Our responsibility for public health
The council is responsible for promoting and protecting the health and wellbeing of people in St Helens.
Public health is about helping people to stay healthy and avoid getting ill. This includes work on a whole range of areas such as physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing, sexual health, preventing infections, drugs and alcohol, tobacco smoking and more.
Public health produces a number of reports and needs assessments:
Public Health Annual Report
Every year, the Director of Public Health publishes an annual report sharing some of the work the department has undertaken to help improve the health and wellbeing of people in St Helens. The theme of the latest report is 'Give every child the best start in life':
Reports from previous years:
- St Helens Public Health Annual Report 2022-2023 (PDF, 3 MB)
- St Helens Public Health Annual Report 2021-22 (PDF, 4 MB)(opens new window)
- St Helens Public Health Annual Report 2020-21 (PDF, 4 MB)(opens new window)
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
The JSNA shows the current and future health needs of people in St Helens. Recent reports have focused on smoking, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), children and young people, maternity and early years, older people, mental health and wellbeing and mortality:
- St Helens Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2025 - Smoking (PDF, 1 MB)
- St Helens Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Needs Assessment 2025 (PDF, 1 MB)
- St Helens Children and Young People's Needs Assessment 2024 (PDF, 2 MB)
- St Helens Family Hubs Needs Assessment - Maternity and Early Years 2024 (PDF, 2 MB)
- Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2024 - Older People (PDF, 3 MB)
- St Helens Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2023 - Mental Health and Wellbeing (PDF, 2 MB)
- St Helens Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2023 - Mortality (PDF, 3 MB)
Sexual Health Needs Assessment
The purpose of the sexual health needs assessment is to understand the sexual and reproductive health needs of the St Helens population and what this means in terms of service demand. The findings from the needs assessment will be used to inform and shape future sexual and reproductive health service provision for St Helens residents.
Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)
The Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) presents a local picture of community pharmacies and pharmaceutical services in St Helens, how these services are currently delivered and what the current and potential need is for pharmacy services in St Helens.
The PNA is a statutory document and is used by NHS England when they are reviewing any applications for new pharmacy provision or approving any changes to existing pharmacies e.g. if they want to move premises or provide more pharmacy services.
Statistics, maps and infographics
Life course maps have been developed for St Helens and all the wards, showing key points throughout life in which health is affected. For each event, St Helens and individual ward rates are compared to the England average to provide a snapshot of the health of the population at various stages of life:
An infographic has been developed showing the local Marmot Beacon Indicators for St Helens, with a comparison to England. The local Marmot Beacon Indicators were developed in partnership with local stakeholders and will monitor actions on the social determinants of health in Cheshire and Merseyside, covering areas which are considered critical in reducing health inequalities:
Active Lives Strategy
The St Helens Active Lives Strategy 2022-2027 sets out to achieve the vision "To work in partnership to increase levels of physical activity across the whole population of St Helens Borough, whilst maximising opportunities for people experiencing inequality to participate in activities". The Active Lives Strategy focuses on the following seven themes:
- Active leadership
- Active communities
- Active health and social care
- Active environments and facilities
- Active young people
- Actively inclusive
- Actively demonstrating success
View the St Helens Active Lives Strategy 2022-2027 (PDF, 8 MB)(opens new window)
St Helens Building Bridges Programme Evaluation
The St Helens Building Bridges Programme focuses on supporting families living with the effects of alcohol dependency in St Helens. Building Bridges was initially launched in 2018 and has helped train more than 1,200 professionals, including social workers, GPs, health visitors, student social workers, as well as schools and has assessed more than 2,000 families for alcohol dependency. This has resulted in more than 400 parents getting treatment for their alcohol dependency who would not have without the programme. Use the links below to view the St Helens Building Bridges Evaluation Report and Summary:
- St Helens Building Bridges Evaluation Report (PDF, 2 MB)
- St Helens Building Bridges Evaluation Summary (PDF, 422 KB)
Please read the St Helens Public Health Privacy Notice, which explains how we use health data in St Helens Borough Council.
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