Agenda item

5.1    Jack Davies, Public Health Registrar in the Public Health Team, addressed the Board with the aid of slides. He had been involved in putting together the annual public health report on health and culture. He raised the following points:

·         The report aimed to highlight the role between culture and health and explore how they influenced each other set in a backdrop of Lewisham’s year as Borough of Culture last year.

·         UNESCO’s definition of culture had been chosen because it allowed a wide understanding of culture which included art and literature, ways of living and beliefs: ‘the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, that encompasses, not only art and literature, but lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs’.

·         The role of culture on health and wellbeing falls into three categories; prevention, management and treatment and policy and strategy.

·         Completed and ongoing cases were discussed. The first was prevention which included We are Lewisham – Climate Emergency Programme. The second was Management and Treatment which included social management and Up Up which was a healthy weight management service for African and Caribbean members of the community. The third case was the cultural strategy which had recently been published. It discussed how culture could be included in policies and strategies going forward.

·         Key considerations – Three key questions had come out of producing the report and hopefully could be translated into practice. The first was ‘How can culture amplify the conversation that we were looking to have?’. The second was ‘How can I co-design with those this will impact?’ and finally ‘How can I ensure that the impact of culture is considered within my organisation?’

5.2    The following comments were then made.

·         Mr Brown commended the report and said that it focused on wellbeing rather than clinical interventions. He commended the report and said that everyone should promote it through their networks to ensure that people could see the benefits.

·         The health report 2022/23 was not online at the time of the meeting due to design timelines. It would be published on Lewisham Observatory and Lewisham website within two weeks of this meeting and a copy would be sent to all members.

·         The next steps now that the report had been produced and the benefits to the community were discussed. It was intended to encourage thinking about the wider determinants of health and a more holistic view of that which keeps people healthy and how the next health and wellbeing strategy could be framed around these wider determinants of health, culture and the arts.

·         The aim of producing the report was to ensure that people had a better understanding of the importance of culture in terms of health and the link between them. The questions at the end of the report were intended to help residents to understand and prioritise the cultural competence of services and work streams.

·         Funding was not attached to the implementation of the health report, the intention was to expand the definition of culture so that it was not just considered in terms of arts and drama but the wider culture in which people live. This then fed into the consultation that had taken place with communities and understanding the issues they had. This then applied to some of the objectives and outcomes that officers were trying to achieve. The health report took the conversation forward and gave it direction.

·         There was concern that this report could gather dust if there was continued debate. The subject matter was broad and included a wider approach to culture to include different cultures and communities and that which was of significance for them.

·         Lewisham also had a role as a Borough of Sanctuary and through this role, they could ensure that the cultural aspects of sanctuary and of health and wellbeing were being address as one, rather than treated separately. There was assurance that the culture strategy was woven into the report. There was connectivity as to how it could be made real for residents and how culture could impact on people’s lives.

5.3    The Vice Chair said that Councillor Best, as Chair of the Healthier Communities Select Committee, may want this report to be considered at that select committee when the report was published. He said that this board may wish to consider this report again at some future date.

5.4    The Vice Chair asked what the key messages were in the report and what would change as a result of this strategy. He was advised that the report aimed to highlight the affect culture could have on health and wellbeing and to encourage people to think about culture at an early stage. The idea was conceived during the time when Lewisham was the borough of culture and was an opportunity for the Director of Health to amplify that work and that message. The intention was to help bring a focus on the impact that this work could have on health and help to better define what was meant by culture and a platform to take forward conversations. Three questions at the end of the report were for people to consider in their work and had been included as a simple practical message that people could take away.

5.5    The Vice Chair said that members wanted to know what would happen next. When members read the report, they needed to understand what was being said to the public and in every strategy Lewisham has; whether the lived experience was in that report and how it would be taken forward. He said that this board needed to monitor the outcomes of this report and be clear about the message that was being given.

5.6    Members were advised that the annual public health report was a statutory requirement of the Director of Public Health. It was not a strategy and the local authority was required to publish it.  This report was directed towards stakeholders. The Vice Chair said that a report, such as this, needed to be relevant to the public.

5.7    Mr Ghoshal said that there were two meanings of ‘culture’. Culture could mean arts and entertainment, or it could mean culture within an organisation, and this should be made clear in the report. This point was accepted but he was advised that the reason why the UNESCO definition was used was because it attempted to combine both meanings. How useful this definition was in engaging both things at the same time could be questioned. Mr Ghoshal considered the three questions at the end of the report to be more helpful in explaining culture in the context of an environment rather than the arts. It was agreed that Dr Mbema be advised accordingly.

          RESOLVED that

          (i) members of the board be advised when the Lewisham Annual Public Health Report 2022/23 report had been published; and

(ii) the report be considered again by this board in one year.