Agenda item

To receive an update on progress made in developing the strategy, including a summary of current conditions.

Sarah Rayfield introduced a report updating the Board on progress with the development of a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Berkshire West.

She noted that Phase 1 (Defining the Current State) was complete and they were currently nearing the end of Phase 2 (Prioritisation).

She explained that wide-ranging stakeholder engagement had been undertaken to identify potential priorities. A data exercise had also been completed to identify areas of population need that had not been highlighted through stakeholder engagement. Also, an online survey had been used to engage hard-to-reach / vulnerable groups.

She stated that a long-list of potential priorities had been identified and a series of workshops had been held to assess these with the intention of reducing them to three to five priorities for the final strategy. She confirmed that the next step was to look at inter-dependencies between potential priorities and ways to tackle more than one area at a time, as well as mapping out specific areas in more detail. She highlighted four emerging themes of:

·         Empowerment and self-care

·         Digital enablement

·         Prevention

·         Covid-19 recovery

She noted that there would be a comprehensive public engagement exercise taking place in October that would make use of a variety of media and techniques to gather feedback.

She stated that the development of the strategy had faced a number of challenges:

·         Limited capacity within the team and the wider system.

·         There were many new people in roles across the three local authorities, which had reduced corporate memory.

·         The impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

·         Difficulties in undertaking early public engagement as planned, but a wider piece of public engagement was being co-produced for later in the process.

·         Difficulties with developing a ten year strategy which is fit for purpose in a post-Covid world, when the full impacts of the pandemic are not yet fully known. However, she noted that an early review after 1-2 years would ensure the strategy remained fit for purpose.

Given these challenges, it was recommended to extend the completion date for producing the strategy by a month to allow time for further public engagement.

Councillor Vickers asked if there were any figures on the numbers of people who had been engaged. She highlighted Berkshire Youth, and asked if the community hubs were being utilised, and if town and parish councils had been engaged. She also asked about the age profile of respondents and which groups had not been reached.

Sarah Rayfield stated that engagement was due to start in October. She confirmed that they would be engaging through the community hubs and town and parish / town councils to discuss priorities and get their insights into their local communities. She stated that responses would be closely monitored and profiled to inform changes to the engagement process.

Councillor Doherty noted that previous surveys had attracted a low response from young people. She suggested contacting Nikki Davies about the Peer Mentoring Network and how to engage young people in different ways.

Andrew Sharp commended the work that had been done in such challenging circumstances, but suggested that the strategy should be given more time if necessary. He stressed the need for the Board to get all of its partners involved. He suggested that the long-term implications of Covid were not yet understood and so more time would be useful.

Garry Poulson agreed with Andrew Sharp that the strategy needed more time to allow voluntary groups to properly engage with the process. He also stressed the importance of a ‘call to action’.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.