Public Health Evidence and
Intelligence Bulletin October 2014
Welcome to the October edition of the Public Health Evidence and
Intelligence Bulletin. The Bulletin is a regular newsletter providing you
with links and information on current reports we have produced locally
and where you can access them.
It also contains information and links to key nationally produced reports
that contain Halton data.
In this Issue:
 Health Improvement Team transfers to Council
 Rapid Evidence Review- Loneliness
 Marmot Indicators 2014
 Spotlight on…….. Childhood Immunisation and Vaccination
 GP Practice JSNAs
 In the News……… Local action on health inequalities
Survey of the oral health of 3 year olds
 NICE Guidance
At the start of October, the Health
Improvement Team transferred into
Halton Borough Council.
The award winning team is made up of
a 50+ strong workforce with over 10
years’
experience
of
delivering
specialist
health
and
wellbeing
interventions across Halton and
Cheshire.

Stop Smoking Service

Fit 4 Life – healthy eating and
fitness programme for children
aged 2 – 19

Breastfeeding support

Healthy Schools programme
including Fit 4 Life for schools,
Healthitude and Tasty Tuck

Early years help and support

Campaigns
using
local
volunteers to raise awareness
of signs and symptoms of
cancer and to increase early
detection of cancers including
lung, breast and bowel

Services for older people
including falls awareness and
prevention exercise classes

Mental Health training for
professionals
and
online
support and resources

Alcohol awareness training for
professionals
They offer a wide range of services to
help local people improve their health
and wellbeing, including support to quit
smoking, lose weight and get fit and
healthy.
They also offer public health training to
local organisations including local
authority teams, Public Health, schools
and colleges, health & social care,
Police & Community Safety, trading
standards, voluntary sector and
housing associations.
The team works with local clinicians
and health and social care colleagues
and has a record of delivering
innovative, evidence based and
measurable interventions.
They also work closely with other
regional and national public health
teams to deliver local campaigns
based
on
successful
national
programmes such as Be Clear on
Cancer and Stoptober.
Services available to Halton residents
include:

Fresh
Start
Weight
Management Programme
To find out more please call 0300 029
0029 or visit the website:
www.haltonhealthimprovement.co.uk
Loneliness has a negative effect on
health and wellbeing and leads to
increased use of health and social
care services. The Liverpool Public
Health
Observatory
was
commissioned by the Merseyside
Directors of Public Health to produce a
rapid evidence review on loneliness.
The following is a summary of some of
the key recommendations:
Recommendations
1. Introduce
effective
loneliness
interventions,
especially
social
group schemes, also one-to-one
interventions.
2. Target interventions at a range of
vulnerable groups in the community.
3. Include an evaluation component in
proposals for local interventions.
4. Ensure that tackling loneliness is a
consideration in all policy areas
(transport etc.).
5. Encourage Health & Wellbeing
Boards to take overall responsibility
in joining up action on loneliness
across separate local strategies.
The full report can be accessed by
following the attached link:
http://www.champspublichealth.com/sit
es/default/files/loneliness%20final.pdf
New figures from the Institute of Health
Equity show that Halton is close to the
regional average for healthy life
expectancy for both men and women
and for overall life expectancy in men.
Overall life expectancy for women
however, is just over 1 year less in
Halton than the North West average.
This is despite the fact that Halton has
increased the number of years added
to life for women by above the national
average.
The figures, used to measure health
inequalities across Local Authorities in
England also show that Halton has
some way to go to improve child
development and reduce
unemployment. However, Halton
scores above both the regional and
national average for GCSE results.
Eileen O’Meara, Director of Public
Health for Halton said, “The figures
confirm that Halton needs to maintain
our child development priority, look at
women’s health and keep a close eye
on unemployment.”
The full report can be accessed via the
following link:
http://www.lho.org.uk/LHO_Topics/Nati
onal_Lead_Areas/Marmot/MarmotIndic
ators2014.aspx?
In the UK there is an immunisation
programme in place to ensure that all
children (and adults) are protected
against certain infectious diseases.
The schedule contains information on
the vaccine that the person should
have and by what age these should be
given. The vaccination checklist is
available
from
this
website:
www.nhs.uk/Planners/vaccinations/Pa
ges/Vaccinationchecklist.aspx
The NHS offers these vaccinations
free to children.
This performance report is written with
general practice staff in mind, with the
aim of helping to increase vaccine
uptake in children. The target
coverage for each vaccine is 95%.
The following provides a summary of
some of the key findings from the
report:
sent out to practices. The generic
profile is available via the following
link:
http://www4.halton.gov.uk/Pages/healt
h/JSNA.aspx

Eleven out of the 17 GP
practices in Halton achieved the
95% target coverage for all
vaccines
that
should
be
administered by 12 months of
age.
 Twelve practices achieved the
95% target for all vaccines that
should be given by 24 months
of age.
 None of the 18 GP practices
achieved the 95% target
coverage for all the vaccines
that should be given to children
by 5 years of age.
 Seven of the practices achieved
the target of 95% for both doses
of the MMR vaccine by 5 years
of age.
A full copy of the report can be
accessed by visiting the Health
Profiling page on the Council’s
website:
http://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/healt
h/PDF/health/Childhoodimmunisation.
pdf
Last month we made you aware of the
development of a series of Joint
Strategic Needs Assessments for the
17 GP practices across Halton. Since
the last bulletin was produced the
profiles have now been finalised and
PHE has published eight evidence
reviews and 14 short briefing papers
setting out evidence and good practice
in tackling social issues that lead to
poor health and health inequalities.
Topics include children and parenting,
the
environment,
learning
and
employment, and poverty.
The reviews can be accessed by
following the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/upload
s/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/
357406/Local_action_health_inequaliti
es_series_introduction.pdf
Public Health England researchers
checked the teeth of nearly 54,000
children at nurseries, children’s
centres and playgroups and found that
12 percent of children had evidence of
tooth decay – an average of three
teeth decayed, missing or filled. There
were large geographical variations –
from 34 to 2 percent. Some children
had a particular type of decay linked to
the consumption of sugary drinks in
baby bottles or sipping cups. Parents
are advised to give sugary food and
drinks in smaller quantities and less
often, and not to add sugar to weaning
foods or drinks. Parents should start
brushing teeth as soon as the first
tooth appears, supervise brushing until
the ages of seven or eight, and
register with a dentist as soon as
possible.
Link to full report:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new
-phe-survey-finds-12-of-3-year-olds-havetooth-decay
Exercise Referral Schemes to
promote physical activity (PH53)
September 2014
A number of new pieces of guidance
are currently in development. We will
keep you updated via these websites
when they are published.
http://www.nice.org.uk/
https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/
Team email:
health.intelligence@halton.gcsx.gov.uk
Team webpage:
http://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/health/h
ealthpolicy.aspx
Team members:
Ifeoma Onyia:
ifeoma.onyia@halton.gov.uk
Sharon McAteer:
sharon.mcateer@halton.gov.uk
Katherine Woodcock*:
katherine.woodcock@halton.gov.uk
Jennifer Oultram:
jennifer.oultram@halton.gov.uk
James Watson:
james.watson@halton.gov.uk
Diane Lloyd: diane.lloyd@halton.gov.uk
*currently on maternity leave