Council to address how lower employment rates impact people’s health

Loxley House in Nottingham, where the city council is based.
By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
A council health board wants to review how low employment rates impact people’s health as part of a plan to improve health outcomes in Nottingham.
Nottingham City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board met today (September 25) to discuss what provision is in place across the city to address health inequalities.
The board discussed the updating of the authority’s Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy’ (JLHWS).
This is a multi-partner effort local authorities need to take to understand the health and wellbeing needs of its community and the agreed-upon priorities to address and improve community health.
The current JLHWS was agreed by the board and published in March 2022 but this is due to expire at the end of March 2025, meaning conclusions need to be drawn before reinstating the strategy next year.
In May this year, the board requested a review of the four currently existing priorities in the JLHWS and their progress, whilst also seeing if any potential additional priorities could be added to address community health issues.
The four current priorities to improve residents’ health are smoking and tobacco control, eating and moving for good health, severe multiple deprivations, and financial wellbeing.
Following the review, the smoking priority will be retained in the new plan, with papers noting that “significant progress has been made in the first two years of delivery”.
There was the revival of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Smoking and Tobacco Alliance, along with the commissioning of a new service offering support with stopping smoking.
However, with 21.8 per cent of Nottingham adults currently smoking, the meeting heard work still needs to be done to tackle rates in the city.
The existing Eating and Moving for Good Health, and Severe Multiple Disadvantage priorities will also be retained in the updated strategy.
However, it was identified that the final priority, ‘Financial Wellbeing’, should be reshaped to have more of a focus on the link between work and health.
Board papers read: “A local area’s employment rate correlates to how many years people can expect to live in good health, and in places with higher economic inactivity people are more likely to have a lower healthy life expectancy, as shown by the below graph.”
One example graph in the meeting displayed that women in Nottingham face both lower employment opportunities and shorter healthy life expectancy compared to the England average.
The meeting heard this signals towards high deprivation in the city and a link between employment and health outcomes.
Cllr Pavlos Kotsonis (Lab), who chairs the health and wellbeing board, spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service following the meeting.
He said: “I’m excited to talk to partners and shape our future priorities to find ways to best improve health outcomes for our population.
“Thinking of the relation of work and housing as wider determinants of health and thinking about alcohol-related harm and how we can do more so our children have a healthier start.
“We obviously shouldn’t lose focus on the importance of existing health priorities which should find their way in the new health and wellbeing strategy such as the importance of continuing work to tackle severe multiple disadvantages.”
The board agreed a list of potential additional health priorities will also be subject to formal consultation.
It will meet next in November this year, where these could form part of the updated JLHWS.
These consultations and engagement will have a specific focus on the links between work and health and housing and health, along with alcohol-related harm and early years.