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Strategy

Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy

The Health and Wellbeing Board’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy is a seven year plan setting out how we aim to put in place the best conditions for people of all ages to live healthy and fulfilling lives.


  • Published date: 24 April 2023
  • Last updated: 28 July 2023

Details

We worked with local people and organisations, and used our strategic evidence base, to understand what is important to keep people healthy and well in our area. You can read more about how we did this and what we found out in our intelligence and engagement report.

Producing a Health and Wellbeing Strategy is a statutory requirement of Health and Wellbeing Boards. The Health and Wellbeing Board is a formal committee of the local authority to promote greater partnerships between:

  • B&NES Council
  • B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board
  • Healthwatch B&NES
  • Royal United Hospital
  • University of Bath
  • Bath Spa University
  • Bath College
  • Avon and Somerset Police
  • 3SG
  • Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP)
  • Curo
  • Avon Fire and Rescue

Members of the public are welcome to attend the Health and Wellbeing Board meetings and seating is provided in the room for this.

Our Vision for 2030 sets out four priorities which we hope together will help people have the best start in life, live well in caring, compassionate communities, and make it easier for people to live physically and emotionally healthy lives. The list of priorities is not exhaustive, but it provides focus to establish the right foundations for everyone’s health and wellbeing over the next few years.

Our four priorities

We have set out four priorities that will improve the health and wellbeing of all residents and reduce health inequalities. Expand the sections below to read a summary of each priority.

Ensure that children and young people are healthy and ready for learning and education

We will:

  • Strengthen family resilience to ensure the best start in life
  • Improve timely access to appropriate family and wellbeing support
  • Reduce the existing educational attainment gap for children and young people
  • Ensure services for children and young people who need support for emotional health and wellbeing, from early help to statutory support services, are needs-led and tailored to respond and provide appropriate care and support

Improve skills, good work, and employment

We will:

  • Work with education providers and other partners to provide robust and inclusive pathways into work, including for disadvantaged young people
  • Work with local employers to encourage, incentivise, and promote good quality work
  • Support the development of and access to an inclusive labour market, focusing on engaging our populations most at risk of inequalities in accessing and maintaining good work
  • Prioritise inclusiveness and social value as employers, purchasers, and investors in the local economy

Strengthen compassionate and healthy communities

We will:

  • Continue to develop the infrastructure that encourages and enables individuals, organisations, and networks to work together in an inclusive way, with the shared aim of supporting people in need and building strong local communities
  • Enable and encourage proactive engagement in health promoting activity at all ages for good quality of life
  • Develop a strategic approach to social prescribing to enable people to remain healthy and manage physical and mental health conditions

Create health promoting places

We will:

  • Utilise the Local Plan as an opportunity to shape, promote, and deliver healthy and sustainable places and reduce inequalities
  • Improve take up of low carbon affordable warmth support for private housing, and encourage B&NES social housing providers to provide low carbon, affordable warmth for existing social housing to help prevent damp, mould, and cold-related illnesses
  • Maximise opportunities in legislation to facilitate a targeted private rented sector inspection programme to ensure the minimum statutory housing and energy efficiency standards are met
  • Improve access to physical and mental health services and interventions for all ages via the development of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs), community-based services, and our specialist centres
  • Work with the NHS, local authority, voluntary and community sector, and other partners to increasingly embed prevention and inequalities action into their planning and prioritisation

Our principles that underpin all that we do

In order for our strategy to be a success and make the difference we hope that it will, partnerships and organisations leading the implementation of the strategy will seek to incorporate the following principles in their work delivering on the priorities:

  • Tackle inequalities
  • Adapt and build resilience to climate change
  • Share responsibility and engage for change
  • Deliver for all life stages

How we will know if we are making a difference

We are developing a set of indicators which will help us over time see if we are on the right track. The Health and Wellbeing Board will receive updates on actions taken by partners of the Health and Wellbeing Board to deliver on the strategy. These meetings are public and you can attend to find out more. Find out more about our meetings, including dates and times.

Documents


Last updated 28 July 2023