Agenda item

To receive the findings of the consultation on the implementation plan of the Health and Wellbeing Board’s Strategy, Equally Well: A Healthier, Fairer Future for North Tyneside (2021-2025), approve the final implementation plan and agree the governance arrangements for monitoring delivery.

In November 2021 the Board had adopted a revised Joint Local Health & Wellbeing Strategy (JLHWS): Equally Well: A Healthier, Fairer Future for North Tyneside 2021-2025 and subsequently agreed a process of formulating and consulting on an implementation plan to deliver the vision and ambitions contained in the strategy.

As the strategy made clear that attempts to tackle inequalities must be done in collaboration and equal partnership with those affected it was essential that the draft implementation plan should also be agreed by the community. North Tyneside Healthwatch had therefore led an extensive consultation process with a range of local community groups to gather views from residents and organisations about the implementation plan. The Board heard about one example of engagement which had involved an artist in residence working with a focus group to produce an artwork illustrating the key issues to emerge.

The overall findings of the consultation were broadly positive, with consultees agreeing with the approach of the strategy, particularly the need to look at the wider determinants of health to reduce health inequalities. Details of the findings were presented to the Board and particular reference was made to:

a)     the cost-of-living crisis which could potentially widen health inequalities and affect many people who were sometimes referred to as ‘just about managing’ and also local businesses;

b)     ensuring that the capacity within the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector was maximised and that delivery solutions were truly co-produced;

c)     workforce challenges needing to be more explicit in the implementation plan;

d)     the challenges and costs associated with transport to work and appointments; and

e)     the importance of digital inclusion.

The Board was presented with an implementation plan which set out actions, outcomes and proposed performance indicators based on the 7 impact areas contained within the strategy. The Board were assured from the feedback that the implementation plan reflected the lived experience of communities.

It was acknowledged that tackling health inequalities required a long-term commitment from the Board and its partners and making a difference in relation to poverty and the social determinants of health would take longer than the life of the strategy. The Board also considered the political and economic changes which had occurred during the time taken to formulate the implementation plan. The plan would therefore need to be flexible to adapt to contextual changes and it needed to be understood that some issues could only be addressed at a national level.

A proposed governance structure was presented to the Board which aimed to provide assurance that each of the 7 impact areas contained within the strategy were being considered by a multi-agency partnership.  Each partnership would have responsibility for delivering the actions, monitoring progress, reporting on implementation to the Board and drafting an implementation plan for year 2. The responsible partnerships and the timescales for reporting progress to the Board were proposed as follows:

The Chair of the Board would write to the Chairs of the respective partnerships to agree the governance and reporting mechanisms. Key indicators had been selected to measure progress and a dashboard would be developed to monitor progress. An overall annual progress report and a refresh of the implementation plan would be presented to the Board in June 2023.

Resolved that (1) the feedback from the findings of Healthwatch North Tyneside’s consultation be noted;

(2) the implementation plan, based on the findings from the consultation, be approved;

(3) a flexible approach be adopted to delivering the plan to adapt to changes in economic and political context;

(4) the proposed governance arrangements to deliver the implementation plan be endorsed; and

(5) the proposed mechanism for reporting back progress of delivery against the implementation plan be endorsed.