If you’ve caught the news today, you may be aware of calls from Alcohol Concern to ban alcohol advertising at music and sports events to protect young people from excessive exposure to the marketing messages.

My very simple reaction is: About time too. But this is a big issue and deserves a more detailed response. So I’ll elaborate.

Reading this report from the BBC, what struck me most was the following paragraph:

Ian Twinn, from Isba which represents advertisers, told BBC Radio 5 live there was a lack of well-researched evidence to show that advertising influenced young people to drink alcohol.

Really?! So the huge amount of money spent on advertising at sporting and music events – attended by many young people – is in no way intended to sell booze to a new audience? What exactly is it for then?

Big sport and music events often attract younger age groups and the advertisers, who spend vast sums on research, fully understand the type of people attending (including age, spending power etc) and respond with the appropriate campaigns.

So I think it’s naïve to think that the advertisers of alcoholic drinks are not considering how they appeal to their next generation of consumers. As the Alcohol Concern research demonstrates, the advertising of alcohol certainly penetrates younger people demonstrated by their brand recognition abilities.

Mr Twinn also pointed out that:

‘underage drinking is declining in this country, where we have alcohol advertising, and in France it is going up, where they’ve banned it.’

But that only tells you part of the story. Yes, nationally fewer young people are consuming alcohol, but those young people that do drink are consuming more with more dangerous and worrying drinking patterns.

In Birmingham for example, our substance misuse support services are seeing alcohol and cannabis as the drugs of choice as opposed to other substances.

So, in addition to addressing that consumption, it is a sensible approach to look at how advertising is targeting new customers to boost shareholder profits, leaving the rest of society to pick up the pieces.

Now of course I must be a ‘killjoy’ and this is of course the ‘nanny state gone mad’. Why don’t I just leave people to it and let them have a good time?

In moderation, I could not agree more. But here in Birmingham, as in most towns and cities, alcohol related issues represent a major public health challenge.

The damage caused by alcohol misuse includes:

• At peak times, up to 70 per cent of all admissions to accident and emergency departments in Birmingham are related to alcohol;
• 3,600 incidents of domestic violence (around a third) are linked to alcohol misuse;
• Up to 170,000 working days are lost through alcohol-related absence, costing the city’s economy about £30 million each year;
• About 20,000 children in Birmingham are affected by parental alcohol problems;
• Marriages where there are alcohol problems are twice as likely to end in divorce;
• In 2009, half of all 11 to 15-year-olds in the city had already had an alcoholic drink;
• Parental alcohol misuse has been identified as a factor in more than 500 child protection cases.

So this is an issue that we must collectively address and if supporting the Alcohol Concern campaign makes me a killjoy, that’s fine by me.

If you’re worried about alcohol use – either your own or that of someone you know – there’s lots of advice here: http://www.mylife4me.co.uk/

For face to face support please call 0300 5555999 , where you will be directed to the service that will best meet your needs.

Some Birmingham citizens are facing significant financial hardship simply because they do not know how the benefits system works.

With the Government also planning to bring in further changes to some social security benefits between now and 2017, I want to offer some advice to help people understand what help they could be entitled to.

If you are on a low income – whether you are working or not – you may be able to get help with things like your rent; council tax; fuel; mortgage or health costs.

Depending on your circumstances, there may be other benefits you may be able to get – particularly if you are expecting a child or you are adopting; if you are sick or disabled; or if you are a pensioner or war widow.

There may also be some help for people when they go into hospital or a residential care or nursing home or when someone dies.

Benefits, by their very nature, can be complicated. But there are many places to get help.

Birmingham City Council is working closely with other partners and agencies through its Financial Inclusion Partnership to reduce the number of people facing high levels of financial deprivation and poverty.

Last year, the council advised citizens on how to maximise their income by around £17m of benefits to which they were entitled to.

Help can also be found at www.gov.uk – a Government website which provides customers with information on existing benefits, forthcoming changes to benefits and pensions.

It provides financial and other support for customers claiming disability benefits and their carers and it includes benefits calculators, which can estimate what help claimants may be able to get and how benefits would be affected by a change in circumstances.

Other useful websites include:

www.birmingham.gov.uk/welfarereform

www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits

www.dwp.gov.uk

www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk

www.adviceguide.org.uk

Cllr Steve Bedser

Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, Cllr Steve Bedser, reflects on a historic move by the Irish government and calls on the UK to follow suit.

