Committee details

The Health and Wellbeing Board was introduced by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 which required that top tier authorities (i.e. Unitary and County Councils) establish a Board by 1 April 2013.

The statutory functions of the Board include:

·       To prepare a Joint Strategic Assessment (JSNA); a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS).

·       A duty to encourage integrated working between health and social care commissioners in connection with the provision of health and social care services;

·       A power to encourage close working between commissioners and health-related services and the board itself; and

·       A power to encourage close working between commissioners of health-related services and commissioners of health and social care services.

There are a number of principles underlying the functioning of the Health and Wellbeing Board.  These include:

·       Shared leadership of a strategic approach to the health and wellbeing of communities;

·       A commitment to drive real action and change to improve services and outcomes;

·       Parity between Board members in terms of their opportunity contribute to the Board’s deliberations, strategies and activities

·       Shared ownership of the Board by all its members and accountability to the communities it serves; and

·       Openness and transparency in the way that the Board carries out its work.