Partner Update - Public Health
Argyll and Bute Council · 4 November 2025
Back to Bute and Cowal Area Community Planning Group — 4 November 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 Argyll & Bute Community Planning Partnership Area Community Planning Group Partnership update Date: November 2025 Partner update – Public Health Smoking Cessation – Stoptober campaign Stoptober is a national campaign encouraging people to quit smoking. The A&B Public Health team has developed a local campaign to raise awareness of the free NHS support available to people who want to quit. For the month of October, NHS Highland Smoke-Free Service is encouraging people to quit together. People are up to five times more likely to quit for good if they make it to 28 days smoke-free. https://www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/news/2025/09/stoptober-campaign-launches-in- highland-argyll-and-bute/ Our smoking cessation advisers are working with local pharmacies to ensure people across Argyll and Bute have easy access to tailored support https://www.ablivingwell.org/smoking-cessation Gypsy/Traveller community event A health event was held in Adrishaig on 1st October for the local Gypsy/Traveller community. Organised by MECOPP's Community Health Worker, and funded by the Screening Inequalities Funding, this event was supported by many partner agencies. The health event aimed to raise awareness of health interventions including NHS Health Screening and Smoking Cessation, as well as information from AliEnergy,
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2 Scottish Fire and Rescue, Dochas and many other agencies. The event was well attended with positive feedback. Joint Strategic Plan Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) is developing a new Joint Strategic Plan for 2026 – 2031. Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are required to create a Joint Strategic Plan (JSP). This is a high level plan of how the IJB will manage and deliver health and social care services using the resources and budgets they control. They must review and update this plan at least once every three years. Our proposed priorities: • Priority 1: Preventative and Community Based Care • Priority 2: Integrated and Person Centred Care • Priority 3: Financial and System Sustainability • Priority 4: Healthy and Engaged Workforce • Priority 5: Access and Tackling Health Inequality • Priority 6: Digital Transformation We will be consulting with communities, partners, and stakeholders between 10 October to 10 January 2025. We will communicate in person, online and through press during this period, but you can register or subscribe on the NHS Highland Engagement Hub to keep up to date with how this consultation is progressing. In October, the HSCP ran a series of Community Drop-ins to listen to communities to hear their views about the new Joint Strategic Plan. Have your say - help shape health and social care in Argyll and Bute | NHS Highland Watch out for our online survey here: NHS Highland Engagement Hub
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3 S2 Dramas The ‘You Are Not Alone’ drama performances for S2 pupils took place in September 2025 across eight secondary schools in Argyll and Bute. Three stories were embedded within the performance: Molly’s Story (about sending naked photos), Joel’s Story (about vaping) and Rob’s Story (about self-harm). Evidence shows that these are all relevant health issues experienced by many children and young people locally and nationally. The performance was followed by workshop discussions led by the Guidance Teachers with the support of attending partners from The Police’s Youth Engagement Officers, School Support Service and The Exchange. Planet Youth Update Planet Youth is a community-based framework focused on improving young people’s health, wellbeing, and relationships by working with parents, carers, schools, communities and organisations. It focuses on increasing protective factors and reducing risk factors to help children and young people make better and safer choices about their wellbeing. Over the last two years in Argyll and Bute, five secondary schools and communities have been avidly involved with Planet Youth. In 2025 Planet Youth continues to grow locally with all ten state secondary schools now on-board.
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4 A Planet Youth community event, ‘Growing up in Oban’, took place in September This was a great opportunity for families, children and young people to see the vast variety of fantastic clubs, activities and groups available locally. Approximately 200 community members attended and the feedback was excellent. On 19th November 2025, the Planet Youth team will be hosting Youth Voice Conference in Kilmory Chambers which aims to: amplify the voices of young people and enable them to share their live experiences, priorities and ideas directly with decision-makers, inform strategic planning, and celebrate and embed Youth Voice as a vital force in building a healthier, safer and more hopeful future for Argyll and Bute. If you require further information please contact argyllandbute@planetyouth.scot Equality Outcomes – Accessible Easy Read version An Easy Read version of the NHS Highland Equality Outcomes (2025–2029) has now been co-designed and tested with children, people whose first language is not English and people with a learning disability. This accessible version will make the Equality Outcomes more meaningful and user-friendly for the public. Although the official launch is not until later in the month, we wanted to highlight this development as it reflects a growing commitment to ensuring our plans are accessible to all. Speakeasy The first Speakeasy 'taster' webinars were held on 24th September. Speakeasy is a learning programme for parents, carers and adults working with children and young people, delivered informally as one off session or a block of up to eight sessions. It: • Helps to tackle complicated and difficult issues around children growing up, including body changes, safety and relationships and sexual health. • Works with groups of parents and carers to provide age-appropriate information, resources and support to enable them to confidently discuss these subjects in the home. • The course helps parents to build on what they already know about growing up relationships and sex to help children make safer choices. This is supported by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Curriculum for Excellence and reflects the results shown in The Chat research: theChat.scot – the Chat is a conversation with parents and carers about where, what, when, why and how children and young people learn about relationships, sexual health and parenthood.
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5 42 people attended the sessions, which evaluated positively. Discussions are ongoing regarding taking this forward, both as webinars and face-to-face delivery. Public Health Scotland (PHS) report on emergency hospital admissions and deaths as a result of unintentional injury Unintentional injury is a major cause of premature death and ill health in Scotland. Unintentional injuries can occur in any age group, but children and the elderly are more vulnerable. The term ‘unintentional injury’ is used rather than ‘accidents’ as ‘accident’ implies that events are unavoidable when a high proportion of these incidents are preventable e.g. falls, road traffic accidents etc. PHS will be publishing an annual unintentional injury annual report on October 28th. While the report itself it is at a national level, analysis is provided down to Local Council level in additional tables. The Public Health team would like to report back on A&B data for consideration at the next ACPG meeting. Argyll and Bute Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) The ADP is delighted to launch the ADP Strategy 2025-2027, which focuses on the three pillars of Prevention, Recovery Orientated Systems of Care (ROSC) and a Public Health Approach to Justice. The strategy outlines the priorities identified by the ADP, stakeholders and national directives, acknowledging the changing environment with national plans and challenging financial climate. It includes evidence from local data, stakeholder engagement, national strategy and frameworks. The golden thread running through the strategy is a focus to strengthen our partnerships as the foundation of all our activity, working closely with people with lived and living experience. In addition to the document, a short animated video about the strategy has also been produced. The ADP Support Team has produced the first ADP Bulletin, which highlights some of the recent activity within the ADP and community ADP Autumn Bulletin ADP Support Team look forward to producing regular bulletins and welcome feedback on what Community Planning Partners would like to see. The ADP Annual Report 2024-2025 is also available, the report demonstrates with wide range of activities, progress and developments delivered throughout the year. The Medically Assisted Treatment Standards (MAT) Experiential Programme Report for 2024 – 2025 has also been shared to inform feedback and further improvements in developing MAT Standards. The strategy and reports are available to view on https://www.argyllandbuteadp.info/resources-and-links-W21page-5
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6 REPORT AUTHOR AND CONTACT Author Names: Angela Coll Health Improvement Senior Email: nhsh.abhealthimprovement@nhs.scot