Decision Details

Motion I

Proposed jointly by Councillors Bourne and King


In July 2020 this Council agreed a Motion of Thanks recognising the considerable effort undertaken by many in our Borough during the pandemic crisis that in turn has created a force for good.  We are all proud of the response of our Council, their officers, our partners and the wider community effort across the Borough of Colchester.  Marcus Rashford MBE's campaign on feeding school children in the holiday helped to harness Colchester's community effort once again during the recent half term break, with over 2500 meals provided to families across the borough and a welcome promise by the government to fund food for families entitled to Free School Meals throughout 2021. 

This Council believes that while the overwhelming majority of residents are playing their part in observing COVID regulations and a large number have taken on community volunteering roles, we are not 'all in this together'.  When the pandemic is over the most vulnerable groups will still be vulnerable - economically, socially, academically and in their health and wellbeing outcomes.  We cannot accept this. 

Public Health England’s Strategy 2020 to 2025 (September 2019) commits it to “work to narrow the health gap”. This Council welcomes the work already undertaken by ECC Director of Public Health before and during the pandemic and notes that the national strategy includes ambitions to: 
• reduce the overall rates of smoking and inequalities affecting lower socio-economic groups and vulnerable communities; 
• advise and influence decision-makers on the effectiveness of actions to promote healthy indoor and outdoor environments (including their ability to reduce inequalities); 
• reduce inequalities in premature mortality for people with long-term and severe mental health problems; 
• reduce inequalities across key markers of maternal and child health; 
• develop new indicators to improve the monitoring of outcomes and inequalities in the early years and facilitate evaluations of early years services; and 
• enhance insights into the population’s health and health inequalities.   

The result of this Motion will be to shine a spotlight on vulnerability in our Borough. There are families struggling on a low income and accessing the benefits system for the first time, adults with learning difficulties losing their weekly lifeline social clubs, those with disabilities isolated from their families and friends, and residents living in poor quality housing with lack of access to green space, all examples of increasing vulnerability.

Now it is time to recognise, track and address the inequality gaps made more visible during both lock downs.  We want to see this Council and our partners discussing the wider determinants of health with outcomes to tackle the inequality gap that has widened during the pandemic. 

This Council resolves to: 
1. Report twice yearly on inequality across our borough using national, county and local profiles;  
2. Instigate our own locality measures with outcomes that raise the life chances of particular vulnerable groups or neighbourhoods; 
3. Consider the impact on inequality in our decision making; 
4. Encourage formal and informal partnerships to contribute positively to reducing inequality across the borough; 
5. Invite our MPs to take up the mantle of reducing inequality in the constituencies they represent. 


As the motion relates to executive matters, it will stand referred direct to Cabinet unless Procedure Rules are suspended.