Published: Friday 24th February 2023 | 9.20am
Cannock Chase Council’s and Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles’ health and wellbeing app Cannock Chase Can has been shortlisted in the Innovation category in the LGC Awards 2023. The LGC was formerly known as the Local Government Chronicle.
It comes just over a year since the mobile phone app was launched with a mission to support residents, through challenges and helpful advice, to improve their wellbeing.
The Cannock Chase Can app starts by assessing your wellbeing by creating a personal profile that captures your healthy weight, personal goals, and then the wellness journey you would like to pursue.
The app asks users to answer questions relating to themes of budget well, sleep well, eat well, move well, connect well, feel well, manage well and naturally well. The app then creates an individual Wellness Wheel. Tailored information and community challenges, such as walking the Wellbeing Trail at Cannel Mount, are provided to help users progress their individual wellness journeys in whichever themes they need.
The app’s creation was inspired by the work of TV chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who worked with the people of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to tackle obesity.
Cannock Chase Council is one of nine local authority entries in the LGC Awards Innovation category. The category celebrates councils who have used innovation `to re-think services to achieve better outcomes for citizens and communities either at less cost, to improve outcomes or delivery, or in order to continue delivery of service during the pandemic`. Cannock Chase is the only district/borough council in the Innovation category shortlist.
Councillor Val Jones, Portfolio Holder for Health, Wellbeing and Community Engagement at Cannock Chase Council said: “It is fabulous to learn that our app has been recognised in this way, irrespective of whether we win the award or not.
“Since creating the Cannock Chase Can initiative, we have been embedding the app in other aspects of our work including through our community engagement events and activities during last year’s Commonwealth Games. We are currently considering how we can extend its use as part of a new health and wellbeing strategy that is being developed.
“The app enables new and innovative ways of working and engaging with individuals, communities and groups allowing us to have a positive impact on the lives of people we have traditionally had difficulty in reaching or engaging with.”
Entries in the awards were judged by panels of senior council officers who sifted through more than 700 entries overall. The Council’s entry will be considered further by a judging panel in April with the category winner to be announced at the official Awards Ceremony on 8 June at the Grosvenor House in London.
The Cannock Chase Can app is available to download for free by visiting Google Play and the App Store. For more details on the app visit www.cannockchasecan.co.uk
Photograph:
The Wellness Wheel used in the app