Agenda item

The Director of Public Health to submit a report on the emerging themes for developing the strategy in preparation for it to be renewed/refreshed in 2016.

Ivan Browne, Deputy Director of Public Health presented a report on the emerging themes for developing the strategy in preparation for it to be renewed/refreshed in 2016.  Since the publication of the strategy in 2013, there had been considerable changes in the health and social care landscape. There was a clear need to for a strong and sustained focus and local leadership around prevention. This was needed to reduce the health gap in the city, meet the challenge set out in the NHS 5 Year Forward Review and to reduce pressure on social care and children’s services.

The Board had held a number of development sessions and the following key principles had been identified to drive the strategy’s development:-

·         The strategy should set out a long term vision for 20-25 years, which would act as a blueprint for how to deal with inequalities, enabling investment in prevention and reducing the gap in health outcomes between different parts of the city. The strategy should recognise that changes in life expectancy require short-term action but the impact on key outcomes such as life expectancy, will take longer to demonstrate and will need sustained focus. However, there is also a clear need to take rapid action to accelerate the pace of change in some ‘high impact’ areas which could lead to more rapid change in the next 3-5years.

·         The strategy should focus on different stages of people’s lives, looking at what would lead to sustained improvements in children’s health and well-being, in adult life and in older age. It should also look at the wide range of assets and resources locally that could drive improvements in health and well-being. The strategy needed to clearly reflect and help drive work already going on locally to improve health outcomes.

·         There needed to be clear buy-in and support from the public for the ‘high impact’ areas that the strategy will focus on.

·         The strategy needed to be supported by good data, including the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and local MORI Health and Well-being Strategy and be measured against key short, medium and long-term outcome measures.

·         The strategy needed to be innovative and developed and delivered in a way which uses new techniques to support behaviour change, for example using social media or local health challenges to encourage people to think differently and to encourage people across the city to get involved.

·         There needed to be effective engagement of different groups from across the city to mobilise resources to deliver the strategy, including the voluntary sector, community groups, schools and local businesses.

·         It should draw on external expertise, such as the Institute of Health Equity, to support the development of a clear and evidence-based framework for systematically tackling health inequalities

The strategy will be developed and delivered by a working group which would develop a draft strategy and engagement plan. The group will include:

• Key thematic leads from public health /public health data analyst
• A representative from the CCG’s strategy team
• Representatives from Adult Social Care and Children’s Services
• The council’s equalities lead
• A representative from Healthwatch
• Key HWB members

It was proposed to submit a draft strategy document to the February Board

meeting and then undertake a programme of engagement with patients, the public and stakeholders to elicit feedback on the draft, including ideas about the best measures to put in place to achieve the strategy’s objectives.

RESOLVED:

That the proposals for the development of the strategy and the subsequent engagement programme be noted and supported.