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 'Bridging the Inequalities Divide':
The theme of the report for 2020-21 was perspectives of the COVID-19 pandemic:
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
The JSNA shows the current and future health needs of people in St Helens. Recent reports have focused on mental health and wellbeing, mortality and inequalities:
- Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2023 - Mental Health and Wellbeing (PDF) [2MB]
- Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2020 - Mortality (PDF) [2MB] (opens new window)
- Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2020 - Inequalities (PDF) [3MB]
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.
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) [8MB] (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) [2MB]
- St Helens Building Bridges Evaluation Summary (PDF) [422KB]
Please read the St Helens Public Health Privacy Notice, which explains how we use health data in St Helens Borough Council.