Leeds Food Strategy
John Swift, Health and Environmental Co-coordinator at East Leeds Primary Care Trust explained how he and colleagues from Leeds City Council, the two local Universities and others from the five Leeds Primary Care Trusts and voluntary and private sectors had been developing the Food Strategy for Leeds.
Name of Project: Leeds Food Strategy
Project Start Date: May 2004
Project Location Type: City
Project Origins and original aims/Objectives and purpose of the project:
Environmental Health within Leeds City Council initiated the project when they began looking at the changing role of Environmental Health Officers (EHO’s) suggested in the CIEH/HAD report (the 2012 Agenda) on the role of Environmental Health Officers as public health practitioners. It was recognised that EHOs currently play an important part in public health, and that their work was not only about food hygiene inspections. Keith Gibson, Environmental Health Manager then linked in with the East Leeds Primary Care Trust where the need for a food strategy had already been highlighted and John Swift, as Health and Environmental co-ordinator then assisted in moving the project forward. The development and ownership of the strategy has since then been adopted by the local strategic partnership – the Leeds Initiative. http://www.leedsinitiative.org/
The key objectives of the strategy
- To encourage the communities of Leeds to choose a healthy diet
- To make healthier eating an easier option
- To support a reduction in diet based health inequalities across the city
- To reduce the incidence of diet related disease in Leeds
- To strengthen the links between stakeholders to develop a co-ordinated approach to food and health in Leeds
- To develop contact with relevant statutory and voluntary bodies and through partnership working support them in the development of food health initiatives and campaigns
- To continue to provide enforcement based Food Safety Service, which includes elements of inspection, education, promotion and intelligence to prevent food borne infection.
Organisations Involved:
1. 5 Leeds Primary Care Trusts
2. Leeds City Council
3. Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
4. Leeds Mental Health Trust
5. Voluntary sector
6. Staff Associations
7. Patient’s forums
8. Universities
9. The retail sector
Target Audience:
Leeds Communities
Methodology:
As well as the increased awareness on a national level regarding the need to consider the health of the nation, there had also been a great deal of work by the regional office of the Government Office for Yorkshire and Humber. Within their recently published consultation report the Food and Health section,
As well as the increased awareness on a national level regarding the need to consider the health of the nation, there had also been a great deal of work by the regional office of the Government Office for Yorkshire and Humber. Within their recently published consultation report the Food and Health section, http://www.gos.gov.uk among other recommendations highlights the need for all agencies, and organisations in public private and voluntary sectors to develop and implement cohesive strategies for obesity prevention, improving oral health and promoting healthier eating. It also refers to the use of sharing public service agreements between Primary Care Trusts and Local Authorities to develop joint objectives and targets on diet and physical activity. Using this document and the Council’s community strategy for the city – Vision II, http://www.leedsinitiative.org
where the Healthy Leeds Partnership has one of its key aims "Narrowing the Gap" reducing health inequalities and improving health within the city. And also looking at the Primary Care Trusts local delivery plans, one of which is a Health and Modernisation Plan, the development of a Food Strategy for Leeds, linking all this work, seemed to be the next obvious move.
To begin it was important to gain high-level commitment from the Council and Primary Care Trusts, all of which has been successfully obtained. Next it was and still is important to raise awareness of the new strategy.
Funding:
Currently there are no official pots of money going into this work, and although it is part of the role of the Health and Environment Coordinator to work on this project, unfortunately there is only a small portion of his time currently available. However, over the past 3 months a management trainee has been focusing solely on this work and as a result the strategy is nearly ready for consultation.
Activities / Sessions:
Currently it is intended to launch the strategy with a seminar being held for all interested parties, there are also proposals to set up a website and devise a "comments" type booklet which has remarks made by members of the public, health professionals, and public and private sector people to make the strategy more user friendly and easier to appreciate.
Management & Staffing:
Environmental Health Manager, Keith Gibson has been overseeing the work and has had the assistance for the last three months of a management trainee who has been able to focus on the strategy full time for this period. In addition there is now a wide-ranging steering group drawn from the organisations listed above.
Sustainability:
Currently the nation is very much focussed on the importance of health, and the media are covering various aspects on almost a daily basis. Whether it is the need to do 10,000 steps a day or concerns over the quality of school dinners, people are interested and above all, becoming more aware of the need to consider their own personal diet and fitness regimes. It is therefore important to use this energy and channel it into such projects as the food strategy, which aims to among others
- To encourage the communities of Leeds to choose a healthy diet
- To make healthier eating an easier option
Evaluation:
Health related statistics have already been collated and over the course of time these can be measured again to help measure the impact of the project upon the communities within Leeds.
Lessons Learned:
It is vital to have key people on board – i.e. High-level management within the Primary Care Trust and the Council.
Contact Details
Name: John Swift
Job Title: Health and Environment Co-ordinator East Leeds PCT
Organisation: East Leeds Primary Care Trust
Address:
Oaktree House,
408 Oakwood Lane,
Leeds
LS8 3LG
Phone No: 0113 305 9628
Email: john.swift@eastleeds-pct.nhs.uk
Other Resources: