Agenda item

Lorna Quinn, Public Health Intelligence Principal, and Alex Hawley, Interim Director of Public Health, to present

Alex Hawley, Public Health Consultant, Public Health, presented the Director of Public Health 2025 annual report which had focussed on creative health within the Borough and how arts, creativity and culture could be used to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Rotherham.

 

The following powerpoint presentation was also shown in conjunction with the report:-

 

Background

-        In 2025 Rotherham became the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture (CCoC) holding a year long festival of celebration

-        The journey to this celebration year started in 2017 with the Embassy for Reimagining Rotherham where young people created a vision for Rotherham’s future

-        CCoC was not only about increasing engagement with the arts, culture and creativity but harnessing the engagement to improve the life chances of Rotherham’s children and young people

-        Building on the momentum of this celebration year, the Director of Public Health’s annual report had explored the role that culture and creativity could play in the health and wellbeing of children and young people

 

Why is art, culture and creativity important for children and young people’s health

-        Children and young people aged 19 and under made up 23.5% of Rotherham’s population

-        Creative health meant working with creativity, arts and/or culture to support health and wellbeing.  This could include lots of activities such as drama, art, film or writing

-        For children and young people, doing cultural and creative things could help with social skills, physical health and mental health

-        Teenagers who did art activities outside of school were less likely to do things which could harm their health such as smoke, drink alcohol or use drugs

-        Lots of children and young people struggled with their mental health; creative health could help if included as part of mental health support

 

What matters to young people in Rotherham?

-    Children and young people have said

·        They want to feel proud of where they lived

·        They wanted more fun things to do in Rotherham

·        There were quite a few different things that young people worried about including education, mental health, social media and body image

·        Some young people did not feel happy with more Year 10s than Year 7s saying their mental was fair or poor

·        Spending time with friends and family was very important to children and young people with many saying this was the most important thing to them

-        The DPH report was therefore split into the 4 CCoC themes which encompassed the above

You’re not from New York City you’re from Rov’rum

-        Feeling like you belong helped you to feel happier and could make you healthier

-        Being involved in arts and creative pursuits could help young people to get better grades even in subjects that were not related to arts or culture

 

Who we are, where we come from

-        Health in Rotherham was generally worse than the average for England and this was partly due to some people in Rotherham eating unhealthily, smoking and drinking alcohol.  For many people they started doing these things from childhood or being a teenager

-        Arts and culture could help reduce negativity, lift mood, calm and increase proactivity providing a positive impact on mental health

 

Plug In and Play

-        Some people were concerned about the impact social media was having on young people

-        Creative content online may offer an alternative to social media that was better for young people’s mental health

-        Creative activities like drama clubs, music groups, writing circles or book clubs helped to bring children and young people together and feel less lonely

 

The world beneath our feet

-        Access to green space was one of the many neighbourhood-specific characteristics that affected health and neighbourhoods with greater access to green space tended to have greater life expectancy

-        Some young people in Rotherham were worried about the impact of climate change but opportunities to spend time in nature and look after the environment could help

 

Recommendations

1.      A comprehensive evaluation of the Children’s Capital of Culture programme to be completed including consideration of the role of the programme in supporting the health and wellbeing of Rotherham’s children and young people

 

2.      A legacy programme to be delivered, building on the learning from the year-long festival of celebration, the evidence of the benefits of cultural and creative arts activities to health and wellbeing and linking up with wider initiatives such as the SYMCA Year of Reading.

 

3.      Cultural and creative activities in Rotherham to strive to be welcoming and inclusive for families and to tackle inequalities in access.

 

4.      Partners and stakeholders across the local education sector to value and champion arts and culture and work to increase access and reduce inequalities to arts education.

 

5.      Long-term and sustainable funding to be identified to support work to engage children and young people in the arts, culture and creativity.

 

6.      Partners and organisations to learn from the success of genuine co-production as a means for children and young people to be empowered to work with us on more of the things that matter most to them.

 

7.      Physical activity to remain embedded when the Rotherham Cultural Strategy was refreshed, acknowledging the role it plays in culture and creative activity and the benefits to health and wellbeing and wider outcomes.

 

8.      Opportunities for local research to be explored that built on some of the gaps identified through the report, including the role of creativity in supporting positive health behaviours and to better understand the impact of school on young people and their mental wellbeing.

 

9.      The valuable contribution of the arts, culture and creativity to children and young people’s mental health to be harnessed acknowledging that mental health was an area of increasing need and system-wide partnership working was vital to ensuring enough support for children and  young people.

 

10.   The preferred communication methods of children and young people to be used to ensure that they were aware of fun things to do and places to go locally.

 

It was noted that the report was published annually in September/October with the steering group meeting in late 2025 to discuss the topic of the 2026 report.

 

Discussion ensued on the report and presentation with the following issues raised/clarified:-

 

-        It was a statutory requirement that every local authority Director of Public Health produced an independent annual report

-        The report contained 10 recommendations but could not mandate any action on them.  They would be discussed by the Director of Public Health Annual Report Steering Group and the report disseminated as widely as possible

-        It was suggested that the report should be submitted to the Rotherham Together Partnership

-        Work was ongoing but the full evaluation of activity would include numbers, health outcomes etc. 

-        Voluntary Action Rotherham had drawn down £1M National Lottery funding for social, emotional and mental health support for children.  It was an opportunity to showcase that work

-        The learning gained from CCoC would be used to inform the processes and procedures to improve/reduce the inequalities that children experienced across the Borough.  The quantitative information i.e. the numbers of people coming through doors were known; it was the qualitative information i.e. focus groups, legacy and relationship building that was needed.  Any differences in equalities would be highlighted in recommendations going forward

-        The level of funding secured for the CCoC was a one off, however, an element of the events that had taken place had been embedded through existing funding streams

 

It was emphasised that it was not the official CCoC report; it was the Director of Public Health’s report with the theme of creativity and health and there would be opportunities to highlight further the opportunities mentioned.  It would also be referred to in the CCoC evaluation.

 

Resolved:-  (1)  That the 2025 Director of Public Health report be noted.

 

(2)  That the conclusions of the report be supported.