I Do Hope You Had a Good Summer Break. This Newsletter Includes Details for the Next Platform

I Do Hope You Had a Good Summer Break. This Newsletter Includes Details for the Next Platform

September 2012

Dear Colleague,

I do hope you had a good summer break. This newsletter includes details for the next Platform meeting, dates for seminars, news items, updates on the Responsibility Deal, and details of web based resources, so please feel free to circulate to colleagues.

Next Platform Meeting 14th November, 9.30 – 2pm, Institute of Mental Health, NottinghamUniversity Jubilee Campus - Please put the date in your diaries, further details of the meeting to follow.

Work, Health & Wellbeing – Networking event 19th November, 10am – 12.30 The Radmoor Suite, The Radmoor Centre, Loughborough College, Radmoor Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3BT.

Following on from our July seminar - Making Work good for you – where attendees requested further networking and seminar opportunities specifically around work and wellbeing, LoughboroughCollege have kindly offered to host a session on 19th November. Please mark the date in your diary if you are interested in coming along. I will be pulling a programme together shortly, and propose we will include a speaker, plus opportunities to network and share examples of current work. If you have any particular aspects you would like covered, wish to share a piece of work or want help or advice from other members please let me know in the next week or two.

Offers from members - At the seminar in July several members made verbal offers to other members to help them with the work, health and wellbeing agenda. These will be included in the ‘Work and Health - local and national sources of help’ guide which we are currently updating.

As a taster: Loughborough College’s offer:Step into Health – A 14 week distance learning programme covering physical activity, nutritional advice and stress management. The course gives the learner both an accredited qualification and a personal detailed health plan. LoughboroughCollege have free places available on a first come first served basis. Also available: Workplace Champion Training – A short course giving learners the chance to consider the meaning of health, how to plan and deliver health promotion events and how to ensure health promotion programmes are sustainable. For more details contact Kerrie Brocklesby

The Platform and the NHS East Midlands Sustainable Development Network are organising a practicalseminartosupport Health Service organisations in adopting and implementing asustainable healthy food standard. To be held on 16th October 2012, 9.30 – 2pm at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, ClinicalSciencesBuilding, CityHospital site, Hucknall Road, NottinghamNG5 1PB. Invitations will be sent out shortly, but if you are interested in attending please email your booking to: or contact me or for more information.

We are also organising Evaluation made Easy -Seminar and one to one Surgery to be held before Christmas. This is designed to provide an overview and practical help with evaluating your work and is supported by all our university members. More details to follow in the next newsletter.

Colleagues from Eastern Region have invited Platform members to attend their annual conference:

Physical Activity: A menu for change, 11th October 2012 at Center Parcs, Elvedon.

The 4th annual stakeholder conference will look to inform and empower colleagues working across the Public Health, Physical Activity, Sport and Private sectors as to how we can all work together for change and to increase activity. This holistic approach is underlined by a host of exciting invited key note speakers, workshops and local case studies. The conference will:

- Provide more tools and advice on how to increase activity and health.

- Look at the National picture and how this relates to us locally (looking at best practice case studies)

- Look at how the health legacyfrom the impact of hosting a home based Olympic and Paralympic Games

- Review how different health promotion and improvement services can work together to implement long term behaviour change and increased activity.

- Consider how the private sector engaged with public health 18months on from the start of the responsibility deal

- Debate how to make the case for PA to Health and Wellbeing boards and CCG groups.

For the 4th year running we have been able to keep this conference as aFREEevent, which will include an early breakfast hosted by Sported and the chance to use the extensive leisure facilities at Center Parcs post conference. For more information contact: Nick Clarke, East Region Physical Activity Alliance Coordinator, W: 01603 731565 M: 07881900375

Building resilience, reducing stress & enhancing employee wellbeing Conference25th October 20129.30am at etc.venues, Maple House, 150 Corporation Street, Birmingham, B4 6TB.Guest speakers for the day include:Mike Kelly from the HSE, Ben Willmott from CIPD, Rachel Lewis from KingstonCollege. £66 including VAT, includes: Breakfast, Lunch, Refreshments and access to the free exhibition. To book visit: call Renee on 01562 634926 or email

Responsibility Deal, - New PledgesThe Department of Health has launched three new catering pledges on salt reduction, focused on the catering sector, to encourage more companies to make their commitment to improving public health through salt reduction. Details available at:

The Health and Work Networkhave developed anew pledge H7. Mental Health Adjustments which ties in withthe publication of The Mental Health Implementation Framework. The Pledge states: “We will embed the principles of the Mental Health Workplace Adjustments Guide (developed through the Responsibility Deal’s health at work network) within HR procedures to ensure that people with mental health conditions are managed at work in the best way possible with reasonable flexibilities and workplace adjustments.” They have also produced a guide called advice for employers on workplace adjustments for mental health conditions, available at:

Need to change the UK’s Unhealthy and environmentally damaging food system –MPs on the Commons Environmental Audit Committee says that the Government must develop a joined-up strategy to change the UK's unhealthy and environmentally damaging food system, as fears mount about global food security.

The Environmental Audit Committee's Sustainable Food report recommends that:

  • stricter advertising limits protect children from junk food marketing on all media including the internet
  • food skills, such as cooking and gardening, should be part of the curriculum in all schools
  • new national planning policy guidance for Local Authorities should ensure communities have access to healthy food and land to grow their own produce
  • Government Buying Standards for food must be improved on meat and dairy and extended to cover hospitals, prisons and schools
  • the Office of Fair Trading's remit should be amended so supermarkets are not blocked from cooperating on sustainability initiatives;
  • Government should examine the scope for simple and consistent labelling on the sustainability of food products

For more information go to:

The National Obesity Observatory (NOO) has produced a dynamic map of England showing the change in prevalence of adult obesityfor sub-national geographies from 1993-2010. It is available at:

Fingertips free online data toolproviding a rich source of health and wellbeing indicators across three themes: Health and Wellbeing, Child Health and Health Inequalities. Fingertips enables you to browse indicators at top-tier local authority and PCT level, benchmark against the regional or England average, export data and graphs to use locally. It is available at:

National Diet and Nutrition Survey Results: (2008/09 – 2010/11) have been published - combined results of the first three years of data. The survey is designed to assess the diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general population aged 18 months upwards living in private households in the UK.(arepresentative sample of around 1000 people (500 adults and 500 children per year) from the general population aged 18 months upwards. Results are broadly similar to previous surveys carried out between 1994 and 2001. For further information on the findings go to:

NICEhave developed aPhysical Activity and Public health guidance /briefingto support work with Health and Wellbeing boards and Clinical Commissioning Groups. It summarises NICE's recommendations for local authorities and partner organisations on how to encourage people to be physically active. To access a copy go to:

Sedentary Behaviour Fact sheets - TheBHF has just produced 3 new fact sheets on sedentary behaviour: What is sedentary behaviour? Current levels of sedentary behaviour, Factors influencing sedentary behaviours. Copies can be downloaded at:

If there is anything you would like to share with other Platform members, please let me have your contributions by 5th October for me to include in the next newsletter.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Best wishes

Trish

Trish Crowson

Platform for Health & Wellbeing,

Hosted by East Midlands Councils, ,

obile: 07930 386 781 Phone: 01636 525 544

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