Agenda item

The report seeks to update the Committee on the progress of Neighbourhood Collaboratives across Wiltshire during the past year.  These collaboratives are integral to achieving the objectives of the Wiltshire Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Integrated Care System (ICS) Strategy. 

The Chairman welcomed Emma Higgins (Head of Combined Place – BSW ICB) who was in attendance to provide an update on the progress of Neighbourhood collaboratives across Wiltshire. 

Summarising the key points of the report included in the agenda pack, the following was highlighted: 

·            The neighbourhood collaboratives represent a community-led, partnership based approach to addressing health inequalities, improving health outcomes and fostering a culture of prevention and early intervention;

·            There had been strides in several areas – for the CCB (Chippenham, Corsham and Box) collaborative they were focusing on a targeted cohort of non-hypertensive residents aged 30-49 with obesity and smoking behaviours focusing on preventing long-term conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease and engagement sessions were planned for January 2025;

·            In Salisbury there had been an innovative approach by engaging the farmers at the Livestock Market and the development of health and wellbeing work in the market directly.  This had been particularly successful and there were ongoing discussions around transferring that learning to other settings;

·            In terms of county wide progress despite some delays to reach the April 2025 target there had been recent developments in Warminster, Calne, Trowbridge and Devizes and were on track to establishing collaboratives in those areas and across Wiltshire in 2025;

·            Colleagues in the Community Conversations team at the Council were embedded in the collaboratives work and their ongoing dialogue with communities had been crucial in shaping priorities and ensuring the work remains responsive to local needs;

·            Key learning, particularly around the Livestock market had provided valuable insights by offering health promotion and some services directly into the market and they had successfully reached usually hard to reach populations and supported them with needs identified at the market.  The pilot highlighted the importance of delivering services in a familiar environment and demonstrated the value of preventative care.  A full evaluation report and presentation was available for viewing;

·            The aims for 2025 were to embed the learning and approach from the collaboratives across the work and the full Steering Group meeting February will focus on lesson learned from the work to date and celebrate success to inform future developments.  They were also exploring opportunities to integrate the work with the new ICB provider in HCRG when that into effect in April 2025; and

·            The Neighbourhood Collaborative programme had made significant progress towards the objectives and demonstrates the potential of community-led partnership driven approaches to improving health outcomes and tackling health inequalities across Wiltshire.  It was not a unique programme and they were drawing on learning from a lot of work being done in a number of areas including Community Conversations and they look forward to further discussions on how they can build on and address challenges together.

The Committee asked the following questions which included but were not  

limited to: 

·            Aware that there are already some services in the community for example for trips and falls/hypertension and diabetes etc – how can a collaborative prove to be a success for measure its worth?  It was noted that there are of course some domains services that already exist to support people with those conditions.  The work of collaboratives was focusing on being led by those in the area, responding to local data and looking to prevent the need for support.  For trips and falls it was known that there are more call outs in Bradford-on-Avon and Melksham than in other areas.  The collaborative is seeking to prevent people from falling in the first place and that was the area they were working on.  Proving the value or worth can be challenging as you are measuring the absence of something but it is more long term measurable so you won’t necessarily see improvements in the data immediately coming through but other partners are expressing the value of that work to connect up services and groups. 

·            A lack of resources and funding for participation are identified in the report as being key challenges, have you identified strategies to overcome these barriers?   It was noted that it was always intended that the collaboratives would be self-sufficient and be a repurposing and sharing of resources.  They were ever meant to be funded separately or have new funding come into them.  As there has been demand and capacity challenges over the years that had been a challenge to maintain, but as a group of partners they had looked to identify other sources of funding and had had 3 or 4 successful bids which they would not have otherwise been able to do.  They had their Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) partners who were experienced in opportunities for funding and submitting bids.  They had bid for health and equalities funding and a grant for research work so that that helped with the engagement with women in rural communities.  Also, in touch with partners to see who can offer what in terms of expertise and resource etc.

·            What data is driving the priorities of neighbourhood collaboratives?  What part does public consultation have in identifying priorities?  It was noted that there were 3 strands (a golden triangle) – a) data – using population health methodology, public health data and JSNA findings – it was a data lead approach, b) feedback from communities – some funding was used to develop the engagement model as they found a slightly different approach was needed from more traditional models and they don’t design any intervention without involving local communities and c)  feedback and insights from colleagues working in that environment.  They look at all three things together to make sure it tells a whole picture before they make any decision about what to do and how.

·            Is the aim to have a collaborative in each of the 13 PCN areas deliverable?  It was noted that based on current enthusiasm and progress made then yes it was felt to be deliverable.  The 5 PCN’s in the Salisbury area had expressed a desire to work together.

Resolved: 

That the Health Select Committee: 

1.          Note the update on the progress of the Neighbourhood Collaboratives.

2.          Receive an annual impact report on Neighbourhood Collaboratives.