• Q: What’s good enough for Australia and Ireland but not England?
• A: Standardised/plain packaging of tobacco products.

I was delighted for the people of Ireland when I read earlier this week that Health Minister James Reilly has been given Government approval to begin the process of introducing plain packaging. Delighted and just a little envious.

I had hoped to see similar proposals included in the Queen’s Speech earlier this month. Instead, following intense pressure from the powerful tobacco lobby, the plan has been put on hold, while the Government assesses whether similar legislation in Australia has seen a reduction in smoking levels.

Should we be taking this sort of risk with the health of our young people? I certainly don’t think so.

To me, this is a simple choice between the interests of our young people and those of the tobacco giants and that’s no contest as far as I’m concerned. There’s very strong evidence to show that plain or standardised packs are less appealing to young people, while plain packs will also enhance the effectiveness of the picture health warnings currently displayed on cigarette packs in motivating smokers to quit.

Of course the tobacco companies will say there’s no evidence that plain packaging works. They also fought long and hard against the smoking ban, but thankfully their lobbying was ignored and the smoking ban has been a huge success.

Since the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 was passed, packaging has become the tobacco companies’ number one tool for marketing their products. They use innovative marketing strategies to attract new smokers, especially children into a lifetime of addiction that is expensive, health destroying but commercially profitable for the industry.

The figures speak for themselves: In the UK the majority of smokers start before the age of 18 and in Birmingham, around a third of 16-24 year olds are actively smoking. I firmly believe plain packaging legislation would help to protect children and young people from the harmful effects of tobacco.

Don’t our young people deserve the same protection as their counterparts in Australia and Ireland?

The Irish have a track record of being ahead of the curve in these things – in March 2004 Ireland became the first country in the world to institute an outright ban on smoking in workplaces. We followed suit and I firmly believe the ban represents one of the biggest ever leaps forward in public health.

Now the Irish government has once again put the health of the nation before commercial interests and I hope our own government is taking note.

Cllr Bedser chairs Birmingham’s Tobacco Control Alliance and leads on smoking for the Local Government Association Community Wellbeing Board.

There are no quick-fix solutions to the childhood obesity problem, but with a new city-wide strategy to be published in July, Birmingham Public Health’s Linda Hindle reveals progress is being made.

Last week we held an engagement event on childhood obesity where we asked senior leaders from different organisations across Birmingham to give their views on the emerging childhood obesity strategy.

The event was attended by representatives from the NHS, Gateway Family Services, Health Exchange, Voluntary sector, police, fire service, sport and leisure, sustainability team, environmental health, school meal and early year’s settings as well as my colleagues from public health.

The event was chaired by Dr Andrew Coward from Birmingham Cross City CCG who spoke passionately about his own commitment to lead the City’s ambition to tackle childhood obesity. Dr Adrian Phillips, Director of Public Health outlined the scale of the problem, making the point that 40% of Birmingham children leave primary school either overweight or obese and that this is a concern across the whole of the city. This really is an appalling statistic. Adrian highlighted the need to change the environment, support behaviour change and provide opportunities for children to be more active and eat healthy food.

The participants overwhelmingly supported the recommendations within the strategy and they gave some great comments and ideas of how to implement it. The leaders said we need actions across society, we need to support whole families rather than just children and we need to give local people a voice to make real change at a local level. Best of all, virtually every participant agreed to work with us on this agenda going forward.

I realise that one event is not enough to canvas opinion and support, so I will be speaking with colleagues who were unable to attend the event such as Services for Education whose support has been and will be invaluable. My colleague Charlene Mulhern has also been talking to young people to get their input, and their view is in line with the draft strategy, highlighting a real need to change the environment, provide more opportunities for healthy lifestyles and support individuals to change behaviour. They also suggested the need for role models, family support and opportunities for safe play and activities.

I’ll be updating the strategy based on the comments received over the next few weeks with the intention of seeking approval from the Health and wellbeing board on 23 July. I’ll also be setting up groups of keen and influential people to oversee the implementation of the strategy.

One further comment from the event was how we link what we are doing locally with the need for national action so I was delighted to receive an invitation on Thursday to participate, as Chair of DOM UK, in the first meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity at the House of Commons on 5 June. This will give a Birmingham voice to need for national action tackle childhood obesity.

Watch this space for how I get on.

