Issue - meetings

To consider the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. (15 mins)

The Board received a report regarding the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

·         Julie Hotchkiss, Interim Consultant in Public Health, presented the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and accompanying chapters from the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

·         The page for partners would be updated as other organisations adopted the Strategy.

·         Julie Hotchkiss took the Board through the three priorities which had been selected: Priority 1 – Creating Physically Active Communities, Priority 2 – Reducing Social Isolation and Priority 3 – Narrowing the Health Inequalities Gap.

·         With regards to Priority 1, Carol Cammiss, Director Children’s Services, suggested it would be helpful to carry out work about some of the Borough’s more vulnerable young people such as the SEN cohort.

·         With regards to Priority 2 the Board discussed a television programme ‘Old People’s Home for 4 year olds’ and felt that the possibility of undertaking something similar in Wokingham should be examined.

·         With regards to Priority 3, it was noted that although Wokingham was on the whole, affluent, there were pockets of inequalities.  The difference in life expectancy for the most affluent and the most deprived was 5.5 years for men and 4.5 years for women.

·         Although Wokingham had low levels of smoking, smoking levels in manual workers were comparatively high.

·         Charlotte Seymour, Wellbeing Board Manager advised the Board that a stakeholder mapping exercise had been undertaken regarding the implementation of the strategy, to identify the key stakeholders and then to determine their level of interest, influence and involvement.

·         Charlotte Seymour proposed a workshop or event in order to flesh out the engagement plan to ensure that all stakeholders felt involved; to establish the wealth of work already going on relating to the three priority areas; establish what the Board wanted to work towards and also; to co-produce an Action Plan to deliver the Strategy.

·         Board members were informed that there would be Wellbeing Board representation at the Council Plan event on 6 December.

·         Councillor Dolinski requested that the list of proposed stakeholders be sent to Board members for comment and that Board members inform the Wellbeing Board Manager if there were any others who they felt should be included.

RESOLVED:  That

1)         the focused Joint Strategic Needs Assessment chapters attached as Appendix 2 to the report be approved;

2)         the Health and Wellbeing Board review and support the refreshed strategy and accompanying focused Joint Strategic Needs Assessment chapters and recommend the strategy’s approval to Council;

3)         the Board considers how to engage with wider partners on delivery of actions to achieve the strategy.