which he felt might be worth looking at for the general population who were keen to lose weight.

RESOLVED:

·           To endorse the approach to the review as described in the report;

·           To support the ‘next steps’ as described in paragraph 3.9 of the report;

·           To advise on approaches to adopt in ensuring the ‘critical success’ factors identified in paragraph 3.5 could best be achieved; and

·           To note that amongst the wider risks and opportunities specified, there was a potential for delay in strategy development contingent on the COVID crisis.