Can Sheffield's health gap be closed?

Now Sheffield Council has come up with another strategy to improve the health and wellbeing of the poorest and most vulnerable the fastest.

The council says it is committed to reducing and eliminating health inequalities in the city but some people still live a less healthy life because of who they are or where they live.

The latest Sheffield Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy runs up to 2024 and will focus on a cradle to grave policy of “starting well, living well and ageing well”.

It will follow people from birth through to their development as children, education, work, access to care and support, social contact and ending their life with dignity.

It will have a strong focus on inequalities in both the short and long term and will aim to prevent ill health in the first place.

The council says no one organisation has the answer to these “difficult challenges” and it will be important for people and communities to work with services and business.

Greg Fell, director of Public Health said: ‘We look forward to working towards our goal of reducing health inequalities and increasing healthy life expectancy in Sheffield.

“We want to make sure that our action plans, built on engagement with people in the city, take the right approach so that we can deliver on our ambitions to sustain healthy and happy living in our city.’

Councillors will be asked to approve the strategy on April 17 at a Cabinet meeting.