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Wiltshire's Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy

Wiltshire's Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023 to 2032

The Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy as agreed at Wiltshire's Health and Wellbeing Board in March 2023.

Foreword

The health and wellbeing of Wiltshire residents is the highest priority for the Wiltshire Health and Wellbeing Board, we are determined to ensure that people in Wiltshire are empowered to live full, healthy and enriched lives.

This strategy has been developed based upon the evidence of need and has enabled the board to focus on four thematic areas where it can have its most impact, ensuring everyone has access to the opportunities and services that we would expect for our own friends and families. We know that our population is ageing (there is a forecast increase of 87% in our aged 85 and over population by the year 2040). We also know that where someone is born and raised in Wiltshire can have a significant influence on how healthy they are and how long they will live and that, sadly, the pandemic and ensuing cost of living challenges have further exacerbated these health inequalities. We want to ensure everyone can thrive in Wiltshire. Achieving this will mean a clear focus on reducing inequalities but also connecting with communities to encourage local action and better tailoring the delivery of our services to reflect the needs of local areas.

As organisations responsible for designing, commissioning and delivering a huge range of health and social care services for Wiltshire residents, we are keen to make services the best they can be and excellent value. Integrated working is an essential part of this. We also recognise the need to shift the focus from acute to primary and community care and, in turn, to preventative activity and population health. A population health approach will allow the risks and rewards of investment in services to be shared locally and the potential to try new approaches such as clustering more care services around GPs or commissioning on the basis of whole population health outcomes rather than systems which reward increased contact. It will also mean we fully recognise the difference good jobs, housing, natural environments, education and community can make to health and wellbeing.

We must work with local communities and target our collective resources where the evidence tells us action will make the greatest improvements to people's health and wellbeing.

Therefore, our four guiding themes for this strategy build on those of our previous strategy (and those reflected in our Business plan) as a clear long term commitment to this way of working.

Our four guiding themes are:

  1. improving social mobility and tackling inequalities
  2. prevention and early intervention
  3. localisation and connecting with communities
  4. integration and working together

As a board we will continue to work closely together to deliver the vision of this strategy so that our ambition is realised.

Cllr Richard Clewer
Chair, Wiltshire Health and Wellbeing Board

Introduction

The Wiltshire Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) was introduced by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It is a partnership that brings together the leaders of the health and social care system.

The board is required by legislation to deliver specific responsibilities:

  • produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment
  • develop a Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy
  • encourage and enable integrated working between health and social care

The JSNA uses current data and evidence about health and wellbeing in Wiltshire, to highlight the health needs of the whole community. It demonstrates how needs may vary for different age groups, as well as identifying health differences for disadvantaged or vulnerable groups. The JSNA looks at a wide range of factors that help shape and influence the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and local communities such as education, employment, housing, transport and the environment.

Further information can be found on the Wiltshire Intelligence Network (wiltshireintelligence.org.uk) (opens new window) website which provides a wide range of data sets, indicators and assessments that have relevance to Wiltshire's residents.

Within this document the word 'health' is understood to be a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

This Health and Wellbeing Strategy is a shared strategy, which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population. It uses the analysis and data from the JSNA, to help identify and agree the key ambitions for our population which as a Health and Wellbeing Board we will work together to deliver.

It does not list everything that all organisations will be doing to improve health and wellbeing. Instead it focuses on where Wiltshire's Health and Wellbeing Board can add value and sets out our vision for integrated working for the future.

The purpose of the strategy is to enable:

  • all health and wellbeing partners to be clear about our agreed priorities
  • all members of the HWB to embed the priorities within their own organisations and ensure they are reflected in a joined-up way in their commissioning and delivery plans (this is a statutory duty for the council and the NHS)
  • the board to hold organisations to account for their actions towards achieving the objectives and priorities in the strategy.

Wiltshire's strategy has been developed in tandem with the new Integrated Care Strategy (the 'system level' strategy) for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) and the first five-year Joint Forward Plan for the Integrated Care Board which will deliver it. The two strategies are complementary and differentiate the activity that will be taking place at 'system' (ie BSW) and 'place' (ie Wiltshire) levels. To ensure alignment Wiltshire's Health and Wellbeing Board is consulted on the system level strategies and related delivery plans and has the opportunity to include a statement on compliance with the JSNA and JLHWS within the forward plan, as well as to be consulted on the annual report for BSW.

Wiltshire's Health and Wellbeing Board will consider regular progress reports on the delivery of this strategy, which will inform the work programme of the Wiltshire Integrated Care Alliance and the individual work of members of the board. The progress reports will also inform the timescale for any refresh of this strategy before 2032.

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