Don’t Throw the Baby out With the Bath WaterIts been a month of change for everyone, Public Health staff have been settling in to their new homes in Local Government, Public Health England are off the starting blocks and things have changed for us at Jigsaw as well. With all that happening its not surprising its been a slow month for news but there’s still been some big stories out there. Public Health England’s Marketing Plan has definitely caught our eye and marks a much needed move away from traditional methods of communication. The Public Health Responsibility Deal has also been released aimed at better engagement with business. With the return of measles in Wales we have been reminded that whilst great strides have been made to eradicate infectious diseases, moving on to modern conditions such as obesity and cancers we mustn’t forget the value of basic Public Health. As we write this there have been over 900 cases and one fatality. Its easy to think we have moved on but the past has a habit of coming back to haunt us if we don’t concentrate on our core values. This is the perfect time for Environmental Health as a profession to re-establish its roots. Vaccines changed the face of disease from the moment that Edward Jenner discovered the protective value of cowpox. That work in itself was only part of the story addressing the wider determinants of health completed the picture. Poverty and deprivation are as relevant now as the world continues to struggle economically and inequalities in health are still rife. Modern technology makes communication easier but it also relies on organisations having the vision to use it to their best advantage. We are all in a state of change in the time you’ve taken to read this there have been 1,058 new cases of rotavirus in children under 5 and another 1,736 people have joined Twitter.That means its important to give ourselves time to take stock, look at where we’re heading and ensure we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Pete & Sarah

The plan is an update of the 2011-14 strategy, ‘Changing Behaviour, Improving Outcomes: A new social marketing strategy for public health’ and is aimed at public health and marketing professionals.Communications play a major part and PHE are aiming for their messages to become part of the social currency, so that target audiences don’t just receive messages, but are able to interact and engage with them. This is an area that will take some getting used to for Local Authorities as interaction may not always produce the responses they were hoping for.The main objectives are derived from the new Public Health Outcomes Framework focusing on Health Improvement and Premature Mortality. To maximise the impact of their work PHE then have five delivery priorities.

JIGSAWNEWS

May 2013 Issue 4

A Monthly Newsletter on Public Health for EHP’s in Hertfordshire and Beyond

All The Right Notes......Public Health England’s Marketing Plan was issued this month and provides a stern challenge to traditional methods of communication as well as setting out priority areas for action. The document is the first sign that PHE are set to play a major role in Health Improvement.

“Every day most of us do things we know are bad for our health and, crucially, that most of us wish we didn’t do. Most smokers want to quit, most parents want their children to eat well and be active. If people found it easy to change then preventable illness would not present the largest and fastest-growing challenge to our health and care system.”Duncan Selby

Continued on Page 3

ALL CHANGE!It was all change for the Jigsaw Editorial Team this month while Pete was packing his bags to leave Local Government after 34 years Sarah was taking up a new role as Environmental Health Manager at Watford Borough Council. Pete admitted leaving after such a long time would take a while to adjust to but he is looking forward to new challenges as a private consultant.

“Hopefully I’ll have more time to develop Jigsaw as well as continuing to be involved in the new Public Health agenda.” He said adding “I certainly don’t intend to put my feet up just yet!” Sarah’s new role will involve managing a multidisciplinary team including generic EHP’s while leading on Private Sector Housing, Environmental Crime, and Public Health. She said “ I’m really looking forward to the new challenge at Watford but I hope to still play a full part in carrying Jigsaw forward.”

JIGSAW HERTS

Mental Health Awareness Training

The Nine Priorities of the Draft

Health & Wellbeing Strategy

• Reducing the harm caused by alcohol

• Reducing the harm from tobacco

• Increasing physical activity and promoting a healthy weight

• Fulfilling lives for people with learning disabilities

• Living well with dementia

• Enhancing quality of life for people with long term conditions

• Supporting carers to care

• Helping all families to thrive

• Improving mental health and emotional wellbeing

Health and Wellbeing Board meeting dates:

• Wednesday 26 June 2013, 1.30-3.30pm at County Hall

• Wednesday 18 September 2013, 1.30-3.30pm, venue to be confirmed (TBC)

• Wednesday 13 November 2013, 10am-12noon, venue TBC

• Tuesday 10 December 2013, 10am-12noon, venue TBC

• Tuesday 4 March 2014, 10am-12noon, venue TBC

• Wednesday 18 June 2014, 10am-12noon, venue TBC

• Thursday 17 July 2014,

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Watford Borough Council and Welwyn Hatfield Council have teamed up with the Herts Mind Network to provide a series of awareness events for local authority staff. The training will provide an overview of a range of mental health issues including their prevalence, signs and symptoms, causes and how they can affect people. Exploring how staff can protect their own mental health and wellbeing and manage stress more effectively. It will look at best practice in effectively supporting someone in the workplace, both customers and colleagues, who are dealing

with a mental health issues. Looking at the range of support and services available locally and how they can be accessed will be a vital part of the training giving staff clear lines of referral.There are spaces available on the sessions on 21st May, and on the afternoon of 23rd May. Each session lasts approximately 3 hours.

Vaccination Programme rolled out in Herts

A NATIONAL catch-up programme to increase MMR vaccination uptake in children and teenagers is to be rolled out across Hertfordshire. During the first three months of 2013, there were four confirmed cases of measles in the county and central Bedfordshire compared to three cases within the same period the previous year. Fifty per cent were in children aged one to 4.Nationally, figures published by Public Health England (PHE) show high numbers of confirmed cases in England, with 587 cases by the end of March. This follows a record annual high of almost 2,000 cases nationwide in 2012.The aim of the local MMR vaccination plan is to prevent measles outbreaks by immunising as many unvaccinated and partially vaccinated 10 to 16 year-olds as possible in time for the next school year.

