Health and wellbeing progress snapshot
Our Equalities and Human Rights 'snapshot of progress' will be updated every 6 months to provide details of our activity, as we work to deliver the Council Plan; One City, for all.
For our core commitment to health and wellbeing we will improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities, taking a Health in All Policies approach, with good education, jobs, travel, housing, better access to health and social care services and environmental sustainability. We will achieve better outcomes by targeting areas of deprivation, aiming to level opportunity across the city.
Priority actions
Find out more about progress on each priority action related to health and wellbeing:
- Reverse the current trend of widening health inequalities by supporting people manage their health conditions
- Provide access to good health and social care opportunities, training and skills
- Create higher paid jobs and encourage better working conditions
- Encourage healthy travel options to maintain healthy lifestyles
- Support people with additional needs get the right support at the right time
- Improve customer experience across council operations
Priority action: Reverse the current trend of widening health inequalities by supporting people manage their health conditions.
Progress by September 2025:
- Over the last year we have seen fantastic work on smoking cessation, with 381 people successfully quitting smoking, a 73% increase from the previous year (220 successful quits).
- 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 2024/25, and uptake of the 2 to 2 1/2 year-old review undertaken by our Healthy Child Service has increased to well above the national average, at almost 90%.
- 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 get better value for money wherever appropriate. This allows us to make collaborative decisions around early intervention and prevention, joint funded care packages and integrated commissioning for things like community equipment.
- We worked closely with health colleagues with the development of a York Frailty Hub, which was highlighted as an area of good practice in the government's 10-year plan for the NHS. In addition, Mental Health Hubs have also been developed offering a safe, non-judgemental, and friendly space to people over the age of 18.
- We developed a Homelessness and Rough Sleepers' Strategy to support a system wide approach that works with partners, stakeholders and citizens to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.
- The Joint Health and Wellbeing Board approved prohibiting the advertising of tobacco pouches in all Council advertising spaces.
- We have delivered an extensive programme of work over the last two years on Domestic Abuse, underpinned by our North Yorkshire and City of York Domestic Abuse Strategy 2024-28, which includes the recommissioning of support services, refuge provision and a perpetrator service. Hundreds of professionals have attended awareness sessions, and processes have been improved in statutory services including housing, which is working towards Domestic Abuse Housing Accreditation. By becoming DAHA accredited, housing providers and services are taking a stand to ensure they deliver safe and effective responses to domestic abuse. We can see in our data that we are identifying Domestic Abuse at an earlier point.
- Our community of people in recovery in York are front and centre of our work around Drugs and Alcohol, leading projects such as the Inclusive Recovery Cities work and launching the Community Recovery Hub in June 2025.
- 'Next Generation York: the health of adolescents in our city', the annual report from the Director of Public Health for 2024/25 has been published, setting out some of the main health challenges for children and young people in York.
- Over £450,000 of Health Inequalities and Prevention Funding has been allocated by the York Health and Care Partnership for 2025/26 onwards, under three strategic 'pillars' including a community-based intervention focused on Children and Young People, an enhancement to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in General Practice, and investment in prevention and early intervention services in the city. See the YHCP Report to HWBB - March 2025 SCL approved version
Priority action: Provide access to good health and social care opportunities, training and skills.
Progress by September 2025:
- We continue to promote routes into Social Care and raise awareness around the skills needed to enter this workforce. We offer Level 2 and 3 fully funded (where eligible) programmes in adult social care and we have developed these to meet the needs of our local community. Around 15% of these learners also go on to a Level 4 or 5 qualification in adult social care.
- York Health and Care Partnership held a health and care recruitment and A new Skills Plan for York and North Yorkshire was approved by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority on 8 September
- We delivered successful work in supporting pathways into careers in childcare and supporting employers in the sector to be ready for the government expansion of free hours funding.
Priority action: Create higher paid jobs and encourage better working conditions.
Progress by September 2025:
- The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority awarded the council £604,000 UKSPF and £1,038,250 Trailblazers funding to help improve economic opportunities across the city. UKSPF focuses on business growth and support, whilst Trailblazers focuses on supporting people into work or to remain in work.
- We gained re-accreditation of the Good Business Charter earlier this year. The Good Business Charter recognises organisations that share values around things like paying the real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, environmental responsibility and paying fair tax. The Combined Authority and the Council are jointly commissioning a research piece, working with the Good Business Charter to identify sectoral gaps to assist the targeted promotion of the Charter.
York is the first Good Business Charter (GBC) City, which means that the GBC is promoted across all sectors in the city as something to aspire to, and sign up to. You can watch some short video case studies created by us. - In partnership with the Combined Authority and city partners, we have been raising York's profile within the UNESCO Creative Cities network and we will build on this going forward.
- We established a task and finish group with partners and York Central developers to encourage civil servants to consider York the place to build their career as part of the Places for Growth programme.
Priority action: Encourage healthy travel options to maintain healthy lifestyles.
Progress by September 2025:
- The city celebrated the grand opening of the new York Central travel routes, a highlight of which is Hudson Boulevard, a 480-meter-long landscaped public realm space featuring wide cycling and walking paths, comfortable benches, a stunning rain garden and better bus connectivity.
- The York Walking Festival took place from 13 to 28 September 2025, encouraging more people to enjoy and embrace walking. Some exciting and interesting group walks were included, including the Royal Walk, Fungus Foray and Earth Walk.
- This year we ran the biggest ever, sell-out, Active City Conference, which took place in July 2025 at York's Barbican and saw over 600 delegates, 140 Speakers, our sponsors and the 34 exhibitors exploring the walking, cycling and wheeling opportunities created by wide-ranging changes in mobility, social, environmental and economic trends in our City.
Priority action: Support people with additional needs get the right support at the right time.
Progress by September 2025:
- The SEND Hub, SEND Central had a formal opening in September. This will be a flagship Family Hub for young people with SEND aged 0 to 25 years and their families. Everyone will be welcome to pop-in and access information, advice, be signposted to additional support, or find out more about the Local Offer, whether or not their child has an Education, Health and Care Plan.
- Consultation on the City of York Council's draft Adult Social Care Strategy for the next three years took place. This strategy sets out commitments, priorities and approaches, reflecting both the challenges ahead and the opportunities to make a real impact by supporting people to live independently, stay safe and well, and access joined-up, person centred care at the right time. The strategy is available to read online.
- We worked closely with health colleagues with the development of a York Frailty Hub, which was highlighted as an area of good practice in the government's 10-year plan for the NHS. In addition, Mental Health Hubs have also been developed offering a safe, non-judgemental, and friendly space to people over the age of 18.
Priority action: Improve customer experience across council operations.
Progress by September 2025:
- A consultation with the Talk About Panel (a representative panel of York residents who we ask opinions of on council policies and performance) has informed the development of our Managing Customer Relations Policy. The policy outlines expectations for interactions between staff and customers and is based on the recently adopted Poverty Truth Commission Organisational Standards. It recognises the importance of trauma-informed practice, meaning we factor in how people may have been affected by difficult life events in how we engage and work with them. The new policy will be used by officers across all frontline services to support them in approaching challenging interactions, and in deciding when and how to escalate issues appropriately.
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