Halton

Straddling the River Mersey, Halton includes the two towns of Runcorn and Widnes as well as surrounding parishes of Hale, Moore, Daresbury and Preston Brook. Halton is one of the six local authority areas that make up the Liverpool City Region.

One Halton is not a single entity – it is a partnership between the Council, NHS Organisations, GP Practices, Fire, Police and Voluntary Organisations.

The borough has made a commitment to work together to achieve one goal – a community living healthier, happier and longer lives, regardless of who they are, or where they might live.

Local teams will do this by putting people at the centre of everything they do and removing the barriers between organisations that slow processes down.

By getting it right together, Halton will prevent more people becoming unwell; keep people living longer and healthier lives in their own homes; see less people spending time in hospital; and by doing these things, make money go further towards providing the right services in the right places for those who really need them.

Halton faces many challenges in common with the rest of the country – an increasingly challenging financial situation and a growing elderly population with increasing health and social care needs.

However, it also has distinct local issues, specifically, inequality among residents, leading to significant health inequalities.

• The poorest people in Halton are dying at a younger age than others living in wealthier areas – long-term health conditions, caused by poor lifestyle conditions are too often the cause
• In older years, quality of life is often compromised because of increased fragility and poor health that can result in a loss of independence and a reliance on health and care services
• Young children are not always getting the best start to their lives. There are high rates of smoking during pregnancy, low breastfeeding rates and higher than average levels of childhood obesity. As well as this, too many under-18s are admitted to hospital because of alcohol.

None of the problems have happened overnight and they will not be solved quickly but the area is acting now to begin to reverse these trends, improve lives and ease the demand and financial pressures upon the local health and care system.