Agenda item

Review and sign off of the refreshed Strategy, Action Plan and Action Plans on a Page.

Spotlight on Stoptober and how this links to the priorities in the Strategy.

Dr Jane O'Grady, Service Director Public Health and Community Safety, Buckinghamshire Council.

Councillor A Macpherson introduced the item by reminding members of the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on Thursday 26 May 2022, whereby the proposal for the Board to focus on a limited number of key priorities in order to deliver long-term improvement in health in some of the most challenging areas was agreed. These priorities endorsed the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy life course approach and over the summer period of 2022, work had been undertaken to refresh the strategy. The Chair gave thanks to everyone involved, in particular the leads for the priority areas:

• Heidi Beddall at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Dan Flecknoe from Public Health on their work on ‘Improving outcomes during maternity and early years’
• Donna Clarke at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Louise Hurst from Public Health on their work on ‘Improving mental health support’
• Sally Hone from Public Health on ‘Reducing the prevalence of obesity in children and adults’ and ‘Increasing the physical activity of older people’
• Tiffany Burch from Public Health on ‘Reducing the rates of cardiovascular disease’ and
• Dr Sarah Winchester from Public Health on ‘Improving places and helping communities to support healthy ageing’

Dr J O’Grady, Director of Public Health, stated that action plans were in development to reduce inequalities and gaps in health across the life course approach. Regarding mental health, the differential access and experience for ethnic minority groups was considered. The Board were informed of the planned work to co-design action plans with local communities and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations.

Dr O’Grady referred to the papers in the agenda pack and noted the minor changes to the strategy including the priorities starting on page 33 of the agenda pack. It was explained that performance baseline measures would be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in December to help track progress.

Resolved: The Health and Wellbeing Board:

• Noted and agreed the refreshed Buckinghamshire Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy as set out in Appendix 1.
• Noted and agreed the Action Plan as set out in Appendix 2.
• Noted and agreed the Action Plans on a Page as set out in Appendix 3.
• Noted and agreed that the Strategy is iterative and to contribute to the development of the action plans.

Dr O’Grady spoke about ‘Stoptober’ to support people to quit smoking. It was agreed the Health and Wellbeing Board alongside its partners issue a shared press release. This would be coordinated through the smoking cessation and tobacco control group.

It was suggested that linking in with existing primary care programmes such as flu clinics, utilising primary care websites, and issuing media for rotating waiting room screens would help reach a wider audience. Recognising that the current cost of living crisis may be making it more difficult to quit, it was suggested that incorporating financial saving messages may be helpful. Councillor A Macpherson proposed advertising Stoptober to those in the health and local authority workforce.

Action:  All – To send any ‘Stoptober’ ideas to Tiffany Burch 

Action:  J Boosey – To circulate Tiffany’s email address after the meeting

Resolved:  The Health and Wellbeing Board agreed to support the Stoptober campaign and all partners would promote a shared press release