Preston has become a World Health Organisation Healthy City Phase V Designate

This achievement will be celebrated at the launch of Preston’s new status at a conference to be held on 25th January 2010 from 9am – 1.30pm at the Invincible Lounge, Preston North End, it will also highlight the work programme for the next 5 years.

The Target: Wellbeing projects in our Preston programme link in with the designation in terms of healthy lifestyles, healthy urban planning. Workshops will be held in the afternoon to decide on the best way to incorporate all projects into the action plan for the WHO programme of work.

For more information about Target: Wellbeing in Preston visit our Programmes page.

The Healthy Cities movement is underpinned by an understanding that the promotion and improvement of health is through its wider determinants in the context of social, environmental and economic action and change, as well as preventive and therapeutic interventions.

The Healthy Cities programme sees the development of formal structures to allow health and wellbeing to be a mainstream undertaking for all key organisations/agencies/partners through a political process of commitment, change and capability based on planning and innovative initiatives.

Preston as a Spearhead local authority has significant health inequalities between the North West and the UK generally. Most of these inequalities show Prestonians at a disadvantage on key health indicators compared to other regions of the UK. More importantly there are also inequalities between Prestonians depending upon where they live in the city. The Healthy Cities Movement provides Preston with an impetus to systematically tackle health inequalities.

The outline of the conference launch programme is as follows:
• Welcome and introduction – Maggi Morris, Director of Public Health – NHS Central
Lancashire
• Background to Preston’s Healthy Cities Application – Lorraine Norris – Chief Executive, Preston City Council
• WHO Healthy Cities Phase V Overview – Elisabeth Bengtsson – Healthy Cities Coordinator, Helsingborg, Sweden
• Healthy Cities Movement – Prof John Ashton CBE – Chair of UKPHA
• Health Equity and Partnership Working – Deborah Ashton - Executive Director of Policy, Lancashire County Council
• Healthy Urban Planning – Susan Francis – Special Advisor for Health, CABE
• UK & Ireland Healthy Cities Network – Mark Dooris – Director Healthy Settings Unit, University of Central Lancashire
• Signing of WHO Healthy Cities Designation Phase V Certificate – Mr Ken Hudson MBE – Leader of Preston City Council
• Signing of Partnership Charter for Healthy Cities: Joe Rafferty – Chief Executive NHS Central Lancashire, Ged Fitzgerald – Chief Executive, Lancashire County Council and Lorraine Norris – Chief Executive, Preston City Council
• Networking, Market Place Exhibitions and Lunch

If you require any information about Healthy Cities and this programme, please contact Gulab Singh – Principal Public Health Specialist on 01772 678004 or email gulab.singh@centrallancashire.nhs.uk