A meeting of the Isles of Scilly Health and Wellbeing Board took place on 5 December 2025. You can view this meeting in full on our YouTube channel. Health and Wellbeing Boards are formal statutory committees of Upper Tier local authorities. They provide a forum where political, clinical, professional and community leaders from across the health and care system come together to improve the health and wellbeing of their local population and reduce health inequalities.
This was the second meeting of the Board since Members decided to reverse the decision made in November 2021 to form a Joint Health and Wellbeing Board for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by reverting to the previous governance structure of 2 separate boards.
It was also the second meeting attended by Katie Ash, newly appointed Director of Public Health, Isles of Scilly and Assistant Director of Public Health, Cornwall, who would like to take this opportunity to raise awareness of how the Isles of Scilly Health and Wellbeing Board intends to support our community on the islands.
Photo of Katie Ash, Director of Public Health, Isles of Scilly and Assistant Director of Public Health, Cornwall taken on a recent visit to the islands
Director of Public Health Annual Report on Child Poverty
Directors of Public Health have a statutory requirement to write an annual report on the health of their population. The report is intended as an independent vehicle to inform stakeholders and the community about the health of their community, raise particular health issues and identify gaps or priorities that need to be addressed by local decision makers. The title of this year’s report was ’Growing Up in Poverty: the voices of babies, children and young people from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’. The report was written in collaboration with the Directors of Children’s Services for Cornwall Council and the Council of the Isles of Scilly.
At the recent meeting, Katie introduced her report, explained the methods used for capturing the data and highlighted some its main themes. She acknowledged that child poverty in Scilly looks quite different and is often not adequately captured by the measures applied elsewhere. For instance, whilst the median wage on the islands is not as low as other parts of the region, the far higher costs associated with living on the islands, when combined with issues which exclusively affect the islands, such as much higher freight and travel costs and being regularly cut off from, or stranded on, the mainland, mean that these wages simply do not stretch as far when accessing the same basic provisions and services year on year.
The perception of an idyllic way of life, whilst largely shared by residents who appreciate the beautiful natural environment and strong sense of community on the islands, also means that the financial struggles may not always easily admitted, identified or understood, and that some families may be less likely to access support as a result.
During the development of the report, the team prioritised listening to the voices of children across the islands. Reflecting on these conversations, Katie Ash, Director of Public Health for the Isles of Scilly said:
“What came across very strongly was how proud children on Scilly are of their home and how important the islands are too them. They know they are fortunate in many ways, but they also feel that they and their families are often disadvantaged by extremely high – and rising – costs of island life, and by a lack of choice or opportunity, compared to those on the mainland.
Some children spoke of a sense of isolation and fears about not being able to remain on, or return to, the islands as a result of the lack of affordable housing and limited number of jobs available. All of this appears to add to the amount of pressure they feel when facing choices about their futures.”
Katie shared a video which captured the voices of children from the Five Islands Academy. Members of the Board agreed that this video was very effective in helping them to consider these issues from a child’s perspective and should be shared widely.
Cllr Williams, Lead Member for Children and newly appointed Chairman of the Isles of Scilly Health and Wellbeing Board, commented: “I think we all found Katie’s report and video eye-opening and share her drive to do everything we can as a Council, Health and Wellbeing Board and wider community to address the issues raised and make improvements to ensure the impacts of poverty on children and their families do not go unnoticed. By sharing the findings of the report far and wide, I hope we can demonstrate that our community cares deeply about what our children have to say and what we can all do to help.”
The Director of Public Health report will be used to inform the forthcoming Children and Young People’s Plan, which will set out the measures the Council and its partners can take to improve the lives of children and young people on Scilly.
What we can all do to help
Poverty, and its associated stresses, is known to have a significant impact on mental health, so it’s important that everyone is able to recognise the signs that someone in our community may need support.
Sources of financial and wellbeing support can be found on our Hardship support and Household Support Funding webpage.
We also encourage everyone to consider training on mental health, to help us widen our islands’ support network and show anyone who may be affected that there is help available. If you are interested email learnscilly@scilly.gov.uk, or visit the Mental Health First Aid page of the Healthy Cornwall website.
Further information about Health and Wellbeing Boards
Health and Wellbeing Boards were introduced under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. They aim to:
- provide a strong focus on establishing a sense of place
- instil a mechanism for joint working and improving the wellbeing of their local population
- set strategic direction to improve health and wellbeing
You can read the government’s guidance for Health and Wellbeing Boards in full on the gov.uk website.