Linda Hindle is Birmingham Public Health’s Consultant Dietician and Senior Manager for Healthy Eating and Activity.

Cllr Tahir Ali reflects on his recent visit to Tyseley Locomotive Works Ltd;

Since taking on the role of Cabinet Member for Development, Jobs and Skills, one of the most rewarding activities has been visiting the businesses that we work with in Birmingham and witnessing at first hand the skill, enterprise and ingenuity that underpin the city’s business sector, despite difficult economic conditions.

One such visit took place recently at Tyseley Locomotive Works Limited(TLW).

The company is based in the Tyseley Environmental Enterprise District, one of six Economic Zones launched as part of the City Council’s Economic Zones Prospectus in September 2012.

TLW Ltd refurbish steam and diesel locomotives and thanks to a £100,000 Tyseley Property Assistance Programme (TPAP) grant has been able to build a much-needed large workshop extension, allowing the business to expand its operational capacity.

TLW Ltd is among the first businesses to benefit from the council’s TPAP scheme, which encourages small and medium-sized enterprises located in the area to improve their premises or invest in new development.

The grant scheme, for which funding is provided from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), provides a 50% contribution towards development costs up to a maximum grant contribution of £100,000. Limited funds remain, and I would strongly urge businesses in the area to take advantage of the benefits of this programme.

It was fascinating to see these engines and locomotives of bygone eras; it is great to see a Birmingham company thriving with such a worthwhile operation, and with a healthy order book.

As a direct result of the council’s financial support for the project, TLW Ltd has been able to expand in an area of high, long-term unemployment, creating 4 jobs, including mature apprenticeships, and safeguarding the security of the current workforce of 29. The company also has a close working relationship with Bournville College and regularly takes on young engineering apprentices for practical, on-site training.

With a strategy to tackle childhood obesity set to be published shortly, Birmingham Public Health’s Consultant Dietician and Senior Manager for Healthy Eating and Activity, Linda Hindle, looks at the city’s obesity challenge.

Unless you’ve been living in a darkened room for the last few years, you’ll be well aware that one of the major health challenges facing us in Birmingham is childhood obesity.

Nearly one in four of our 10 and 11-year-olds is now obese – a figure higher than many other towns and cities in the UK.

Earlier this year, Director of Public Health Adrian Phillips labelled that statistic ‘almost a scandal’ and it’s hardly surprising that the Health and Wellbeing Board in Birmingham has prioritised tackling childhood obesity now Birmingham City Council has once more taken on responsibility for public health across the city.

I was privileged to be invited by the Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) to attend the 20th European Congress of Obesity in Liverpool this week. My invite was as Chair of DOM UK to discuss the potential for collaboration between ASO, DOM UK and other professional organisations with the common purpose of reducing obesity.

I was able to use the experience at the Congress to learn from the experiences and research of colleagues from across the Globe and to check that our plans to tackle childhood obesity in Birmingham are based on the best evidence.

Our aim in Birmingham is quite simple: a significant reduction in obesity at Reception and Year 6.

That’s easy enough to state but we’re under no illusions about the scale of the challenge.

One speaker referred to obesity as a ‘wicked problem’ and likened the challenge of reducing it to that of tackling terrorism, climate change and world poverty! No mean feat then!

The Foresight systems map was used several times at the congress to illustrate the complexity of the causes and solutions to obesity.

But it was heartening to see that our intention to focus on improving the macro environment, supporting behaviour change and creating more opportunities for children to eat healthy choices and be more active is ticking the right boxes.

An interesting insight was that most behaviours are done automatically without any conscious thought, yet interventions generally focus on conscious thinking. These interventions work but only for individuals who have an established intention to change.

In Birmingham we’re developing our plans to reduce childhood obesity with as many colleagues and partners as possible and this ‘systems approach’, was a strong message from the Congress.

Our Joint strategic needs assessment on childhood obesity will be published in June and we are currently pulling together our draft obesity strategy.

To that end, next week the Health and Wellbeing Board will host a workshop to help us draw-up that strategy.

