New developments for the KJSA!

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken priority over the past two years meaning that the information within the Kirklees Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (KJSA) has become out of date. A new, improved KJSA is currently being planned in collaboration with the Health and Wellbeing Board. A KJSA Steering Group has been established and is tasked with the development. Members of the group come from departments across Kirklees Council, along with the CCG, Healthwatch and other partners.

While we develop the new KJSA, we have created a ‘Picture of Health’ page and embedded the health intelligence pack created by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). This pack provides an up-to-date picture of the health of residents in the Yorkshire and Humber region, alongside a local authority variation summary which allows a more focused view of Kirklees.

The old KJSA content is still available via an ‘Archive’ page, and the side menu retains links to key pages including the ‘Children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND)’ section (updated in October 2021).

We’ll provide regular blog posts on our progress with the new KJSA, and will also be sharing some interesting findings from our recent Current Living in Kirklees (CLiK) survey.

Chronic kidney disease – updated section

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects one in twenty people in Kirklees, and nationally is responsible for between 40,000 and 45,000 deaths every year. The effects of CKD are not spread evenly throughout our society, with factors like age, ethnicity, family history, and gender altering the risk of developing the disease.

Fortunately there is a lot that we can do to prevent CKD from developing in the first place, by helping people to live healthy lifestyles and manage their long term health conditions. There are simple tests that we can do to detect CKD early, especially in people at risk of the disease. When CKD is diagnosed there are things we can do to make sure treatment is accessible, effective, and holistic.

The new KJSA chapter on CKD looks at what we are already doing in Kirklees to address the challenges presented by CKD, and considers what else we can do going forward to help prevent, diagnose, and manage it. As with many of the KJSA chapters, there is opportunity for synergistic action. Improving CKD outcomes can help address areas such as cardiovascular disease, and inequalities, whilst addressing areas such as tobacco, alcohol, and drug misuse and diabetes can help prevent the development and progression of CKD.

Richard James
Public Health Registrar – Kirklees Council

Update on physical environment and climate change section

With news of ever increasing natural disasters around the globe, heightened national concern over the causes and effects of global warming, and the declaration of a climate emergency at home in Kirklees, climate change has become a fact that we can no longer ignore.  The KJSA chapter on climate change has been updated, both to outline the local implications of this global issue, and to help outline what we can all do to address it.

The chapter outlines practical recommendations for individuals, businesses, communities and organisations to reduce the impact our activities have on the climate. Fortunately, many of these actions also help with sustainable economic growth, and address other challenges highlighted in the KJSA; improving wider factors like air quality, transport, and housing in particular. The chapter also considers the risks a changing climate creates for Kirklees, focusing on the groups who are most likely to be affected by things like flooding and extremes of temperature. Although the best course of action is prevention, it is important to know what we can do to mitigate some of the likely effects of climate change, especially in light of the terrible flooding seen across Yorkshire in 2019. 

A lot of excellent work is already being done; the chapter highlights examples of what assets are already in place. It is important that everyone supports efforts to tackle the climate emergency, not just because of the long-term impact of unchecked climate change on Kirklees, the UK, and the Earth, but because most of the things we can do benefit our own communities, businesses, and lives directly.

 

– Richard James 

 

 

 

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“Climate change is already happening and action to address it is now an emergency. Cases of extreme weather such as heat waves and rainfall are having consequences already in Kirklees with issues such as moorland fires and flooding in particular affecting the region.

“However, it’s not too late to prevent some of the very worst effects of climate change and we must act now. The council’s new long-term objective is to make Kirklees a carbon-neutral district by at least 2038.

“We can only do this with everyone on-board so I urge people to read our plan and think about what you can do to improve our climate.”

 – Cllr Naheed Mather, Cabinet Member for Greener Kirklees

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Read more about Kirklees Council’s Climate Emergency plan at www.kirklees.gov.uk/climateemergency

Updated overview – a quick read

The 2019/20 Kirklees Overview KJSA section was approved for publication by the Health and Wellbeing Board on 21 November 2019. The overview is refreshed annually, and includes the latest available local data to highlight key messages found elsewhere in the KJSA. For those with limited spare time, the overview will quickly get you up to speed about the most important issues, opportunities and innovations affecting and improving the health and wellbeing of Kirklees residents.

This year’s overview gives the ‘story’ of Kirklees, from the historical context of the area’s industrial roots and the factors that make Kirklees unique to the latest programmes and ways of working with local communities and networks, framed around the seven Kirklees Outcomes. The section also identifies:

• Indicators showing positive trends or good performance;
• Things we need to keep an eye on (due to poor performance, negative trends, or increasing health concerns);
• New initiatives where we’re hoping to see an improvement but it is too early to measure.

Based on feedback from users the overview also includes a quick summary, so if you don’t have time to read the whole overview you can get the most important information on just two slides.

Owen Richardson, Intelligence Lead for Public Health

Update on former members of Armed Forces

Did you know…

Nearly half of the current Veterans in the UK are over 75 years old?

Yorkshire and the Humber has historically had one of the highest recruitment rates for the armed forces, providing around 1 in 5 (18%) of all those who joined the forces.

In Kirklees, 1 in 12 adults have served in the Armed Forces and over half of those who have served (54%) reported having a long-term health condition which limits daily activities.

Those who leave the service earlier are more likely to struggle with the transition back to civilian life.

Take a look at our updated former members of armed forces section of the KJSA to see more information on service leavers and how we can continue to support this important group locally.

Tobacco

Did you know that despite the number of people continuing to decrease, 17% of adults in Kirklees still smoke? And 13% of mothers smoke at the time of delivery?

