Council gets £300,000 Government fund to tackle poor health in areas of Doncaster

A sum of £317,427 will be used for the development of a network of ‘Community Connectors’ that will see the creation of ten paid roles in voluntary, community and faith groups across Doncaster

The aim of the project is to help groups involved work better together to make health and wellbeing services in the town more accessible to those who may need extra support and to encourage people to be more actively engaged with them.

Recent reports shows around 25 per cent of Reception year children in Doncaster are either overweight or obese which is increasing to 33 per cent by the time of leaving primary school.

In relation to obesity, including severe obesity, around 10 per cent children are obese at the start of primary school and this doubles to 20 per cent by the time of leaving.

The data also revealed the problem was exacerbated by areas with higher deprivation.

The report said low-income communities ‘disproportionately face the greatest risk of obesity and associated health conditions’.

The organisations which will employ one community connector are Changing Lives, Voluntary Action, Doncaster’s Inclusion and Fairness Forum, Helping Hands and Healthwatch Doncaster.

Doncaster Inclusive Centre for Excellent (Dice) and Live Inclusive will each have two community connectors.

The People Focused Group, who pioneer the use of peer support to deliver support to the community will also have two – one of which will be in conjunction with Doncaster Pride, which work for and on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community.

Vanessa Hoyland-Powell, public health lead at Doncaster Council, said: “During the Covid-19 response period, we have built new partnerships and learned more about the challenges that our communities face and the strengths they possess, enabling us to better understand how we can strengthen our response to not only Covid-19 but also the wider health inequalities that we know exist across our communities.

“We understand the challenges of those living in poverty, people from BAME. communities and people with disabilities face and this extra funding will really help us to create a robust network to support our residents by enhancing the excellent work the voluntary, community and faith sector already do.”

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