06 Jul 2022 Celebration Event brings together stakeholders across Pennine Lancashire to mark the end of the Healthier Place, Healthier Future Trailblazer Programme
Wednesday 6th July, was a key date for the HPHF Programme, marking the end of the core funded Pennine Lancashire Childhood Obesity Trailblazer.
The programme is 1 of 5 national trailblazers funded by the Department for Health & Social Care and delivered in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA) with support from Public Health England (PHE) now the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). The Trailblazer Programme has provided local authorities with an opportunity to promote innovative action to tackle childhood obesity and associated health inequalities whilst generating useful learning on ‘what works’ in different communities.
The event was a day of two halves, the morning session focused on a ‘Healthy Weight Declaration Masterclass’: A District Council Approach to Adopting the Local Authority Healthy Weight Declaration. The event provided a forum for district councils to review approaches to adopting a local government declaration on healthy weight and to hear from guest speakers from Cumbria County Council, who have implemented the declaration at county and district level. The session was chaired by Cllr Michael Green, Cabinet Member for Health & Well-being at Lancashire County Council & co-chair of the HPHF Steering Board and presentations also received from Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health, Lancashire County Council, Dr Alison Moore, Public Health Specialist, Lancashire County Council and Dr Robin Ireland, Director of Research, Food Active.
The afternoon session: Pennine Lancashire Healthier places, Healthier Futures Celebratory Event brought together all our programme partners and stakeholders who have supported the delivery of the programme across Pennine Lancashire to join together to celebrate the programme successes and achievements over the last three years and to reflect on how some of the programme outputs become embedded, going forward. The session was chaired by Cllr Phil Riley, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council and co-chair of the HPHF Steering Board and presentations received from Beth Wolfenden Public Health Specialist, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council& local lead for the HPHF programme and each of the districts in Pennine Lancashire, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle Ribble, Valley and Rossendale on their approach to partnership working through the delivery of the programme. Guest presentations were also received from local and national partners including, Burnley Youth Theatre, Hyndburn Civic Arts, Lancashire County Council (Public Protections), OHID NW & ICF consulting. The session was closed by Dr Alison Moore, in terms of next steps for the programme across Lancashire. Presentations are available here.
Cllr Phil Riley, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council said:
It’s been a great pleasure to be a co-chair of the HPHF workstream and to work with a group who are really dedicated to finding ways of improving people’s health. This has always been an important challenge but, in the face of growing childhood obesity, it becomes even more important. If we want to continue to have an NHS free at the point of delivery, we have to improve primary care and the HPHF team have concentrated on those facets of modern life that will play a vital role in this task – diet, exercise and sustainability. It is a significant achievement to have completed the project in a meaningful way despite the world wide Covid pandemic and it shows the dedication and enthusiasm that have been visible throughout. Well done to everyone!
Dr Alison Moore, Public Health Specialist, Lancashire County Council said:
The Healthier Place Healthier Future project has done fantastic work, particularly considering the pandemic. The specific pieces of work in a number of the District Council areas have shown real promise in terms of contributing to a healthier environment; leadership, recipe for health, and the social movement #getshangry. The important thing now is for us to build on the alliances that have been created, and to push forward in our quest to take a whole systems approach to tackling rising rates of people living with obesity. Creating a healthier environment can help enable people to make healthier choices, be more active, and engage with their community, helping them live longer, happy, healthy lives.
Gill Dickson, Principal Policy Officer, Pendle Borough Council
Involvement in the HPHF programme has been a really positive, valuable experience for Pendle. It’s helped put healthy weight on the agenda and it’s been great to see various service areas and external partners and businesses embracing the work. We’re keen to look at HPHF learning and how we can continue our HPHF projects- this is just the beginning of our healthy weight journey. I’d like to thank Food Active for their tremendous support and guidance- they’ve given us a strong foundation to build on.
You can also read a reflective blog from Beth Wolfenden, HPHF Programme Manager here.
The HPHF programme has produced a wide range of free-to-access resources which local areas can utilise to support healthy weight environments. Follow this link to access them.
