Press release: Local government, NHS 10-year plan and a prevention opportunity

The NHS’s upcoming 10-year plan will only succeed if it has local government’s expertise and a golden thread of preventing poor health running through it, Public Health England’s (PHE) Chief Executive Duncan Selbie has told the Local Government Association (LGA) conference this week. As an example of this, he highlighted a new approach to preventing and tackling obesity which is being piloted by PHE.

The new 5-year funding settlement will see the NHS receive increased funding of £20.5 billion in real terms per year by the end of the 5 years compared to today – an average 3.4% per year overall. The Prime Minister has spoken of the need to improve social care and to support prevention and public health in the new NHS plan, a view echoed by Duncan Selbie.

Duncan Selbie said:

The NHS 10-year plan is a huge opportunity, but it will be judged by how it prioritises prevention. We must of course treat illness but even smarter would be to prevent it. With 40% of all poor health being preventable and 60% of 60 year olds experiencing at least one long term condition this has to be a no brainer.

Keeping people well for longer and helping them to stay in their own homes for longer must be the primary objective. Local government has huge expertise and know how to bring to this.

Mr Selbie was speaking at a meeting on enabling healthy communities, which considered ill health’s effects on the economy and the workforce. The economic case for prevention is well established; illness among working age people costs the UK economy £100 billion a year and about 330,000 people every year become unemployed because of health-related issues.

The burden preventable illness puts on public services is also clear. Obesity-related ill health costs the NHS around £6 billion per year, while the impact of obesity on local authority social care budgets is estimated at £350 million per year.

PHE is piloting a whole systems approach to obesity programme, which supports local authorities in tackling obesity through joined-up local action including all departments within the local authority, NHS Trusts, local businesses and voluntary and community organisations. Developed in partnership with the LGA and Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), it is rooted in the principle that no single individual, group or organisation can tackle obesity alone and that everyone has a part to play.

Leeds Beckett University is supporting 11 pilot local authorities to co-develop resources that will be available for all local authorities, in spring 2019.

On tackling obesity, Duncan Selbie said:

Reversing this epidemic is possible, provided everyone pulls together. No other country in the world is tackling this in such a comprehensive way.

Public Health England press office

Background

PHE will invite expressions of interest from local authorities to test and provide feedback on the draft guide. This has been co-developed by local authorities, for local authorities, so their input will be invaluable in shaping this innovative piece of work. Local authorities will be sent the draft guide in September for feedback, and then the whole systems approach will be peer reviewed by systems experts before it is made available nationally in spring 2019.

The LGA published a briefing for elected members on the whole systems approach to obesity in December 2017.

References:

The cost of obesity related ill-health to the NHS: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21562029 (The direct cost to the NHS in 2006 to 2007 of people being overweight and obese was £5.1 billion. These costs have been uprated to £6.1 billion to take into account inflation.)

The impact of obesity on local authority social care budgets: www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/15.6%20Obesity-05.pdf (Unpublished analysis of Health Survey for England combined data 2011 and 2012. Obesity Knowledge and Intelligence. PHE 2014. Cost of extra formal hours of help for severely obese compared to healthy weight people.)



Detailed guide: Use the Land Information Search

The Land Information Search (LIS) is a map based tool that provides information about land designations or features such as National Nature Reserves and grant schemes in any chosen area.

The information generated by this LIS is only for England – a search in each country will be required for properties that cross borders.

Basic search – allows you to create a circle of a chosen size by clicking a point on the map
Advanced – allows you to draw a more detailed shape on the map.

Both options run the search against the same list of land designations. The main difference is that the advanced search gives control over the shape that can be drawn allowing the area of interest to be more accurately represented.

Free maps

Download the map request form for help from the Forestry Commission to develop a map of your woodland site.

Contact the Forestry Commission

If you cannot access the Land Information Search, or encounter any problems while using this system, you can contact the Support team gr.support.england@forestry.gsi.gov.uk.

For more information, you can contact your nearest local Forestry Commission office
or phone the Forestry Commission helpline on 0300 0674070.



News story: Multi-million pound investment in new ambulances for the NHS

New and updated vehicles will be added to ambulance fleets to help staff provide emergency care to patients this winter following a £36.3 million government investment. Part of the long-term plan for the NHS, the capital investment will increase support for paramedics and ambulance staff.

Announced by Health Minister Stephen Barclay as part of the NHS’s 70th birthday this week, the funding builds on the recent announcement that paramedics will be given body cameras to increase protection from violence, in a trial involving 465 ambulances and paramedic teams.