In addition to the guests at the workshop, we’re really keen to get local views and support for the strategy, particularly from delivery partners so if you want to be involved, please drop me a line linda.hindle@birmingham.gov.uk

Adenike Titiloye, Managing Director, Catalyst Mutual Enterprise CIC

Last Friday saw the launch of a new organisation in Birmingham which will offer training opportunities to unemployed people wanting a career in energy efficiency and Green Deal advice.  Adenike Titiloye, guest blogs about Catalyst Mutual Enterprise CIC, formerly West Midlands Kick Start …

The West Midlands Kick Start Partnership (WMKS) was set up by 28 local authorities in the West Midlands ten years ago with Birmingham City Council as the accountable body.  It provided loans to vulnerable home owners so that they could bring their homes to ‘Decent Homes Standard’ and also help them to reduce carbon emissions, reduce heating costs and ultimately escape from fuel poverty.

The government’s comprehensive spending review in 2010 essentially spelled the end of Kick Start.  When the programme closed in 2011, WMKS had created a public asset equity share loan portfolio of £34million across the 28 West Midlands local authorities.  We successfully applied to the Cabinet Office for funding to develop WMKS to a Social Enterprise Agency (SEA) in Birmingham – which is where Catalyst comes in.

The government’s Green Deal flagship initiative means a huge amount of support is available for people looking to make their homes more energy efficient through cavity wall insulation, more efficient boilers and even solar panels.  This provided a new platform for WMKS and it is now a UKAS accredited Certification Body for Green Deal Advice Service.  However, there aren’t enough people qualified to make the initial property assessments.  Catalyst CIC is currently engaging with public sector organisations to secure training funding to support people who may want to consider a career in Green Deal Advice.

At the end of their studies, trainees will become qualified Green Deal advisors, capable of around £200-£300 a day as contractors for local companies such as Carillion.  They’ll be able to take up flexible and ethical employment helping local people to become more energy efficient.  This is good for the environment and will save local families money on fuel. 

As a Department of Energy and Climate Change approved Certification Body for Green Deal Advice Services, Catalyst will provide accreditation for any Green Deal Advice Organisation either commercial or social enterprise.  Catalyst will charge a fee for this service which will be ploughed back into the company for further training support and more support for vulnerable homeowners.

Last Friday’s launch took place at the Council House.  People from energy suppliers, housing associations, local authorities and the government welcomed our proposals.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Catalyst CIC Green Deal services can call Catalyst CIC on 0121 607 1798, email enquiries@catalystcic.co.uk or visit www.catalystmutualenterprise.co.uk

Cllr Ian Ward

Earlier this year we conducted a soft launch for a Birmingham City Council Smartphone app as part of our effort to make services as modern, efficient and accessible as possible.

The case for doing this was compelling. A wide range of organisations have already done this, and it is clear why – the benefits for citizens, visitors and the council itself are huge.

For citizens and visitors, the initial version of the app offered access to council news, information on services and a simple way to raise issues on things such as potholes, refuse collections and street lighting.

And one of the many benefits for the council is that the app directly links to the IT systems used by our departments, meaning that when someone raises a query it doesn’t have to pass through our contact centre before reaching the relevant staff.

It goes directly to them, speeding up the time of response, and quality of service offered to the customer.

Having gained feedback from the soft launch back in January, we have refined the app and are now, in phase two, able to proudly offer access to even more services.

From today (April 18), users of the app will be able to raise more issues, notably including pest control and tree pruning, and we are actively considering how we can add even more functionality to the app in the future.

Technology doesn’t stand still, so we want to ensure the app continues to be as relevant as possible as we strive to offer the best services possible to citizens.

Therefore, I’d welcome feedback on it from you. What do you like? What would you want to see in future updates. Please let me know your thoughts by using the app, and offering comments in the box beneath the blog.

HOW TO USE THE APP

Non Apple Smartphone users simply need to visit http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/app on their device and follow the link to the web app.

Alternatively, type the following into your smartphone’s browser (not the search box): https://m.online.birmingham.gov.uk/app

For a dedicated iPhone-friendly app, Apple iPhone users should download the app from the App Store by searching for “Birmingham City Council”.

The phase two web app is live from today (April 18). The Apple app equivalent is due to be available within the App Store within the next ten working days. Users can continue using the first version until this is available.

Cllr Tahir Ali

Last week I had the great pleasure to visit Indestructible Paints, a hidden gem in the heart of Sparkhill. 

As inventors and manufacturers of specialist ‘indestructible’ paint for planes, helicopters, racing cars and anything else that needs paint capable of withstanding extremes of heat or jet vibrations and the like, Indestructible Paints is just that.

Aside from my curiosity about a company with such a great sounding name, I wanted to find out how they were using the grant we’d given them on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative and how it was helping their business expand.

