The Health Improvement
Service
The Health Improvement Team at Cheshire East Council are within
the Health and Wellbeing Service. The overall statement of purpose
of the service is:
To help improve
accessibility, safety and the health and well being of people in
their communities, reduce health inequalities and prevent ill
health
The Health Improvement
Service was formed within each of the former three local
authorities and has evolved from the traditional Environmental
Health Protection function in the Council to explore opportunities
and influence new ways of working across all Council services
towards health development and health improvement in the
community.
The Council’s Health
Improvement Team works in partnership with health agencies and
others on a variety of initiatives which are a mixture of
prevention, therapy and rehabilitation, focussing on individuals
and groups with a specific health need.
It is well understood that health improvement interventions are
most effective when targeted appropriately and so most of the
programmes are designed and tailored to meet the needs of
particular groups, for example older people, younger people or
people with either one or a combination of health issues.
Consequently the work of the team is able to contribute
positively to the health-related targets of the council across a
broad range of public health issues including, obesity, mental
health, physical activity, nutrition, alcohol and reducing health
inequalities.
The local authority is an important key partner for the local
Health Trusts in the national challenge for health services to have
an emphasis on preventing ill health. It is important,
therefore, for local authority services to be regularly informed by
annual local public health reports produced by the Director of
Public Health in the Primary Care Trust and more recently Joint
Strategic Health Needs Assessments.
Improving health in the community cannot be achieved by just one
service in isolation. It involves the Council as a large employer,
as a community leader, and all Council services in varying degrees,
working with partners and with communities. Many Government
Policies and local authority strategies recognise the role of local
government in relation to health improvement and tackling
inequalities. Almost every local authority service can
contribute to the wider determinants of health. The powers and
statutory responsibilities of the local authority give wide scope
for action and participation in partnerships for health.
The Health Improvement service has therefore developed an
important role, influencing changes in Council policy and services
to deliver the corporate priorities and objectives in ways that
underpin health and well being, through improved and better
targeted working.
The service is involved in a wide range of partnership working,
helping to deliver joint objectives and actions for improving
health. Some health improvement initiatives are delivered directly
by the service, by a small specialist staffing resource.
It is also involved in securing external funding for introducing
health and wellbeing projects, including a Healthy Living Network
project, the Wheels 2 Work scheme, and more recently a
Community Food project, using food as a focus for improving health
and wellbeing in a targeted community.
