Agenda item

Report by Ansaf Azhar, Director of Public Health.

Organisations across the Health and Wellbeing Board have developed a draft Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2024-2030 (Annex 1). This comes following a thorough process of early engagement with people and communities across Oxfordshire (see summary of this work at Annexes 2a and 2b), a workshop with the Health and Wellbeing Board (see report at Annex 3), and the steering of the cross-organisational Task and Finish group. The strategy offers a strong, unified vision for improved health and wellbeing and will act as the primary place strategy for health and wellbeing in Oxfordshire. Officers now propose to publish the draft strategy for public and professional consultation before further review by the Health and Wellbeing Board and final publication in December (see consultation plans at Annex 4). The Task and Finish group will then develop a delivery plan and outcomes framework in consultation with the Health and Wellbeing Board for publication by the Board in March 2024.

The Health and Wellbeing Board is RECOMMEDED to

·       Approve publication of the draft strategy (Annex 1) for public and professional consultation;

·       Consider extensive early engagement to date (Annexes 2a and 2b);

·       Note the strategy workshop on 7 September, attended by members of the Health and Wellbeing Board, the strategy’s Task and Finish group, and the Future Oxfordshire Partnership—and the report summarising its outcomes (Annex 3);

·       Comment on and approve the proposed consultation approach (see Annex 4).

The Director of Public Health, Ansaf Azhar, updated the Board on the developments of the new Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The work on the Strategy had been great partnership working. The Strategy offered a strong, unified vision for improved health and wellbeing and would act as the primary Place Strategy for the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) and final sign off in December 2023. The Task and Finish Group would then develop a delivery plan and outcomes framework in consultation with the HWB for publication by the Board in March 2024.

Jamie Slagel, National Management Trainee, covered the following points:

·       This was a new Strategy after five years which takes into consideration the new world, Covid-19, health inequalities, cost of living crisis and preventing poor health, integrated care system and collaborative working.

·       Every organisation on the HWB had been a part of the task and finish group and had assisted to develop the list of priorities and the structure.

·       Spoken to over 1200 residents across Oxfordshire and ensuring their voices were at the heart of the Strategy.

·       Healthwatch Oxfordshire were thanked for their assistance in contacting over 1100 residents. In-depth focus groups were also carried out with 13 seldom heard communities.

·       On 7^th September a workshop looked at all the information that had been collated and reflected in the current version of the draft Strategy.

·       The Strategy presented was not the final version. The focus of the Strategy that came out of the workshop was about creating good health such as good jobs, clean air and healthy homes.

·       The mental health involvement was very important for the residents. The Strategy considered mental health throughout, looking at the drivers of good mental health and preventing poor mental health.

The consultation would be launched after the HWB endorsed at the meeting, for five weeks giving residents as long as possible to feedback and continue to engage. All the comments at the end of the consultation would be integrated and a final Strategy would be brought to the HWM on 7 December 2023.

The outcomes framework that would measure the outcomes over the following six months would be reported to the HWM at the March 2024 meeting.

Councillor McHugh, Cherwell District Council, made the following points:

·       Cherwell District Council was very supportive of the Strategy and commented that the stakeholder engagement had been excellent.

·       It was essential to better articulate the collaborative working and all the connections to emphasize prevention and work carried out with the local NHS Trust.

·       The links to other strategies and local plans were key in determining land use and creating healthy communities.

·       And finally, was there sufficient challenge on the mental health services and improving the experience of the service users.

The Chair added that the inclusion of District Council Members on the Board was really important as it was at district level that local plans were being written. It was essential to work in partnership with District Councils. Oxfordshire was a two-tier county and the step change on the HWB was very positive. The Director of Public Head added that despite the limitations in funding and investment, there was some really good practice on the ground such as the domestic abuse strategy work and the weight management alliance and the close working with Place base partnerships and building further on that.

Councillor Howson, Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Young People's Services, commented that schooling and education was an important part of this and the difficulties in finding PE teachers at primary level. There were so many small schools with no specialised PE teachers, and this was increasing with multi-academy trusts were mandating further to this approach. Obesity in the young was an increasing concern. There was also a campaign through school areas of having 20mph speed limits, giving greater opportunity for active travel, walking or cycling to school.

Councillor Louise Upton, Oxford City Council, commented that they too were supportive of the Strategy and focus on inequality but was concerned about the measurement framework and its relevance as ‘what got measured, got done’, therefore it was very important to select the right things to measure. It was commented that there had been a good balance on quantitative and qualitative measures.