Agenda item

(To receive a report from Jayne Mitchell (Chairman L-PAT) and Phil Garner (L-PAT Strategic Programme Manager) on behalf of the Lincolnshire Physical Activity Taskforce on the developments to establish the Taskforce and the approach being taken to produce a Blueprint for a more active Lincolnshire)

Consideration was given to a report presented by Jayne Mitchell, Phil Garner and Louise O'Reilly on behalf of the Lincolnshire Physical Activity Taskforce, which provided and update on developments to establish a Lincolnshire Physical Activity Taskforce (L-PAT) and an approach to producing a Blueprint for a More Active Lincolnshire. 

It was reported that an L-PAT was established in summer 2018 and had begun to engage partners to develop Lincolnshire into a more active and healthy county.  Key developments included:

·         Governance and management structures for L-PAT agreed

·         Establishment of an Executive group

·         Vision, purpose, goals and high level objectives for 'A Blueprint for a More Active Lincolnshire' agreed;

·         Employment of L-Pat Strategic Programme manager

·         Public launch of L-PAT – 18 October 2018

·         Engagement with local authorities and partner agencies

·         Agreement to have a district based approach.

Members were provided with an opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Officers were congratulated for getting to this point. 

·         For those districts that were struggling to get beyond 30% activity, there would be a big challenge. 

·         It was queried whether the survey results were from Sport England, and officers advised that they would be looking to use a number of data sets including those from Sport England and Public Health England.

·         In relation to the survey data on page 47 of the agenda pack, it was queried what the definitions of each category were.  Members were advised that inactive referred to less than 30 minutes of exercise per week, fairly active was between 30 – 150 minutes of moderate activity per week and active was over 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week.

·         In relation to Fitbit's, it was noted that many people wore them, and it was queried whether it would be possible to access that data.  It was commented that the technology did exist, but there would be other issues to resolve before this would be possible.

·         In relation to work to tackle alcohol abuse, it was queried whether this also included foetal alcohol syndrome, as this could also impact on those children who were adopted.  It was noted that no data on this had been seen and it was not thought that it was in the public health outcomes any more, however, there was a maternal health topic within the JSNA and it may be touched upon under that.

·         Members were pleased to see this report, and noted that there was a lot of good work taking place already.  This was an opportunity to make a real difference and it was reported that there had been a meeting of the delivery group the previous week.

·         It was suggested that there was a need for more integration between groups and for them to work together.  It was noted that members of each group would attend other groups.

·         There was a need to get employers more involved in promoting physical activity as they controlled a lot of a person's time during the day.  It was noted that the police were doing a lot of good work, and that the districts and county council could probably do more in this area.

·         A meeting was held on 26 November 2018 which brought together the delivery group leads and they started mapping out where the strong overlaps of agenda's and also where there were potential gaps.  For example, how physical activity and housing could be linked together by working with key decision makers in planning to find ways to integrate opportunities for physical activity, such as cycle paths.  It was noted that this would take some co-ordination and prioritisation, but physical activity had a place in each of the other groups.

·         The report was welcomed and it was commented that it had been well put together.  It was noted that the positive impacts on health could not be minimised and GPs were trying to work in the lifestyle agenda.  The issue would be how to link GPs as well as CCG's into this work as the potential benefits were huge.  It was noted that this was a gap that it was hoped could be closed, and an approach had been made to clinical colleagues and other representatives.  However, some had been a little reluctant in stepping forward.

·         It was noted that one of the links was the use of physical activity to improve mental wellbeing.  A lot of work was ongoing with the Police to ensure that the workforce was physically fit.  Work was also underway on how physical activity could be used to reduce offending by using the social bonds of sport to reduce reoffending, as social isolation was one of the key factors that led people to reoffend. 

·         It was commented that it was nice to see that a broad brush approach was being taken, and getting the bulk of the population to be a little more active would be more productive than encouraging a small group to do a lot more exercise.

·         The L-PAT was looking around the country at best practice and it was reported that walking and cycling came out as the most common activities in the active lives survey.  One of the things that was talked about was how to start to change behaviour, and it was thought this was best through a bottom up approach.

·         It was queried whether there were lessons to be learned from North Yorkshire as they had a high proportion of active people than the majority of other counties.

·         It was highlighted that cycling was an important way for people to increase their activity, but a lot of people felt it was too dangerous to cycle on the roads.  To encourage more people to cycle, it was important that they felt safe on the roads.  It was noted that this was the essence of a whole system approach, making people that did not normally see the impact of the decisions they made aware of these sorts of issues, such as did planning decisions make it easier to be active, were there places to cycle or walk in housing developments. 

·         It was acknowledged that some changes would take a long time to implement, but officers were working with different projects on this.

RESOLVED

            That the progress made with establishing a Lincolnshire Physical Activity Taskforce and developments to produce a Blueprint for a More Active Lincolnshire be noted.