And despite tobacco smoking being on a downward trajectory, smoking remains the single greatest cause of preventable illness and early death in England. Smoking is associated with a wide range of health problems, including cancer, coronary heart disease and respiratory disease.

Our updated tobacco section of the KJSA looks at local trends in smoking, risk factors associated with smoking, and what we can do locally to support people to quit.

There have been some great successes in the last couple of decades in seeing smoking rates decline, but there is still work to be done to make sure that we create the right supportive environments to enable people to quit smoking.

Stopping smoking is the single most important thing people can do to improve your health with research showing that 70% of smokers wanting to quit. The Stop Smoking service in Kirklees available via GP practices, pharmacies and community providers and will be extended through the Kirklees Integrated Wellness Programme.  These points of access provide support and work with individuals holistically to help people to find solutions to things which influence their health and engagement in unhealthy behaviours such as smoking.

We know that children living in communities where smoking is less common are less likely to start smoking themselves. That’s why in Kirklees we are committed to supporting the vision of Breath2025, ‘to see the next generation of children born and raised in a place free from tobacco, where smoking is unusual’.  We are working with partners to achieve this, for example by promoting smoke free environments in education, sport and workplace settings, public and open spaces and NHS Trusts.

 

Priti Gohil – Health Improvement Practitioner Advanced, Kirklees Council

Safeguarding vulnerable adults in Kirklees

Welcome to our newly updated Safeguarding Adults section of the KJSA!

You can view the section here: http://observatory.kirklees.gov.uk/jsna/specific-groups-life-events/safeguarding-adults#

The section talks about the importance of safeguarding the most vulnerable locally, and how everyone has a part to play to safeguard those around them.

There are some useful facts and figures which highlight some circumstances leading to safeguarding interventions.

The section also covers the factors that can affect those more at risk of abuse and neglect, which can include self-neglect and issues like hoarding, which features for the first time.

You can find out more about addressing hoarding locally by looking at the multi-agency framework: https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/adult-social-care-providers/pdf/ksab-multi-agency-hoarding-framework-guidance.pdf

Kirklees Safeguarding Week is returning really soon (24 – 28 June) for a fourth year as part of the West Yorkshire wide Safeguarding Week and here are a few of the events for public and professionals throughout Safeguarding Week.

Safeguarding Week is an annual initiative to raise awareness of the many safeguarding issues facing our communities and how we can all help to protect the most vulnerable across our region.

You can find out about the range of things going on locally here: https://www.kirkleessafeguardingchildren.co.uk/managed/File/Information%20Updates/2019%20-%20Safeguarding%20Week%20programme%20V5.pdf

Further information on reporting safeguarding concerns can be found by visiting: www.kirklees.gov.uk/reportabuse

 

Saf Bhuta – Head of Safeguarding & Quality, Kirklees Council

Bringing cancer into focus

Did you know…
… four in ten cancer cases can be prevented, largely through lifestyle changes?
… overweight/obesity is the UK’s biggest cause of cancer after smoking?
… more cancers are registered with males than females?
…there were almost 11,000 new cases of cancer in Kirklees between 2011 and 2015?

We’ve just updated the Cancer section of the KJSA, so please have a look if you want to know more about this subject, including:

• What we are doing in Kirklees to help people reduce the risk of getting cancer;
• How we are helping to reduce the impact of cancer by identifying cases at an earlier stage through our screening programmes.

There are also some useful resources and details of support groups for those affected by cancer.

Dr Matt Kaye, Greater Huddersfield CCG Cancer Lead GP and West Yorkshire Cancer Alliance Board Lead GP, said:
“As people are living longer and lifestyles, diet and habits change, the number of people who develop cancer is increasing. We are working to help people reduce their risk of developing cancer by offering advice and support to stop smoking, lose weight, eat a healthy diet and reduce alcohol intake. Early detection of cancer improves a person’s chance of surviving their illness. One of the most effective ways of detecting cancer early is by taking up the offer of the free NHS screening services.”

Easy ways to get protection from infection

We’ve just updated our KJSA section on infectious diseases, so please have a look if you want to know…

• …Which infectious diseases are most prevalent in Kirklees and across the world;
• …How you can protect yourself and others against infection;
• …What we are doing in Kirklees to minimise rates of infection.

The section has a particular focus on tuberculosis (TB), as rates of TB in Kirklees are much higher than the regional and national averages.

Jane O’Donnell, Head of Health Protection at Kirklees Council, said: “There are some easy things you can do to help prevent you getting an infection or vaccine preventable disease, these include washing your hands regularly, not sharing towels and household items like cups. Always cover your mouth, preferably with a disposable tissue, when coughing, or sneezing. Stay away from work, school or college until 48 hour symptoms free if you have a gastro intestinal infection to prevent the spread. An easy way to also prevent the spread of vaccine preventable diseases is to ensure you are up to date with the eligible vaccines. GPs don’t recommend antibiotics for viruses e.g. colds because they won’t relieve your symptoms or speed up your recovery. The KJSA section includes the latest information about this topic.”

An invaluable read for anyone working with children and young people

The new KJSA section on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is an invaluable read for anyone working with or responsible for children and young people. CSE devastates children, families and communities.

This updated section outlines the prevalence of CSE in Kirklees, informs the reader of the signs to look for, the underlying factors that may manifest themselves in children being vulnerable to exploitation but stresses how CSE can happen to anyone anywhere.

Making a number of recommendations as to how our response to CSE in Kirklees can be further strengthened, it is clear that success lies in statutory, voluntary, third sector agencies and communities tackling this issue together.

 

Marianne R Huison
Superintendent – Crime & Safeguarding, Kirklees District, West Yorkshire Police