Councillor Alison Martin, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Care, looks back on the year and ahead to 2025.
Being the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Care is, in many respects, both a privilege and a challenge. The privilege is working for the people of Derby to ensure that we can help those of us who cannot entirely care for themselves. The challenges are mainly linked to the growing number of people who need support and the complexity of their needs. It has been my privilege to connect with more people in Derby, and the staff in care and health, to work together to try to resolve some of the challenges.
One of my priorities is tackling childhood obesity, and I am proud that I was able to lead the Council in signing up to the Healthy Weight Declaration, which aims to make living well and more healthily a possibility for everyone. That includes the very youngest: I was delighted to attend the big screen premiere of a series of excellent short films by our Family Hubs to promote the benefits of breastfeeding and the support available to parents. Breastfeeding has many benefits for both mum and baby, so it’s important that we support families to do this for as long as they wish. More than 45 shops and businesses in Derby have signed up to our Breastfeeding Welcome scheme, launched earlier this year, to make it easier to feed your baby when you’re out and about.
Mental health is just as important as physical health and I am really looking forward to the Baton of Hope tour coming to Derby in September. This is the UK’s largest suicide prevention awareness campaign, and it encourages us to be aware that, even in our darkest moments, there is hope, someone will listen, and listening to others may help.
Connecting with others has been a key aspect of my role this year, and those connections will inform our work to improve adult social care services. I was very pleased to open our ‘Stronger Together’ conference at the County Ground, where we talked with staff and providers of care in the city to look at how we can continue to deliver and improve services when funding is so tight. We need to manage our services within the Council to make sure we’re working as efficiently as we can to improve outcomes for Derby residents.
Whilst we aim to make those improvements, most people still receive most care from their family and friends. Listening to and improving support to unpaid carers has been another priority for me, and I have led Carers’ Forums this year to look at how, working together, the role of carers can be better supported by the health and social care system.
There is much work to do, and we can only sustain health and care systems if we all do our bit to take part: caring for ourselves and others.