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The Director of Public Health with support from the Senior Public Health Manager presented the Public Health Annual Report (PHAR) which was the independent annual report of the Director of Public Health and was a statutory requirement. The report supported, and helped to build on, the commitment made in Wirral’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy to prioritise system-wide work on those underlying factors that will have the biggest impact on the health of our communities. Good employment was one of those factors. The report described the importance of good employment for health and wellbeing, and highlighted some of the barriers and challenges faced by local people in accessing quality employment. It provided an account of the lived experience of some of Wirral’s residents and set out some of the evidence on what can be done as a system to address barriers.

It was emphasised that the report had been collaboratively produced and was titled work in progress. The focus of the report was the importance of good work and the evidence of the impact on people’s health and wellbeing was really clear. There was a lot of good work in place in Wirral. The case studies showed that little things had helped people to sustain employment and benefit from that employment. It was reported that 21.2 percent of the working age population on the Wirral were economically inactive and of those nearly 36 percent was due to a long-term condition or being long term sick and this area needed a lot more focus. Work had already started on the low figure of 3 percent employment of those with special educational needs and disability. In terms of job density there were only 6 jobs for every 10 people of working age and focussing on local regeneration is key to improving this. The key to this was fair and inclusive employment practices and working with anchor institutions. It was a work in progress which would be helped by a collective approach.

Members discussed meaningful, secure and well paid work and the importance of job security to physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Resolved – That

1. the Public Health Annual Report be reviewed and endorsed.

2. the ongoing work to drive forward action on ensuring inclusive employment opportunities be supported and health-related worklessness in Wirral be addressed.