Sarah Lees (Consultant in Public Health) presented the Suicide Audit and Prevention Update to the Board:

The following key points were highlighted to Members:

(a)   the report provided the Health and Wellbeing Board with an update on local suicide prevention action and presented the latest citywide audit on deaths by suicide;

(b)  local leadership for suicide prevention was the responsibility of the local authority and was provided by the Office of the Director of Public Health and through a local strategic partnership group;

(c)   the Health and Wellbeing Board had previously asked to be receive  occasional reports on local activity for suicide prevention and on the annual audit of deaths by suicide undertaken by the Office of the Director of Public Health. The last report was presented to the Board in October 2015.

Members agreed to –

1.    Note and accept the latest suicide audit report

2.    Note the progress being made by the Plymouth Suicide Prevention Strategic Partnership on delivering the annual action plan

3.    Support the proposal of the Plymouth Suicide Prevention Strategic Partnership to review the scope of the citywide audit and to amend it to make it locally more appropriate [in the absence of current national guidance

4.    Support the Office of the Director of Public Health in exploring the adoption of an avoidable deaths approach to consider deaths by suicide alongside drug and alcohol related deaths, to widen the scope of future audits and to develop proactive and timely sharing of information and the development of shared learning.