Building a healthier town

A scheme to improve the health of a whole town is showing real results in Fleetwood

-  Paul Mackenzie

The last few decades have been tough for Fleetwood. The collapse of fishing industry in the 1970s and 80s was a huge blow and it was compounded in the 90s when ICI, another major employer, closed its chemical plant nearby.

Standing at the northern end of the Fylde coast, Fleetwood has no passing trade – anyone visiting has to have a reason to go there and with a struggling high street and a decline in industry, there were fewer reasons to make the journey.

And Fleetwood’s decline had a real impact on the residents’ health – physical and mental. Rates of drug and alcohol use rose, admissions to hospital were up and there was a spate of suicides among younger men.

In 2016 Dr Mark Spencer marked 25 years of working as a GP in the town and looking back on his time there he realised the health of the town had deteriorated.

‘That frustrated me and I wanted to have a conversation about why that was and how we could make Fleetwood healthier,’ he said. ‘There had been considerable investment, we had brilliant new primary care facilities, dedicated health professionals and other groups working hard for the good of the town, but still the health of the town had still deteriorated.’

He called a meeting and built on pioneering work done by Hazel Stuteley who led a project to improve the health of people on the Beacon Estate in Falmouth, Devon. Her work there in the 1990s was informed by three words: connected, confident and control. By connecting people their confidence grows and they are more able to take control of their lives, their health and their future. It’s a model that Dr Spencer wanted to replicate in Fleetwood.