A presentation will be made on the work being carried out, as part of the overall Council Strategy for the period 2016 - 2025, in relation to two of the Teignbridge Ten super-projects. These are ten connected areas of work, which will each have a widespread impact on the economy, community wellbeing, and the environment.
James Teed and Paul Nicholls will present the work of two of the programmes ‘Out and About and Active’ and ‘Health at Heart’.
Minutes:
Three presentations were made on the work being carried out as part of the overall Council’s strategy for the period 2016 to 2025 in relation to the Teignbridge 10 Super Projects, the ten connected areas of work which each had a widespread impact on the local economy, community well-being, and environment.
James Teed, Leisure Manager provided Members with detail in his presentation on ‘Out and About and Active’ and set out the availability of opportunities for a healthy active lifestyle. He made particular reference to the Leisure Strategic Review document, which underpinned much of the Council’s work. A significant amount of activity and planning strategy work had already taken place, but more was planned with the public, with the aim of getting the ‘inactive active’. He also outlined the achievements in the first two years of the Council’s Strategy which included:-
· 168,000 activity sessions for older people,
· 102,000 activity sessions for younger people,
· 1000 sessions aimed at getting people cycling,
· improvements of green spaces, play areas and sports facilities to increase opportunities for activities also working with local communities,
· offering a range of activities to encourage activity and remove barriers to participation through a number of leisure partnerships working through the health agenda including Active Devon, a Pre-Diabetes Pilot Project, Sport Relief, Sugar Smart, Refill Devon and school taster sessions,
· the healthy information campaign and other interventional work with local G.P’s and the NHS,
· a range of volunteer development activities, and
· theTeignbridge sport and community awards which celebrate sports and activity achievements of the local community as well as the South West Youth Games with 2000 young people expected to take part.
James Teed responded to a Member’s enquiry about participants in the South West Games and confirmed that over 10,000 young people were involved from across the south west. He also confirmed the opportunity for capturing meaningful data from participants or attendees at events. He also took on Members’ ideas and suggestions about future events including the Open Field day, an annual event promoting greater public access to open space and fields, and to the Consortium of Gardens - COG, which was a collaboration of volunteers who help to maintain encourage the public to use gardens and open spaces.
Paul Nicholls, the Food Health and Safety Manager and Programme Lead for the Health at Heart Team provided an overview of the initiative and also spoke about the efforts to improve the health and well-being of Teignbridge’s population and community. This work included partnership work with other stakeholders who shared the ambition to design evidence-based services and support and pool resources and capacity in a coordinated manner to achieve the best possible outcome for the communities and those in greatest need of the support. He also put into context the opportunities to reduce health inequalities through their work with a range of partners in an effort to improve the population health and well-being outcomes. It was important to ensure that people could remain as independent as possible in their own homes. The presentation covered the wider determinants of health and well-being which included:-
· lifestyle,
· community,
· the local economy
· activities
· the built and
· natural environment, as well as the
· global ecosystem.
He responded to a Member’s comment about compensating for society’s lifestyles and the importance of starting and maintaining good health habits. The Member also commented on the importance of enough space for young people to play and it was essential for local authorities and developers to ensure there were sufficient parks and open spaces within new developments. Members congratulated officers on the excellent partnership and community initiatives including the ‘sunscreen strategy’ to ensure that children had access to sun protection during the day. He also noted a comment about the need for good air quality and he would speak to the Environmental Protection Manager, David Eaton on this matter.
Kay O’Flaherty, Business Development and Improvement Team Leader provided a presentation on Stronger Communities, which encouraged Members to help develop and deliver local ideas. Support was also offered for community led planning to shape the future including five adopted or made neighbourhood plans and 11 approved neighbourhood area applications. The team also provided grant funding to support community activities and growth as well as encourage networking between the voluntary businesses, community sectors with a remit of helping others, to help communities become more resilient, resourceful, and sustainable to provide safer places to live.
The Chairman and Members thanked the officers for the presentations, copies of which would be included in the Members’ newsletter.