Men in Medway live 3.9 years less than women, and 10.4 years less in the poorest areas. The council has signed Movember's charter: here is what it promises.

Medway Council is the first local authority in England to sign Movember’s Men’s Health Charter, the council and the charity say. Councillors adopted it unanimously at full council on 15 October, and it now runs into Movember itself.

The charter commits the council to a local men’s health strategy, to collecting health data split by sex, and to making sure its grants support men’s health. The council announced it on 19 October.

The numbers behind it

The figures are the council’s own, set out in the motion and in its announcement:

  • Men in Medway live to 78.7 on average, 3.9 years less than women in Medway
  • The gap between Medway’s poorest and richest areas is 10.4 years for men: 72.7 years in the most deprived areas against 83.1 in the least deprived
  • Men make up a disproportionate share of deaths under 75, mostly from cancer, respiratory disease and circulatory disease
  • Boys and men do worse than girls and women in Medway on school readiness, the share not in education, employment or training, and smoking

Nationally, suicide is the most common cause of death for men aged 20 to 34, the motion says.

What the council has signed up to

Movember’s charter has six commitments. In the council’s words, it will:

  • appoint a senior executive member to lead on men’s health across the council, the NHS and community services
  • collect the right data: the Health and Wellbeing Board will make sure health service use is recorded by sex, and the Director of Public Health’s annual report will carry a section on men’s health
  • fund men’s health initiatives, by making sure grant funding supports men’s health, including grants for culture and leisure
  • focus on those facing the worst outcomes, considering how ethnicity, disability, sexuality, deprivation and life experience shape men’s health and access to services
  • make health outreach work for men, raising uptake of health checks with outreach “in familiar settings”
  • commit to a plan: a Local Men’s Health Strategy, driven by the Health and Wellbeing Board

No deadline was set

An amendment from Councillor Burvill, seconded by Councillor Finch, would have required a Medway Men’s Health Delivery Plan within six months. It would have set out costs, funding and annual reporting, and how the council would respond to loneliness, money worries, relationship breakdown and domestic abuse. The amendment was lost, the council’s record of the meeting shows. The motion as first proposed, by Councillor Field and seconded by Councillor Joy, was then agreed.

So the strategy has no published date yet. The record does not say who the lead member will be.

What the council and Movember said

Council leader Vince Maple said several councillors “took the brave and powerful move to share their own very personal experiences” in the debate. He pointed to programmes already running: Man vs Fat, an adult weight management programme, and Men in Sheds, which supports men’s mental wellbeing.

Amy O’Connor, Movember’s director for policy and advocacy in the UK and Europe, said the charity was “delighted that Medway Council is leading the way as the first local authority in England to sign our Men’s Health Charter”.

What it means for you

Nothing changes in local services this month. The charter is a set of commitments, and the detail will come in the strategy.

If you are a man aged 40 to 74 and have not had an NHS Health Check in the last five years, you should be invited for one, the NHS says. You can ask your GP practice if you have not been. If you are struggling now, NHS 111 has a mental health option, and Samaritans answer on 116 123, free, day and night.

If you run a group or charity, the charter’s grant commitment matters. Our story on Medway’s voluntary sector grants has the current round, open until 22 November.

Sources