Proposed changes to the council’s healthy lifestyle service would see funding redirected towards support for children, emphasising prevention and early intervention.
Currently, the council commissions a healthy lifestyle service – One You Lincolnshire – which supports people to lose weight, be more active, drink less alcohol or give up smoking. In addition, it offers a strength and balance programme to help prevent falls.
Following a review of the service and public consultation, proposals have been put forward to redirect funding towards support giving children a healthy start in life. The stop smoking and fall prevention services would be retained, but the other elements would be discontinued, with the funding used for the Best Start Lincolnshire: Early Years and Family Service instead. This commissioned service is run from children’s centres and community venues across Lincolnshire, providing support for children from pre-birth to five years and for their parents/carers.
Cllr Steve Clegg, executive member for adult care and health, said: “While the healthy lifestyle service has received positive feedback from some of those who have used it, refocusing our efforts towards younger generations would ultimately be more effective.
“There’s clear evidence that a child’s experiences in their early years will have a lasting impact on their health and wellbeing in later life, including educational outcomes. If we invest in giving all our young people a healthy start in life, we would expect to see greater benefits overall.
“If we can instil healthy habits at an early age and prevent people from becoming unhealthy in the first place, it would also help ease some of the pressure on the NHS services that currently have to tackle the consequences of obesity, smoking and alcohol misuse.
“Our aim is to provide support that brings long-term benefits to the people of Lincolnshire, while also offering excellent value, and these proposals will help us do just that.”
The proposals will be discussed by the council’s Adult Care and Public Health Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday 28 January before a final decision is taken by the executive on Tuesday 3 February.