Dear Partners
Public Health communications are a fundamental part of public health work, relevant to every aspect of health and wellbeing, including disease prevention, health promotion and quality of life. The North Yorkshire County Council Public Health Team would like to maximise communications activity across North Yorkshire to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for our population. We are pleased to share quarter 1 of our 2022 communications calendar with you and ask that partners support us in delivering the identified campaigns and their messages.
A description of each campaign alongside web links for campaign resources are given below. Public Health England supporting toolkits and resources are available on the PHE Campaign Resource Centre website. Registration for the PHE website is required but resources are free to download. Please note, resources for some campaigns are not yet available and are marked as tbc. We will send out details once they are available.
If you require additional information or support around the campaigns please email the details of the campaign(s) you are supporting to: nypublichealth@northyorks.gov.uk and we will direct you to the relevant team member.
We would also like to invite you all to follow our Twitter account 
@nyorkshealth through which we also promote the campaign messages.
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January |
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February |
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March |
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Alcohol |
Dry January |
Sexual Health |
National HIV Testing Week - 7th Feb - 14th Feb
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Tobacco Control
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No Smoking Day 9th March
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Healthy Weight/Healthy Lives |
AWM service promotion – men
Back2Basics promotion
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Healthy Weight Healthy Lives |
AWM service promotion – men
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Joint Strategic Needs Assessment |
Stakeholder engagement
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Mental Health and Suicide Prevention |
Time to Talk Day 3rd February
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Healthy Weight/Healthy Lives
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World Obesity Day 4th March |
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Winter and self care promotion of the national stay well this winter campaign. https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/97-stay-well-this-winter
BACK2BASICS Child Weight Management Service Delivery - Paused Temporarily
Over the past year or so we have been working with Leeds Beckett University to develop and pilot a digital child weight management service called Back2Basics. The service started supporting families towards the end of last year, but unfortunately, we have had to temporarily pause the service (for at least a month) due to staffing issues. We hope to be able to re-start the service again soon, but in the meantime, any families referred to the service will be kept on a waiting list. For any questions or referrals, please contact back2basics@northyorks.gov.uk
Adult Weight Management Service – focus on men – January and February
We will be expanding on our 2021 communications campaign around our commissioned Tier 2 weight management service for adults. In May 2021, the ‘Stepup’ campaign was launched to promote the service, which is delivered by six different Providers across the County. During early 2022 we will be relaunching the campaign, this time with an additional focus on attracting men to the service. The service is free for anyone living or working in North Yorkshire who has a BMI over 30 (or BMI over 25 with other health conditions or from a BAME background). The service offers 12 weeks of group support – either face-to-face or remote – around nutrition and physical activity; and behaviour change techniques are used to support lifestyle change. For more information, see www.northyorks.gov.uk/stepup
Contact Ruth Everson, Health Improvement Manager: ruth.everson@northyorks.gov.uk
Or Jenny Thompson, Health Improvement Officer: jenny.thompson@northyorks.gov.uk
This runs alongside the national NHS Better Health campaign, which we are supporting, and runs from January until March. Better Health offers information and resources to support lifestyle change – being more active, losing weight, stopping smoking and reducing alcohol intake. A number of free Apps available to support lifestyle change such as the free 12 week weight loss app, Couch to 5K, EasyMeals app and the recently revamped Food Scanner app. Better Health - NHS (www.nhs.uk). NHS Food Scanner app - Healthier Families - NHS (www.nhs.uk).
National HIV Testing Week - 7th Feb - 14th Feb
7th February marks the launch of the HIV Testing Week in England, run by The Terrence Higgins Trust. This campaign aims to promote regular testing among the most-affected population groups in England. Regular testing helps to reduce the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV and those diagnosed late. The year, the campaign returns with the successful ‘Give HIV the finger: a finger prick is all it takes’. Organisations are invited to participate by running campaign events, provide testing opportunities and promote HIV testing, with support from The Terrance Higgins Trust. For more information, please visit: https://www.hivpreventionengland.org.uk/
World Obesity Day - 4th March
World Obesity Day is organised by the World Obesity Federation.
The aim of the day is to raise awareness and increase knowledge and empathy of the disease and its root causes, and empower joint actions towards a world of better understanding, support, and policies, to build happier, healthier, longer lives for everybody.
We plan to promote and share material created by the World Obesity Federation as well as highlighting ways in which NYCC is working to address obesity through the Healthy Weight Healthy Lives strategy.
No Smoking Day – 9th March
Intended to help smokers who want to quit smoking. The first No Smoking Day was on Ash Wednesday in 1984, and it now takes place on the second Wednesday in March. Each year, the campaign is promoted with a theme. This year’s theme is NHS Doctors encourage smokers to give quitting another go. The campaign materials will become available via: Campaign Resource Centre (phe.gov.uk) and the campaign focus points are below.
• Doctors and health care professionals talking directly to smokers via marketing techniques to reinforce smokers motivation to quit.
• Smokers are likely to accept advice on changing their smoking habits from an acknowledged expert on health problems.
• Advice from doctors helps people who smoke to quit. Even when doctors provide brief simple advice about quitting smoking this increases the likelihood that someone who smokes will successfully quit.
• Giving patients advice and offering support to stop smoking is the single most cost-effective way to help smokers. Healthcare professionals will see many conditions caused or exacerbated by smoking, and smoking cessation will often be the most clinically and cost effective of interventions for individuals who smoke.
