Ruth Harrell (Director of Public Health) introduced the report and highlighted:

a)    It was a requirement that the Director of Public Health set out a report annually covering a topic, or topics, of their choosing, which this year was Thrive Plymouth, launched in 2014 as a ten year programme to tackle heath inequalities, focusing on how lifestyle factors impact health and wellbeing;

b)    There are external factors that can influence health wellbeing such as a global pandemic or an economic downturn, so not all factors could be controlled locally, but the department could do their best to support people;

c)    Around 2010, life expectancy continued to increase, but not at the same rate as previously or as much that had been expected, and part of the reason for this was that life expectancy for people in more deprived areas was slowing down as the improvements were less than those available to wealthier people, due to national policies and the impact of austerity;

d)    The latest data shows a decrease in life expectancy in data set 2018-2020, impacted by the COVID19 pandemic;

e)    More deaths were still being experienced per week that expected, and research was being carried out to look into whether this was a result of the COVID19 pandemic, whether directly from the virus, or complications caused by it, or perhaps if it has been impacted by the lack of health care available during the pandemic;

f)     The difference in life expectancy between Plymouth and England, for both males and females, was 0.6 years, but Plymouth had the highest expectancy in comparison to areas of similar sizes;

g)    Healthy life expectancy had also been looked at, as living a long life could be different to living a long life but in bad health and in Plymouth male healthy life expectancy had gone above the England average, whilst the same data for females showed below the England average;

h)    Every year Thrive Plymouth had had a different annual focus, bringing in more partners, and that network had been highly valued through the COVID19 pandemic;

i)     It had been recognised that the language of behaviours and lifestyle was not solely about choice because external factors weight those choices, something that was more apparent at this time than when the programme launch;

j)     Mental health and well-being had become a central pillar of Thrive Plymouth, and it was important to understand the role it played in how people could lead healthier lives, reduce the impact of trauma and how they could be resilient to challenges;

k)    A considerable amount of momentum and learning had been gained over the length of the programme and her recommendation moving forward would be to continue the programme.

Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) added:

l)     Thanks to the teams for their work on the report;

m)  It was important to look into why women had a longer life expectancy but a shorter healthy life expectancy;

n)    There were long-lasting effects of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32