The family business started in 1978 with one man, now employs 36 members of staff, averages 11 per cent growth (even in these hard times) and exports to 49 countries.  They are ready to grow and expand in a growing and expanding market.  The problem they face, like so many companies at this stage of growth, is cash flow.  They need to ensure that the company grows at the same rate as its supply commitments.  They need to ensure that they have the right amount of people in the company at the right time.  Cash flow makes and breaks companies.

So a grant that contributes 20 per cent of the money needed for their five year business plan is really useful.  The company is confident that it will be able to recruit another 20 members of staff.  That’s 20 skilled jobs in advanced manufacturing, and as they’re part of a supply chain, their growth will have a massive impact on other industries in the same manufacturing supply chain.  They make the paint, applicators apply the paint to components, component manufacturers supply to civil aircraft or racing car manufacturers and so on – a chain reaction if you like.

What’s great is that this all started with a bid to the government from Birmingham and other local enterprise partnerships for some money to help grow the automotive and aerospace sectors back in 2011.  Between us we were awarded £25 million.  Within a couple of months the government decided to increase that allocation to £125 million and widened the sectors covered to include advanced manufacturing, such as automotive aerospace, rail, renewable energy, chemicals and nuclear and to make it a national programme for England.  Our involvement didn’t stop there.  This month we accepted a further allocation of £120 million, with £19 million specifically ear marked for the West Midlands.

I am incredibly proud that our team at Birmingham City Council has shown that they have the experience and skills to administer and manage this funding.  A grant of just over £280k to Indestructible Paints is making a massive difference.  Let’s hope the £19 million programme for the West Midlands will give a real boost to the local and regional economy, creating lots of new, highly skilled jobs. 
 
See Birmingham Post 04/04/2013

Cllr James McKay

Since the announcement in October that the council had won £30m cash from the Government to protect weekly bin collections a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes, ready for the pilot introduction of wheelie bins in two wards in the city, Brandwood and Harborne.

Before I outline how it’s going to operate in Birmingham I would like to set out again why we are doing this:

• Our current system is just not affordable. It costs us £60m per year to manage our city’s rubbish, and due to pressures on the service, including a rising population, by 2018/19 there will be a substantial shortfall in the funding needed to meet the costs of managing waste.
• On top of this, the budget that the council actually controls will have almost halved by then -  in effect we are becoming a ’50%’ council. We need to bring all our costs down.
• Recent reports by the District Auditor have made clear that our bin service costs more per head of population than in comparable places. Again, we have to save money, or make even deeper cuts everywhere else.
• With the Government money, we can now invest in millions of pounds of vital new infrastructure, and modern lorries, providing an efficient, modernised service we can actually afford

Let’s be honest, at the moment we’re poor at recycling in Birmingham, and unfortunately we’re in the worst performing 25% of cities in the UK – in fact we produce more rubbish per household than any other large city in the country.

This doesn’t just matter because of the environment, important though that is.  Bad recycling rates cost us money, and that’s money we no longer have.

82% of local authorities across the country have introduced wheelie bins – including all of the top 100 performers for rubbish reduction – and all the evidence shows that they have had a significant effect on improving recycling rates, and also bring cleaner streets, free from piles of unsightly, torn bin bags which blight neighbourhoods. We do all we can to keep our streets clean, but the current system of bags makes this an almost impossible job.

We’ve been talking to as many people as possible across the city since the announcement and I know it’s a big change in the way people are used to having their rubbish collected.

That’s why we want to make sure that every household gets the service that suits them best.

So, how will it work?

The new system will be rolled out across the whole of the city over the next two years, and as previously mentioned we are kicking off with the pilot in Brandwood and Harborne.

Right now we’re assessing properties in those two areas to see what is the best solution for them, with options for larger or smaller rubbish and recycling bins, depending on the size of the household.

Of course, every household is different and there will be a few properties that just aren’t suitable for wheelie bins, and some residents who will need help in managing their bins.  After the assessment postcards will be delivered to each home which will make it absolutely clear which properties are considered suitable to have bins or not – properties that are suitable will receive a green card containing further information, while those judged unsuitable will receive a red card containing more details – while an assisted collection service will ensure that people who are unable to manage their bins won’t miss out.

If you haven’t already please let us know your views by completing the online survey at opinionresearch.co.uk/birminghamwheeliebins or look out for printed copies in your nearest library or customer service centre.