Alex Chaplin gave a brief update on the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Strategy (KHWS), advising that following feedback from the March Board meeting regarding the approach, the intention is to reaffirm the approach to the updates.
The Board was reminded that at the sign off for the KHWS in September 2022, the Board asked for an in-depth update on one priority, and summary updates on the other two priorities at each meeting rotating.
At today’s meeting, the main priority update will be on Healthy Places, and a summary update with a RAG rating will cover Connected Care and Mental wellbeing.
The priority update will include:
- A general overview of work under the priority and optional area(s) to highlight in detail, successes, challenges, and requests for support
The two summary updates will be brief, limited to one slide each and may include:
- A general overview, an area to highlight, successes, challenges, and requests for support
The intention is to assess how the update is working, and if required, undertaken a review at the September 2023, board meeting.
Mental Health
Rebecca Elliot, Public Health Manager, gave a brief update on the Mental Health priority, advising that a further, more detailed update will be provided at the July board meeting.
The Board was reminded that the last mental health deep dive was in January 2023, where information was presented on the Primary Care mental health transformation piece of work, and the aim of today’s summary update is to share some of the successes. There is now a new serious mental illness and physical health and wellness team across Kirklees, which is inviting people who are on the serious mental illness register to attend for a physical health check with their GP. In some Primary Care Networks, this is already having a significant impact, and this might be an area that the Board may want to hear more about in July.
In terms of
suicide prevention, we are in the middle of a really insightful and
successful suicide bereavement quilt roadshow, which is taking
place across many different communities
in Kirklees, this will conclude on the 6th of July. It has proved
fruitful and insightful to hear from
communities about having conversations around suicide in the
district and tackling that stigma. That has been really
positive.
One of the VCS
organisations, Community Links, has a project called ‘Men's Talk,’ which
is providing a mental health theatrical production around lived
experience of mental health, which is now receiving national
recognition. It is important
to show that there are some new
innovative ways of talking about mental
health.
In terms of milestones coming up, a review of mental health community options contract is being undertaken, and just linking in with the DPH report on poverty, it is recognised that, poverty is both a cause and consequence of mental health.
With any commissioning that is about to be embarked
upon, it will be important to think
about poverty and looking through the poverty lens throughout any
mental health work. The ‘I’ statements of the strategy
will be taken to the Mental Health Alliance in August, to try and
get some traction on how to tangibly take forward some of the
issues within the strategy, and ask other partners to take some of
these suggestions forward.
In terms of
lived experience, it important to work with people across the
district with experience of mental health to inform not only what
we do but how we do it.
The service user arm of the Mental
Health Alliance is well underway, and
just wanted to share what is happening because it is a positive
step forward that is vital to the work around mental
health.
The Board was asked that if there was a particular area of focus for the deep dive into mental health at the July Board meeting, to contact Rebecca Elliott.
Connected Care and Support
Rachel Millson, Senior Strategic Planning and Development Manager provided a summary update on the progress made on the Connected Care and Support priority. The Board was informed that one of the key achievements since the last update was the development of the Health and Care Plan which was signed off by the ICB board
in May 2023.
There has been a system wide event focusing on discharge pathways, thinking about a move towards advocating a home first approach to discharge. There are ongoing discussions through the Health Inclusion Network, again focusing on health inequalities and the impact of poverty and thinking about how collectively partners can come together and agree some actions around reducing inequalities across the system.
There is ongoing work being undertaken around the community services contract and the review phase. This has now been completed and it is into the design phase, looking at how the future service specifications will be built and what the future services will look like.
In terms
of upcoming milestones, there is ongoing work around some of the
implementation of the Health and Care Plan, which is through the
strategic themes which are the ‘wells.’ Further details on this will be provided at agenda
item 9, Health and Care Plan update.
There will be more follow up conversations around discharge and
help inclusion and looking at the response to the primary care
access recovery plan that was published last
month.
Healthy Places
Lucy Wearmouth Head of Improving Population Health and Julie McDowell, Active Citizens and Places Officer, attended the meeting to provide an update on the Healthy Places priority.
