North Yorkshire County Council

Scarborough & Whitby Area Constituency Committee

23 September 2022

Progress Update on Chief Medical Officer’s Report on Coastal Health

Report of the Director of Public Health (Health and Adult Services)

1.0	Purpose of the Report
1.1	To bring back an update to members of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Constituency Committee on progress made in the first 12 months following the publication of the Chief Medical Officer’s Report on Coastal Health in July 2021

2.0       Background information     

2.1 In July 2021, the Chief Medical Officer released his annual report with the focus of the paper being on health in coastal communities.

2.2 The report highlights the substantially higher burden of physical and mental health conditions in coastal communities. It was developed in conjunction with Directors of Public Health in coastal regions, with case studies being used to provide examples of what coastal living was like for people within these communities.

2.3 The report provided themes and recommendations on how health outcomes could be improved within coastal communities. As a reminder, these are:

2.3.1 Themes

o Health and wellbeing in coastal communities.

o Deprivation and health.

o Mental health.

o Migration and demography.

o Health services and medical workforce.

o Economy and employment.

o Education.

o Housing.

o Benefits of coastal living for health

2.3.2 Recommendations

o The development of a national cross-government strategy on health and wellbeing of coastal communities

o Maintain focus on the current and proposed future medical education reforms which includes the geographical redistribution programme

o Improve data and research into coastal communities

2.4 Over the past 12 months, the Public Health team have been working in conjunction with partners in Scarborough to look at how the key themes and recommendations can be translated in to action within the coastal area in North Yorkshire.

3.0       12 months on: update on progress within Scarborough and Whitby

3.1.1 The accompanying slide deck for this presentation outlines some of the key areas where work has commenced across the coastal areas in North Yorkshire in an attempt to action what the Chief Medical Officer’s report highlighted.

3.1.2 Local data has been collated to provide context of the population living within the coastal towns in North Yorkshire and showcase how the national trends highlighted in the report actually impact residents. There is a focus across disease outcomes, life expectancy and deprivation.

3.1.3 There are updates on projects that have either been launched, re-started or planned throughout the presentation too. These are grouped to show how they link to either the themes or recommendations that were included in the Chief Medical Officer’s report.

3.1.4 For the themes, these are grouped across the different stages of a life journey that a person goes through to highlight the all-age approach being taken to improving health outcomes within this community.    

4.0       Opportunities

4.1 The final slide of the presentation changes perspective to look ahead, identifying opportunities where future work may be able to be done to further enhance all that has been achieved within the past year.

4.2 It may be that the conversation started when attending the Area Constituency Committee continues over the next year as updates and/or plans are taken to this forum.

Louise Wallace

Director of Public Health

23^rd September 2022

County Hall, Northallerton

Report Authors:          

Natalie Smith, Head of HAS Population Health Planning

Dan Atkinson, Public Health Manager

Background documents:

Overview Paper on Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021: health in coastal communities viewable at:

CMO’s Annual Report 2021 on Health in Coastal Communities 17 Sept 2021

Appendices:

Appendix 1 – Copy of Slide Presentation