Agenda item

Mr Keith Spencer, Co-Chair and Managing Director at Hillingdon Health and Care Partners, advised that the current Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy had come to an end.  The Board had agreed the priorities that it wanted to include in the newest iteration of the Strategy earlier in the municipal year and the document focussed on interventions which had demonstrated progress.  The ‘what’ and ‘how’ had been set out in the report (what needed to be improved and how this would be done).  Each section set out the priorities and identified seven high impact programmes to deliver these priorities. 

Consideration had been given to what was known to work (or was likely to work) and delivery thereof would mean that partners would need to work differently.  Links had been drawn with the Family Hub as well as between the Family Hub and neighbourhoods, promoting independence and wellbeing.

Mr Spencer advised that he would like a plain English version of the Strategy available for the public consultation which would take place in January and February 2026 and be brought back to the Board’s March 2026 meeting.  The metrics had been collected as part of the performance report and it would be important to ensure that the new hospital was set in the right place in the system. 

There had been some resistance to including additional priorities.  Although children and young people were thought to be important, the addition of another priority would need to be resourced and would need the Council to lead on it.  The Director of Children and Young People’s Services should be attending the Health and Wellbeing Board meetings and it had been identified that stronger relationships were needed between CNWL and the Council’s Children’s Services. 

Although there was a Safer Children’s Partnership (SCP), there seemed to be a focus on public health issues and the priorities set out in the Strategy did not really sit with the SCP.  As such, it was suggested that further conversations were needed to ensure that these areas aligned. 

Lots of children and young people witnessed domestic abuse in the home and the frequency of incidents was not decreasing.  This had an impact on their mental and physical health.  The issue needed to be discussed with the relevant partners around the table.  It would be important for partners to reflect and for residents to take responsibility for what they did and look at what partners could reasonably be expected to do. 

It was noted that the Board’s next meeting had been scheduled for 3 March 2026.  To ensure that there was enough time to be able to report back on the results of the consultation after resident engagement, it was agreed that the meeting be moved to 24 March 2026.  It was noted that, if partners delivered on everything set out in the Strategy, there would definitely be improvements in residents’ health and a reduction in the pressure on partners. 

The Board queried what the expectation was of residents and how they should be looking after themselves.  It was also asked if partners would be sufficiently brave to be more equal in their approach and initiate a social contract which set out the expectations of residents. 

RESOLVED:  That:

1. the draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy be approved for public and stakeholder engagement; and
2. the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting scheduled for 3 March 2026 be moved to 24 March 2026.