Progress
Torbay Director of Public Health Annual Report 2024
For 2024, Dr Lincoln Sargeant, our Director of Public Health, has chosen to focus on Women’s Health. This report marks the beginning of a year-long initiative, inviting businesses, communities, and organisations across Torbay; including the NHS and Local Authority—to collaborate in efforts to improve the health of women and all community members in Torbay. Here follows an update on progress made since its publication.
Recommendation 1: To develop flexible and inclusive employment practices to reflect and encourage women into education and employment
We discovered that there is a flourishing self-supporting network of entrepreneurs which is gathering momentum.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) events are inclusive and have many women in attendance, and are delivered in family friendly areas, times, and locations. The team have also identified gaps where they are not reaching as many young families with the education and employment schemes, and links are being made between them and the Public Health team to target information to younger women with children. This will be done through other local projects, such as Family Hubs.
We know that childcare is important to help women become more economically active. We also know that it can be complicated and at times expensive. An interesting thing we discovered was that there is a shortage in Torbay of childcare beyond 6pm. There is childcare available to support those attending courses at South Devon College Students who are parents and/or carers – South Devon College . We also learnt that the occupancy level across all childcare settings: Torquay 93%, Paignton 96%, and Brixham 93%. This tells us that there is a high demand for childcare in Torbay.
Childcare providers are listed on the Family Hubs website. For more on this go to:
Torbay Online Family Hub – Home – Family Hub
Or to find out about how to support your business get support and grow, or to up skills, support, and knowledge:
Business Growth – Invest In Torbay
UKSPF Projects – Invest In Torbay
Recommendation 2: To commit to actions which raise awareness of Domestic and Sexual Violence and directly address of the impact of domestic abuse on women who experience it.
For this recommendation, we linked with the current Torbay Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence strategy and workstream to support and enhance the existing positive steps to address this within Torbay.
Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy 2023 – 2030.pdf
Actions from this included (sharing films created by Emberlense about DASV, Torbay wards awareness).
Work to embed trauma stabilisation approaches throughout key organisations progressed under the pathfinder scheme. This is due to end in September 2025 and has proved to be a supportive approach to enabling the development of trauma-informed ways of working in Torbay.
Trauma informed and trauma stabilisation approaches are being sustained after take up by staff working in Growth in Action, Torbay Domestic Abuse Service, Leonard Stocks Hostel staff and Devon Rape Crisis, the 0-19 and family hubs teams and the homelessness outreach team. There have been several cohorts of staff training, support and fora which are enabling this approach to become standardised across Torbay.
Growth in Action – Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
Trauma Informed – Family Hub
Other actions relevant to this report and driving local improvements were delivered by NHS Devon ICB, with Torbay partners, who embedded a hospital-based Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) at TSDFT. Piloted from October 2022 to September 2024, the role is now permanent and aligns with national best practice. Health IDVAs support high-risk domestic abuse cases, provide safeguarding expertise, and deliver staff training. Referrals rose from 16 annually (2019–22) to 19.5 monthly by September 2024. Between January and June 2024, 93 referrals were made over 101 days. Estimated cost savings are £2,050 per victim.
In Primary Care, the Interpersonal Trauma Response Service (ITRS) has reached over 70% of Devon GP practices. By Q3 2024/25, 1,500 staff were trained, with 1,272 referrals (including 35 for harmful behaviour). Most Torbay surgeries are engaged, with three pending training. ITRS has shown reductions in trauma symptoms.
Further to this, a group of peer researchers with lived experience were recruited, trained, and deployed across Torbay to deepen the understanding and impact of domestic abuse and sexual violence. A learning and reflection session is planned for later in 2025 to cascade the learning and develop actions which will support stakeholders to improve the design and delivery of services and improve the experiences and outcomes of women who disproportionately experience domestic abuse and sexual violence in Torbay.
The Public Health team have deepened learning and engagement with Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence issues. There has been increased cross over and support of campaigns (such as the First Light and Eddystone shared campaign ‘Happy Healthy Love’ in February 2025) and awareness raising and embedding into partnership working and leadership.
Happy Healthy Love – First Light
Recommendation 3: To improve access, experience, and outcomes for women’s healthcare through Torbay’s women’s health hub
Across Devon (including Plymouth and Devon local Authority areas, the NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) led on delivering the national strategy and non-recurrent funding to establish Women’s Health Hubs in line with the national specification.
Women’s health hubs: core specification – GOV.UK
A local network was established to collaboratively support its implementation, including Torbay Public Health team. In collaboration with the Women’s Health Network, NHS Devon drafted a business case in September 2023 to secure the funding and held focus groups with clinicians, women, and other people across Devon. The two initial key priority areas for Devon were agreed.
Access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) for contraceptive and non-contraceptive reasons (menopause and heavy menstrual bleeding).
Developing and implementing services for a menopause pathway
In the focus groups, individuals shared their experiences and provided their views on the draft proposals and priorities. The findings from these focus groups are being used to inform the design of future services. NHS Devon appointed a Programme Manager for the Women’s Health team to oversee the workstreams responsible for delivering the strategy and ensuring key stakeholders are involved at each stage of the programme.
