Tackling poverty and disadvantage: Health and wellbeing
This section outlines efforts being made by councils and other organisations to enhance people's health and wellbeing, on which the rising cost of living has impacted.
Bath and North East Somerset Council are continuing to mobilise their cross-partner Community Wellbeing Hub to support the most vulnerable residents, most recently addressing the pressures created by the cost of living crisis.
A team of youth ambassadors have led a project in the Oxfordshire district of Cherwell to get children from its most deprived neighbourhoods active. Children and their families are invited to take part in 12-week activity programmes before being given discounted access to local leisure services.
Cheshire’s Natural Health Service uses the best of the county’s green space assets to help tackle recognised local health inequalities. This initiative builds on the growing body of evidence that activities in the natural environment can have a significant impact on keeping people healthy.
Essex County Council implemented a dynamic and ambitious countywide approach to reduce homelessness and increase the supply and quality of housing for vulnerable people. The impact can be seen in the predicted reductions in homelessness and rough sleeping within Essex, as well as in the strength of the partnerships created.
Hull’s new approach to child obesity rests on the premise that unhealthy weight is not just a public health problem but cuts across all the council’s areas of responsibility. Hundreds of people were brought together to discuss how it needs to be tackled, leading to the emergence of 12 themes.
Social prescribing is delivered in Barking and Dagenham as a service embedded within the local authority, working in partnership with other statutory services within the council.
The Healthy Holidays scheme provides activities and food over the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays to vulnerable children, primarily those eligible for Free School Meals.
The Our Way Leeds service was established in July 2020 to develop a citywide service for young people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. It provides counselling, supported accommodation, pre-tenancy support and crisis intervention to young people, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.
Furniture poverty is the inability to access, or afford to buy or maintain, any household furniture or appliance item that is essential for a socially acceptable standard of living. At least 26 per cent of social housing tenants live in furniture poverty - yet only 2 per cent of social homes are let as furnished.
To tackle this problem, Public Health Liverpool have partnered with the charity End Furniture Poverty to support local social landlords to commit to furnish at least 10 per cent of their properties. End Furniture Poverty has created ‘Furniture Flex’, a new furniture scheme to help make this happen.
The Dundas Shopping Centre in the heart of Middlesbrough town centre is the Live Well Centre, a one-stop shop for healthy living, which is run by the Council’s public health team. The centre was launched in 2017 and has gradually been expanded to include a wide range of services from smoking cessation and substance misuse to an exercise-on-referral service and sexual health clinic.
Oldham Youth Council prepared and presented a motion for the Council to pay the prescription charges for care leavers for whom they are corporate parents.
This programme aims to tackle holiday hunger, isolation, and inactivity during the school holidays. It focuses on children aged 5 to 11 years old who are eligible for free school meals. Children are referred to the programme by their schools and other agencies.
