Councillors are looking to offer extra support to children and the elderly to prevent them needing costly services in future.

Hertfordshire County Council’s prevention strategy would focus on keeping people as well and as independent as possible.

It would ask its services to work in increasingly ‘preventative’ ways as public services and finances continue to be under pressure.

In practical terms the prevention approach could mean initiatives to keep older adults physically strong, active and well-fed to prevent frailty and falls.

It could mean teaching children about healthy relationships at school, to reduce the risk of domestic abuse and teenage pregnancies.

Or it could mean taking steps to reduce waste and increase recycling to prevent the need for additional landfill sites.

The approach was backed last Wednesday by members of the county council’s public health and prevention cabinet panel.

If adopted by the cabinet, it could underpin the approach taken by all council departments, from highways to children’s services, adult care to employment.

In the introduction to the draft prevention strategy document, executive member for public health and prevention Cllr Richard Roberts says: “The county council’s ambition is for a population which thrives, is healthy and is as independent as possible.

“Part of ensuring we can play our part in achieving this is to make sure our approaches to the services we provide focus on keeping people as well and independent as possible.

“This is not just in the realms of health but also across social care, education and other aspects of what makes for good quality of life."

Underpinning the strategy are estimates that predict the county’s population could have grown by 220,000 within 20 years – which is more than twice the population of Watford.

By 2037, there is expected to be a higher proportion of older people – with 23,000 people expected to be over 90.

According to the strategy, the prevention approach is needed to ensure that growth in population is an opportunity, rather than “a generator of demand for service”.

It would, says the report, also mean working with a range of partners, including business, NHS, the Police and Crime Commissioner, schools and the voluntary and community sectors,

The report says the approach wold be reviewed after five years.