Priority a) Health and wellbeing: A health generating city, for children and adults
Our work in this area is driven by the evidence-based goals to reduce health inequalities in our Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The Health and Care Partnership focuses on actions and progress on these goals each time they meet.
Over the last year, we have seen fantastic work on smoking cessation, doubling the number of people setting a quit date. Of those who set a quit date, 381 (62%) successfully quit smoking.
We have also invested in improving physical activity rates, with York showing as one of the most active cities in the UK in recent data, as well as increasing high blood pressure detection, particularly in our more marginalised groups.
Our school-aged vaccination rates improved markedly in 2024 to 2025, and uptake of the two to two and a half year-old review undertaken by our Healthy Child Service has increased to well above the national average, at almost 90%.
The Health Trainer Service has used additional Government funding to run a highly successful outreach model, building relationships in communities such as the Gypsy and Traveller community. The service is supporting more people than ever to quit smoking, connect with others, be more active, eat healthily and reduce alcohol consumption.
Partnership working
We have been working with our partners to explore and respond to the Government’s 10 Year Plan for the NHS, ensuring that the services we provide are central to developments in this area and meet the needs of our residents.
Health and wellbeing at all ages
Under the York Health and Care Partnership, a ‘Section 75’ agreement was finalised in May, allowing us to formally pool resources with the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and secure better value for money wherever appropriate. This enables collaborative decision-making around early intervention and prevention, joint-funded care packages and integrated commissioning for services such as community equipment.
We worked closely with health colleagues to develop a York Frailty Hub, which was highlighted as an area of good practice in the Government’s 10 Year Plan for the NHS. Mental Health Hubs have also been developed, offering safe, non-judgemental and friendly spaces for people over the age of 18.
We developed a Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy to support a system-wide approach that works with partners, stakeholders and citizens to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.
Following the Ofsted inspection of Children’s Services in February and March 2025, we are delighted that services were judged Outstanding across all areas. We are the first local authority nationally under the current ILACS inspection framework to have moved from ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Outstanding’ within a single inspection cycle – a fantastic achievement and critical for supporting the city’s children.
Inspectors stated: “A relentless drive by senior leaders has led to significant improvements, on a considerable scale, in the standard and quality of services to children.”
They also found that: “There is an unrelenting concentration and focus on children remaining within their kinship networks, and their voices are pivotal to planning and decision-making.”
The full inspection report can be found on the Ofsted website.
We have worked hard to embed corporate parenting so children in care and care leavers can thrive. The 2025 inspection report stated: “The local authority has a determined focus on its role as corporate parent. Leaders act as corporate parents, advocating and championing children and young people.”
The Corporate Parenting Board is now co-chaired with care-experienced young people, demonstrating how York values the voice of children and young people in holding leaders to account.
We are developing our fostering service with well-defined plans to increase the number of foster carers and widen the choice of homes for children.
We established a Family Hub model – a network of people, places and online support – supporting children, young people and families from pregnancy through to adulthood.
Case study: SEND Central Hub
SEND Central is York’s SEND Family Hub. It is a dedicated space where families can drop in or contact a Navigator for support in accessing the Local Offer. Its vision is to bring the online Local Offer platform to life in a physical space.
Through engagement sessions and ongoing dialogue with York’s Parent Carer Forum, families have expressed a strong desire for face-to-face support. In an increasingly digital world, many parents and carers value the opportunity to speak to someone in person. SEND Central embraces this feedback by placing physical presence and personal interaction at the heart of its offer.
In response to family requests, SEND Central provides a flexible model that includes both bookable appointments and drop-in sessions. A wide range of groups and services operate from the hub, offering a holistic approach to support. Families can attend activities including a Portage-led early years playgroup, preparation for adulthood sessions and youth groups, connecting them to a broader network of agencies and services. This multi-agency model promotes early intervention, peer support and timely access to information.
Health in All Policies
The Joint Health and Wellbeing Board approved prohibiting the advertising of nicotine pouches in all our advertising spaces to align them with other products such as cigarettes and vapes that have similar health risks.
We engaged and consulted with residents to co-produce a draft Adult Social Care Strategy. To support this work and future projects, we developed a co-production and research strategy.
We delivered a significant programme of work over the past two years on domestic abuse, including the recommissioning of support services, refuge provision and perpetrator services. Hundreds of professionals attended awareness sessions and statutory service processes have improved, including housing services working towards Domestic Abuse Housing Accreditation. Our data now shows that domestic abuse is being identified earlier, when prevention can be most effective.
Our community of people in recovery are central to our work around drugs and alcohol. This includes Inclusive Recovery Cities activity and the launch of the Community Recovery Hub in June 2025. Our teams continue tackling stigma and promoting visible recovery, alongside compassionate and evidence-based smoking cessation support that is achieving some of the highest quit success rates in the country.
What we plan to do over the next three months
In October 2025, we will publish an All-Age Autism and ADHD Strategy 2025 to 2030.
We will complete the consultation on anti-poverty and incorporate feedback into an Anti-Poverty Strategy later in the year. Once agreed and adopted, the strategy will form the basis of action plans for tackling risks associated with falling into poverty, effectively supporting people experiencing poverty now and creating lasting change to prevent future poverty.
Making a positive difference
The number of children in care was 235 in Q2 2025 to 2026, compared to 240 in 2024 to 2025. The number of children subject to a Child Protection Plan was 135 in Q2 2025 to 2026, compared to 126 in 2024 to 2025.
The percentage point gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers achieving 9 to 4 in English and maths at Key Stage 4 has reduced from 43.6% in 2022 to 2023 to 31.1% in 2023 to 2024.
The absolute gap in the percentage of children reaching the expected level of development for two to two and a half years of age, between the highest and lowest York wards, was 9.6% in 2024 to 2025, compared to 10.5% in 2023 to 2024.