Historically, long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and access to menopause services have been limited due to a lack of opportunities available for professionals to access specialist training. Working in partnership with the local sexual and reproductive health provider, who operate across Torbay and Devon:
There is now increased capacity for LARC provision, and through co-ordinated approach by Torbay Public Health team (one off funding to support capital costs for equipment in local surgeries), NHS Devon ICB supporting non-contraceptive catch up clinics and Devon Sexual Health providing faculty accredited training for the general Practice workforce, capacity has been improved locally.
NHS Devon ICB and partners have issued guidance to general practice on how they can best access LARC. NHS Devon commissioned a pilot with Devon Sexual Health and a group of specialist GPs who have undertaken menopause training to provide a clinical support service to all GPs across Devon. The service was in place by Autumn 2024. This approach will enable more GPs across Devon to support a greater number of patients with their menopause care in a local GP practice.
This pilot will provide the opportunity to gather information and insight to inform the development of a service specification, which will confirm the core services to be included in the next phase of the Women’s Health Hub development.
Recommendation 4: To recognise and supporting grass roots women’s groups and activities as integral components of mental health and wellbeing provision
What did we learn?
We hosted an event in July 2025 inviting all grassroots women’s groups to attend and help shape the future agenda. The initial meeting agenda was set up in recognition of the issues raised by women’s groups as part of the development work of the annual report. This included concerns around accessibility of funding for sustainability and linking with other organisations. The agenda included presentations (with time for questions) from Devon Community Foundation on accessing funding and for increasing reach of their group, Devon ICB for the JOY app and Katrina Hill on the role of Social Prescribing and their referrals to groups for Torbay residents.
We also hosted a an ‘Asks and Offers’ section which enabled attendees to offer services or space to others and to ask them or us that they would need. Most importantly we gave time for people to able to network. We also asked those that attended whether this type of event was useful, original (not replicating other meetings taking place) and how they would like their agenda to look.
What next?
Attendees appreciated being able to be in the room with other people, to network and meet with other organisations they have not been involved with before. They appreciated the level of organisation that went into the event and speakers invited. This is what they would like repeated, and all felt this meeting should be continued. For the next meeting, we have ideas from the Asks and Offers activity – including hearing from groups present on the day. There has also been requests for service specific talks e.g. sexual violence but also how women can best support each other and topics that impact women. The group should continue to have its agenda led by the women’s groups who attend centred on their contemporary needs and interests. In planning this meeting, we considered those women’s groups who cannot attend a daytime meeting but whose groups are then running in their spare time. We planned to include an agenda item for these groups to highlight themselves in a short film (3 minutes) – this was not ready in time for this meeting but will be trialled at a future event to test out. The next step is to plan out a termly meeting schedule for these meetings to take place.
Recommendation 5: To develop inclusive approaches that facilitate and support girls and women to become more physically active
The Torbay on the Move (TOTM) initiative is actively working to include children and young people in its physical activity strategy. In collaboration with Active Devon, TOTM presented at a Children’s Services All Staff meeting to gather feedback and ideas. These insights are now being implemented to ensure that the programme is inclusive and responsive to the needs of younger residents, including girls.
Torbay on the Move – Torbay Council
Movement with Communities – Our Work in Torbay – Active Devon
Children identified through the National Child Measurement Programme as having weight-related concerns are supported by the 0–19 and Family Hubs team. These children and their families are offered free Torbay Leisure passes and receive guidance on adopting whole-family approaches to physical activity. This offer will be expanded in autumn 2025 to include additional support from TOTM, further enhancing accessibility and engagement for families.
Torbay Online Family Hub – Home – Family Hub
Community feedback has highlighted that many women feel unsafe in certain environments, particularly gyms. In response, the Community Safety team along with TOTM are working together to re-engage businesses, especially in sectors where women and girls report feeling vulnerable. to develop safer, more welcoming spaces.
Ramble Club Torbay – Family Hub
The Ramble Club for new mums, facilitated by Family Hubs, continues to be a popular and effective initiative. With support from the Start for Life grant, parent connectors have expanded these clubs to all three Torbay towns. This initiative not only promotes physical activity but also fosters social connection and emotional wellbeing for new mothers, making it a vital part of the inclusivity.
What did we learn?
We learned that while the benefits of physical activity for both physical and emotional wellbeing are widely recognised by women and girls in Torbay, there are barriers that limit participation. These include time constraints, competing responsibilities, low confidence, and social challenges, particularly in environments where safety or inclusivity is a concern.
A preference for engaging in physical activity in supportive, female-only or peer-led settings was a theme, where they can connect, share experiences, and feel emotionally safe. These insights reinforce the importance of designing programmes that are not only accessible but also socially responsive to the lived realities of women and girls in Torbay.
What next?
We will prioritise creating safer, more welcoming public spaces by continuing to collaborate with the Community Safety team and local businesses. This includes addressing environmental and cultural factors that contribute to feelings of vulnerability among women and girls.
We will also expand and promote physical activity opportunities that are specifically tailored to their needs, such as peer-led walking groups, female-only sessions, and family-inclusive programmes. We will maintain an ongoing dialogue with women and girls to ensure their voices shape future developments. Listening, adapting, and co-designing will be central to our approach as we work to build a more inclusive and empowering physical activity landscape across Torbay.
