Agenda item

Iain Green, Senior Health Improvement Specialist (Cambridgeshire County Council) will outline some of the emerging findings from a review of information and evidence contained in the impending JSNA, about the impact the built environment can have on the health and wellbeing of new communities and service uptake, highlighting opportunities for future focus.

As a guide this item has been allocated 30 minutes, including discussion time.

Iain Green, Senior Health Improvement Specialist (Cambridgeshire County Council) gave a presentation on the emerging findings in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), developed through the Health and Wellbeing Board. This would look at lessons learnt from new developments, what made a successful community and what case studies could be used on a local level. 

The JSNA reviewed the impact the built environment could have on the health and wellbeing of new communities’, the health, care and wellbeing needs of the local population and the commissioning requirement to meet those needs. It also highlighted opportunities for future focus, developing the evidence base for the health and social care response to meet the priorities set.

The first JSNA took place in 2010 to look at Cambourne and the issues such as social cohesion, mental health and the built environment. The current JSNA had been split into five sections, demography, built environment (what makes a healthy environment), social cohesion, assets and services and the NHS Commissioning process.

The following areas of the findings from the JSNA were highlighted:

·        The need to build additional parking spaces for the growing family who in the future would require extra spaces.

·        Population forecast in Cambridge and the age split: increase in the older people’s population and those in the 40 years to 49 years old.

·        Inequality of those on low income.

·        The escalation in house prices in Cambridge City compared to the rest of Cambridgeshire, which was also experiencing an increase.

·        Importance of green open spaces and the positive impact this had on resident’s mental health.

·        Suicide prevention becoming important with the increase of high rise builds and the significance of design.

·        Evidence showed the importance of social cohesion and community growth in the early stages of development.  However it was noted that local data was required and work on the southern fringe community local forums for would be looked at further.

·        Leisure services should be included in the development but traditionally came later in the build programme.

·        Attendance to hospitals and use of emergency services, comparing the Cambridge average to new developments in Cambridgeshire. The new developments all showed a higher rate of admittance to hospital but there was no explanation for this. This was an important factor for The NHS when commissioning services. 

·        The need to identify at the start of the planning process, health contacts to assist in putting forward evidence on the health care services which were required on the development. 

Members discussed the number of fast food units on new development sites, the link to unhealthy eating, the impact on resident’s health and what could be done to reduce the number of units.

Sharon Brown, New Neighbourhoods Development Manager (Cambridge City Council), advised considering a planning application for fast food unit was a difficult issue; refusing an application was a policy based decision taken from Central Government guidelines. The Government’s current approach was to look at the economy and what that businesses could do to activate the economy further, making the number of fast units difficult to control in planning terms.  Feedback from community forums indicated that residents liked to see a hot food take away unit on the development.

However it was possible to look at the evidence through the JSNA and the City Council’s draft obesity policy when determining future application for a fast food unit to determine if refusal was possible. But a balanced approached was required.