An event to highlight the support available to the Chinese business community in Hertfordshire was held in Watford last month. Key speakers from Hertfordshire Trading Standards, Fire and Rescue, UK Border Agency, Hertfordshire's Local Enterprise Partnership and the UK Council for Chinese Business were present. As well as Hertfordshire Police, Environmental Health and the County Council's Public Health teams who were aiming to highlight the support they can offer to businesses.

Chinese Business Event in Watford

Jigsaw Appearing at CIEH Spring Forum Event

Jigsaw have been asked to facilitate a session at the forthcoming CIEH Spring Forum to be held on May 15th at The Wood Green Animal shelter in Godmanchester. The annual meeting which attracts Environmental Health Professionals from all over the East of England will also include presentations from CIEH Chief executive Graham Jukes, as well as Gary Kasprzok from the HSE.

d.m.dixon@stir.ac.ukJIGSAW WORLD

All The Right Notes... (continued from the front page)Priority 1: Providing optimal support for Local Government and other partnersPriority 2: Developing ‘always-on’ support in all programmes for people who want to changePriority 3: Becoming the most evidence based health marketing programme in the world.Priority 4: Delivering six major programmes to improve health outcomesThese will be:Smokefree, as the harms caused by smoking cut across lifestages50+ early diagnosis and wellbeing initiativeChange4Life for families and 35-55 year old adults11-19 Youth strandStart4Life, focused on pregnant women and mothers of 0-2 year oldsPriority 5: Supporting a ‘Movement for Healthy’Using a new online resource centre to ensure that individuals and organisations who are interested in promoting health have access to high quality materials and evidence to support their aims.There’s no doubt the document strikes all the right notes with so many organisations involved whether they can be arranged into the right order remains to be seen.

Evidence Based Alcohol Strategy

Produced by a team of independent experts Health First - an Evidence Based Alcohol Strategy for the UK asks for further measures to be taken to build on the recommendations in the governments Alcohol Strategy for England released in March 2012. Elsewhere in the world, governments are acting with foresight and courage to reduce the harm from alcohol. In South Africa, for example, the Minister of Health has announced that he will be putting legislation before parliament to prohibit the advertising of all alcohol products. If the UK government is to be a world leader in tackling the harm from alcohol, as it is in tackling the harm from tobacco, it needs to take robust action and seize every opportunity for change.

“The consumption of alcohol is an established part of life in the UK today. Yet alcohol also brings forth a whole world of harm. For the individual, regular drinking risks a future burdened by illnesses such as cancer, liver cirrhosis and heart disease, and a taste for alcohol can turn all too easily into dependence.”Professor Sir Ian Gilmore

Copies available from d.m.dixon@stir.ac.uk

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Public Health Toolkit for Business LaunchedA new toolkit has been released to support local authorities to get greater buy in from local businesses to the public health agenda. It contains simple actions which businesses could take to improve staff and customer health and well-being, such as employers encouraging active travel among their staff, promoting smoking cessation or catering outlets reducing salt in their foods.The toolkit has been developed by the Department of Health, working with local authorities, the Local Government Association, Public Health England, and local businesses. The toolkit takes the work that has been done at a national level through the Public Health Responsibility Deal and makes this relevant for local authorities and local businesses. Copies are available from https://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk/public-health-toolkit/

UK government failing legal duty on air pollution, supreme court rules - the Guardian

Great Food Poor Hygiene - Viewers Tell MasterChef

The BBC’s flagship cooking show has come into criticism from viewers for poor standards of hygiene. In one episode viewers complained about a contestants hair dangling in a lamb tagine while others spotted sweat dripping into sauce. A spokeswoman for the BBC said “when filming in a professional kitchen we always follow guidelines required by the restaurant in question. We do not insist on using hats and hair nets in the studio kitchens but hygiene remains a matter of great importance.”

No RIDDOR ChangeThe HSE Board has decided to retain the requirement to report occupational cancers, diseases attributable to biological agents and six short-latency diseases under RIDDOR. It was initially feared that requirement would be dropped after last Autumns consultation into proposed changes to the regulations.

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Stanley Says:Every year in the UK, there are thousands of deaths and over a million hospital admissions related to drinking. More than two in five (44%) violent crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol,as are 37% of domestic violence incidents. One fifth of all violent crime occurs in or near pubs and clubs and 45% of adults avoid town centres at night because of drunken behaviour. The personal, social and economic cost of alcohol has been estimated to be up to £55bn for England and £7.5bn for Scotland.

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that's so nice! It's pretty impressive to get congrats from such a distance! Thank you. :)Being Tommy Cooper followed you

@Jigsawpsph Very best wishes for the future. All those years and still committed to PH. Public Service at its best.

You (and Jigsaw) have done some wonderful stuff...hope we can keep your wisdom and expertise available.

Thanks! @JigsawPSPH

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Coming Next Month.............As well as the usual round up of Public Health News we’ll have an exclusive interview with Hertfordshire Director of Public Health Jim McManus. Don’t forget if your colleagues haven’t seen Jigsaw News why not get them on our mailing list. jigsawpsph@gmail.com