Healthy People
Hampshire County Council has a duty to protect the health and safety of residents. This means planning, preparing and practising our response to emergencies like infectious disease outbreaks, extreme weather or chemical incidents, which we know will impact our health.
It also means working to reduce the violence some people experience in their homes and communities and cooperating with the criminal justice system. To achieve this, we will focus on actions to protect the population from health harms and the impacts of violence.
Our Areas of Focus
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Our Ambitions
Health Protection
Protecting the health and safety of everyone in Hampshire is an essential duty and we will:
- apply learning from the recent COVID-19 pandemic to ensure:
- we are ready and able to respond to emerging and unexpected pandemics
- we can quickly and effectively recover from the impacts of a pandemic
- we have trained people, resources and the technical know-how in place to do this
- develop engaging health protection social marketing campaigns, underpinned by community insight and public health intelligence, to encourage uptake of immunisations and screening.
- work with NHS colleagues to implement the Tuberculosis Action Plan for England using local intelligence to inform how we should act.
- contribute to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) programmes and the objectives of the 5-year UK AMR Action Plan.
- ensure public health perspectives are considered where hazards may be an issue (eg extraction / industrial / waste).
Public Health Emergencies
Having plans in place and being ready to respond to any public health emergency is critical and we will:
- ensure that contingency arrangements, based on potential or actual risk, are in place to protect the health and wellbeing of the population.
- make sure emergency plans take account of our diverse population and that they are inclusive, meeting the health needs of all groups within Hampshire.
Public Health Intelligence
Through our understanding of data and analysis, we will act to improve health and reduce inequalities. To achieve this we will:
- provide a high quality, interactive Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for all partners across Hampshire.
- ensure we provide public health leadership to the:
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Prevention and Inequalities Board and Population Health Management programme.
- Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care System (ICS) Living Well Board.
- Local Delivery Systems across Hampshire.
Criminal Justice and Preventing Violence
Reducing the impacts of violence and crime in our communities will improve the health of affected individuals, families and the wider community. We will:
- collaborate with the police, criminal justice, education and health bodies, and employ a public health model to tackle serious violence, using surveillance, identification of risk and protective factors and implementing evidence-based interventions.
- support the delivery of the Violence Reduction Unit’s actions to reduce:
- hospital admissions for assaults with a knife or sharp object and especially among victims aged under 25.
- knife-enabled serious violence and especially among victims aged under 25.
- non-domestic homicides and especially among victims aged under 25 involving knives.
- Continue to enable work addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), through Trauma Informed Approaches.
Successful health protection in Hampshire means:
- health protection incidents and infectious disease outbreaks are managed quickly and effectively.
- uptake of immunisation and screening programmes exceeds or is in line with national ambitions.
- actions are in place to increase uptake of immunisation and screening by those who are not taking up these offers.
- actions are in place to prevent, identify and treat active and latent tuberculosis infections, with a focus on those at increased risk.
- emergency plans to deal with incidents are in place and are tested regularly.
- Staff are supported and trained to keep their knowledge and skills up to date and are ready to respond to any future emergencies.
- the Council and its partners make decisions, commission services and develop interventions based on public health intelligence and trusted data from the Hampshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).
- Hampshire Public Health is represented on national and local forums and actively contributes to setting the direction that will best improve the health of Hampshire’s residents.
- the Council, police, criminal justice, education and health bodies collaborate, share information, have agreed violence reduction strategies, and help those most vulnerable or at risk to steer away from crime and violence, protecting people and communities from harm.