Public health annual report launched on adding life to years in Walsall

The Director of Public Health Walsall’s 2024 Annual Report entitled ‘Healthy and Well: Adding Life to Years in Walsall’ celebrates the huge progress made in health and public health over the last 100 years and outlines the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the decline in healthy life expectancy in Walsall over recent years. Tobacco, food, alcohol and physical inactivity are the biggest preventable risk factors for ill-health and are heavily influenced by the big drivers of health, and poor health such as education, income and employment and housing. However, by creating the right environments, supporting individuals and ensuring access to help and support services, these factors can be improved to enhance the quality of lives. 

Councillor Gary Flint, Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing at Walsall Council said: “This report is much welcomed in its emphasis on how we can ensure people are living well by adding life to years. 

“Walsall faces a number of challenges that impact on health and wellbeing, including life expectancy being below the national average. Creating the right environment to enable people to make healthy choices (such as stopping smoking, eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight, engaging in regular exercise and reducing alcohol and drug intake) remains vital for the future health of our residents. 

“We want to ensure our residents get the support they need to achieve a good quality of life at the right place and the right time. By doing so, we can reduce the risk of serious ill-health and live longer and healthier lives.” 

To address these challenges, the council’s Public Health team has worked collaboratively with service providers and local partners in the community and voluntary sector, housing, the NHS and workplaces and educational settings. 

This has included enhancing the stop smoking services through Be Well Walsall and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust for target groups, supporting over 19,000 children and their families through Food for Life Walsall’s Children and Families Healthy Eating Programme and delivering the Swim, Bike, Run programme (a partnership with British Triathlon and Active Black Country) to support residents to walk, run, cycle and swim. There has also been increasing numbers of people being seen in alcohol and drug treatment and support. This has been combined with partnership efforts to ensure alcohol and drug needs are met in Walsall. 

The report outlines a number of key recommendations, such as implementing a Health in all Policies approach to maximise benefit to health and reduce inequalities, develop new partnerships and pathways with local support services and designing health into borough-wide programmes across regeneration, housing, employment and education. 

Nadia Inglis, Director of Public Health at Walsall Council said: “Our ambition in this report is to outline how we can work together to create the right environment and conditions for a healthy and prosperous borough. 

“I am grateful to our public health team and local organisations, who are working incredibly hard to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents across the borough. With their collective and ongoing efforts, we can achieve the ambitions set out in the We are Walsall 2040 borough plan, where all areas of the borough live longer lives in better health, and we will have narrowed the gap in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy across all neighbourhoods.” 

You can hear more about the report on Wallsall Council's YouTube page: youtube.com/@WalsallCouncil

The full Director of Public Health annual report can be read on the Walsall Intelligence website.