The Board was informed that it is recognised that environmental factors impacts on a person’s ability to be physically and mentally healthy, and housing, green space and how safe a person feels in their local area all has an impact on their ability to lead a healthy life.
There is
significant evidence in Kirklees and nationally, around the fact
that people who are living in more deprived areas are more likely
to live in poor quality housing and are more likely to report that
their housing is unsuitable for their needs. Even if they live in a deprived area and live near
to green space, they are less likely to access that
space. In terms of food, it will be harder to access
healthy, nutritious, affordable food
and there are more likely to be many hot food takeaways within the
local area.
The ambition through the KHWS:
“The physical and social infrastructure and
environment supports people of all ages who live, work or study in
Kirklees to maximise their health opportunities and to make the
healthy choice the easy choice”.
The Board was informed that there are a number of success indicators associated with the ambition, many of which come from the Currently Living in Kirklees (CLiK) survey. This is to understand the impact and the difference being made by the work across the partnership. The success indicators includes things like air quality, overall satisfaction with the local area, use of parks and green spaces, and levels of physical activity for children and adults.
The Board was directed to the presentation which outlined the ‘I’ statements and the evidence to demonstrate how the ‘I’ statements were being achieved across the system.
The ‘I’ statements include some of the following:
“ I would like safe accessible local places where I can meet friends and we can do activities together regardless of age and abilities”
“ I would like to access affordable activities that I can do with my children that help us to be physically and mentally fit”
The Board
was shown a short clip on delivering the ‘I’ statements
entitled “Magic in the Community”, and advised that the
Everybody's Active Team in the Council is facilitating this through
training community partners, younger people with long term health
conditions are also taking part as well. There are new groups being set up all the time for
example, the Windybank Estate, Dewsbury Hospital, and the
Mission in Huddersfield.
The Bread and Butter Thing, is a good example of working with local
communities to understand their local needs and offer a variety of
opportunities. The scheme is an
affordable food scheme that that offers cheap, nutritious,
affordable food across hyperlocal places in Kirklees. Residents can access three good bags of food for
£8.00 and anybody can be a member.
It is coming up to the 10th scheme in Kirklees and the following is an example of what has been delivered between March 2022 and December 2022:
- 1603 people have shopped with the Bread and Butter Thing and that has created 3555 volunteer hours
One of
the important aspects of this scheme, is that it is run by the
community and one unexpected consequences of this work, was it was
not just about enabling residents to access affordable food, it is
also helping to connect people within their local area.
The Walk Wheel Ride hub, is another example which aims to give
people advice and inspiration to travel on foot, bike, scooter, or
wheelchair. It is a virtual hub that
will be a one stop shop for people of all ages and abilities in
Kirklees, and is hosted and being developed by EPIK which stands
for environmental projects in Kirklees.
In addition to the ‘I’ Statements, there are also the six key factors which includes inequalities, shaped by people, poverty, digital, housing and climate emergency.
Shaped by people, which is one of the Council shared outcomes, and was written by local people and it's their aspirations for how they would like to describe and measure improvements in local places and what they want to see there. What has been developed in Kirklees is the place standard tool kit and action plan, which is a way of having conversations with local communities about places, asking them about how they feel about a place and their experience of living in that place. Ten thousand people have taken part in a conversation across Kirklees, across 25 activities.
In terms
of the next steps, the Board is asked to help promote the
statements and sign up to this. There
are challenges with the budget and recruitment, and it is recognised that place based work can be
seen as a challenge because it is across services and partners,
however that is also a strength.
There are three asks of the Board today:
1) To comment on, and help shape the direction of delivery against the healthy places priority
2) Consider how board members can support the delivery against the healthy places wellbeing priority
3)
Further develop regular feedback
mechanisms to monitor progress and identify gaps for healthy
places
RESOLVED:
That Alex Chaplin, Lucy Wearmouth, Julie McDowell, Rebecca Elliott, and Rachel Millson be thanked for providing an update on the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Strategy and associated priorities.