The Director of Public Health introduced the report which was an independent annual report of the Director of Public Health and was a statutory requirement. The 2022 report was presented in two parts. There was a video which focussed on the key role of the Community, Voluntary and Faith Sector in supporting local people and residents to be resilient in challenging circumstances and there was a State of the Borough report which used a range of statistics to report on health and wellbeing in the borough.

Some statistics were shared with the committee which demonstrated the challenges in Wirral which included over a third of Wirral residents living in the most 20% deprived areas of England and that the life expectancy gap between Wirral and the national average was increasing.

Members queried different aspects of the interactive State of the Borough report and it was agreed that there were some gaps in information and officers were happy to work with Members to improve this. It was noted that when the 2021 Census was published there would be a lot of new data to add to the report.

The Chair emphasised the importance of the Community, Voluntary and Faith Sector in supporting local people and thanked the previous Director of Public Health, Julie Webster, who had recently retired but was in attendance for all the hard work her team had done.

Resolved – That

(1)  the Public Health Annual Report (video) be endorsed and the role of the local Community, Voluntary and Faith sector in the local response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge contribution it continues to make for residents and the local economy be acknowledged.

(2)  the ongoing development of the State of the Borough website be supported and an annual report on key indicators, themes, and the progress being made to improve health in Wirral be received.