London Ambulance Service is set to increase its fleet with an extra 25 double-crewed ambulances as a result of £3.85 million investment, and Yorkshire Ambulance Service will increase its fleet with 62 double-crewed ambulances, due to £7.5 million in funding.

Nationally, the investment will buy 256 new state-of-the-art vehicles, more than half of which will be on the road for this winter.

Funding will also go towards ‘make ready’ hubs at ambulance trust headquarters, which will allow better restocking and maintenance of vehicles. This will see specialist staff quickly restock, refuel and clean ambulances, getting them back on the road faster.

Health Minister Stephen Barclay said:

In some of the most worrying and vulnerable moments in our lives, dedicated ambulance staff are there, providing expert, calm and reassuring care to patients in often highly pressurised and sometimes dangerous situations.

They are there for us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so we want to make sure that in the 70th year of the NHS we’re supporting them with state-of-the-art equipment, meaning they can provide a better service to patients.

Professor Keith Willett, NHS England Medical Director for Acute Care, said:

We welcome this additional funding, which will allow ambulance trusts to begin to invest in new fleets and infrastructure ahead of this winter, when we know they will once again come under pressure.

Our English ambulance services are to be congratulated for successfully implementing a new evidence-based way of prioritising and responding to 999 calls, and early results are encouraging. This additional investment will help ambulance trusts to deliver the quality of service and excellent patient outcomes that are at the heart of the Ambulance Response Programme.



News story: Game changing progress in Sellafield pond

For the first time ever, empty nuclear fuel skips have been removed from the floor of the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond – one of the most hazardous facilities in Europe.

The breakthrough came after Sellafield Ltd worked with Appleby-based engineering firm Barrnon to make containers to safely store the skips elsewhere on the site.

A Sellafield Ltd team worked with Barrnon to add extra shielding and wooden braces to 50 shipping containers, enabling an initial 100 skips to be removed from the pond.

The approach applies learning from skip operations at other nuclear sites in the UK.

More than 1,200 Magnox skips rest on the floor of the pond, which was originally used to store nuclear fuel for atomic weapons.

Clearing them out makes it much easier to remove other hazards like sludge, a by-product formed from decaying nuclear fuel, algae, and other debris.

Dorothy Gradden, head of legacy ponds at Sellafield, said:

This is a game changer for us and the most significant step yet in getting clutter out of the pond.

It gives us the elbow room we need to crack on with the waste retrievals and is the latest example of how simple solutions are delivering hazard and risk reduction on the site.

Next year the team plans to use robotic lasers to cut up and flat pack the skips in order to remove and store them even more efficiently.

Now 66 years old, the open-air fuel pond is one of the 4 high hazard buildings at Sellafield prioritised for clean-up by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Duncan Thompson, Sellafield programme director for the NDA said:

It’s great to see lessons learned elsewhere in the NDA estate being applied to the mission at Sellafield.

This is another example of the considerable progress being made in removing the hazard from the pond.



News story: Game changing progress in Sellafield pond

For the first time ever, empty nuclear fuel skips have been removed from the floor of the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond – one of the most hazardous facilities in Europe.

The breakthrough came after Sellafield Ltd worked with Appleby-based engineering firm Barrnon to make containers to safely store the skips elsewhere on the site.

A Sellafield Ltd team worked with Barrnon to add extra shielding and wooden braces to 50 shipping containers, enabling an initial 100 skips to be removed from the pond.

The approach applies learning from skip operations at other nuclear sites in the UK.

More than 1,200 Magnox skips rest on the floor of the pond, which was originally used to store nuclear fuel for atomic weapons.

Clearing them out makes it much easier to remove other hazards like sludge, a by-product formed from decaying nuclear fuel, algae, and other debris.

Dorothy Gradden, head of legacy ponds at Sellafield, said:

This is a game changer for us and the most significant step yet in getting clutter out of the pond.

It gives us the elbow room we need to crack on with the waste retrievals and is the latest example of how simple solutions are delivering hazard and risk reduction on the site.

Next year the team plans to use robotic lasers to cut up and flat pack the skips in order to remove and store them even more efficiently.

Now 66 years old, the open-air fuel pond is one of the 4 high hazard buildings at Sellafield prioritised for clean-up by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Duncan Thompson, Sellafield programme director for the NDA said:

It’s great to see lessons learned elsewhere in the NDA estate being applied to the mission at Sellafield.

This is another example of the considerable progress being made in removing the hazard from the pond.