Agenda item

Dr Katherine Packham, Consultant in Public Health, Leicester City Council will present the report.

The Board is asked to approve the final version of the overarching priority of the strategy outlined in the report  and to approve the Leicester Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2027 and commit to the action plan development process to develop an action plan for implementation of the strategy.

Dr Katherine Packham, Consultant in Public Health, Leicester City Council presented the Leicester Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy, 2022-2027 which had been updated since the Board considered the Draft Strategy on 28 October 2021.

The Board were asked to approve the final version of the overarching priority of the strategy outlined in the report  and to approve the Leicester Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2027 and commit to the action plan development process to develop an action plan for implementation of the strategy.

It was noted that:-

·         The Strategy combined the draft strategy together with the items which had emerged from the development sessions since then. 

·         The 19 priorities had been the subject of an online public engagement exercise from November 2021 to January 2022, as well as an extensive programme of discussion and engagement with a range of partnership boards and groups, and community groups and organisations.

·         The Strategy aimed to tackle the Inverse Care Law where those who needed health care the most are least likely to receive it.

·         It was intended to put all the priorities into the supporting Action Plan to form a list of issues which needed to be addressed during the 5-year period of the Strategy.  A smaller manageable number (4-6 priorities) would be identified to be addressed in the in short term with the others being put into lower priority categories to be developed so everyone gets services proportionate to existing needs and circumstances.   As the Action Plan progressed, and the initial priorities were achieved, the Action Plan would be reviewed and priorities in the lower priority groups would be re-assessed to determine which should be considered to be addressed next. In this way, the Action Plan would be responsive to the changing health needs and circumstances prevalent at that time.        

·         Staff were working with the communications and engagement staff in the CCG.

·         A rapid engagement group citizens panel had looked at the current wording of overarching priority of ‘Working together to enable everyone in Leicester to have an equal opportunity for good health and wellbeing’ and had preferred ‘fair’ to ‘same’ or ‘equal’ in relation to opportunity. 

·         It was hoped to get the final Strategy and collaborative Action Plan to the Board’s next meeting.

Members of the Board commented that:-

·         The Strategy did not comment upon the primary determinants of health such as employment and housing etc. 

·         ‘Enable’ in the overarching statement could mean that the opportunity was their there but ‘fair’ could mean that if people don’t pick up the opportunity it was their fault.

·         ‘I statements’ were supported in the Strategy together with the extensive engagement that had been carried out.  Continued engagement could be addressed as part of the Action Plan.

Once the final version of the Strategy was available it would go through the Council’s process for approval and scrutiny.  The Strategy would also need to go to integrated boards and any other body or partners involved in the Strategy to get the Strategy into a wider audience and through the community.

It was emphasised that the Strategy was not an NHS and Local Authority document but was a strategic Health and Wellbeing Board document which needed to be owed and distributed in all the Board’s organisations and partner organisations.

RESOLVED:-

1)    That the Leicester Health, Care and Wellbeing Strategy be approved subject to amendments suggested in the meeting and that the Action Plan development processes to develop the Action Plan to implement the Strategy be supported.  

2)    That Officers review and reword the overarching priority of the strategy based upon the comment made in the meeting.

3)    That the final Strategy, as amended, be submitted to the Board’s next meeting.