Agenda item

Dr Jonathan Wells gave an update about the Primary Care Network’s (PCN) priorities, with a particular look at the Redditch District Collaborative.

There were 10 PCNs in Worcestershire and priorities had been identified: Mental health, frailty, diabetes and obesity, and respiratory. Five district collaboratives were emerging across Worcestershire; Bromsgrove, Redditch, Wyre Forest, Wychavon and Malvern, and Worcester City; each with their own priorities.

Redditch District Collaborative had effective working relationships between the seven member organisations (the PCN, the District Council, the CCG, the County Council, the Voluntary Sector, the Health and Care Trust and the Acute Hospital Trust) and the key principles were to utilise collective resources to address inequalities; secure a greater understanding of the key determinants of poor health and wellbeing; tackle root causes through prevention and to escalate and address locally any issues arising. The collaboratives would help the preventative agenda, which would pay dividends in the longer term. Redditch District Council were finding that people were willing to forego their organisation’s demands and work for the best outcome of an individual and were pleased to be part of something which was producing positive results. The governance approach involved regular meetings and commitment from a senior level, and ensuring progress between meetings by setting up task and finish groups for the three Redditch priority areas.

County-wide work was being translated into a Redditch footprint to deliver the Integrated Well-being Offer, using the four building blocks; building resilient communities, providing comprehensive and accessible information and advice to enable self-help, providing supported information and advice, and integrating services.

Redditch was hoping to highlight the benefits of working in a collaborative. Noting that, by bringing together services, it could be demonstrated to GPs that other organisations provided services which could help the local population and improve the sustainability of health services.

In the following discussion various points were raised:

·        There was a question over Worcester City’s progress and priorities, as it was felt there was little acknowledgement of the wider determinants of health or of inequalities within the City. It was explained that the well-being offer and local development was still in early development. PCNs would be tasked to consider local inequalities and strive to make improvements in their areas.

·        It was queried why there were no specific priorities around children presented. Assurance was given that Redditch would continue to engage with WCF. In addition, many priorities addressed the whole population, not only adults. It was suggested that there should be a more explicit focus on children to enable primary prevention to be successful.

·        The Director of People provided positive reflection on the progress of the District Collaboratives, recognising their role in the developing Integrated Care System, and noting how the Worcestershire Executive Committee was considering their contribution and shared learning. Similarly, the representative from the Acute Hospital Trust admired the work being done by the Redditch collaborative and felt the joint working in Worcestershire was quite progressive.

·        It was queried how the District priorities, such as homelessness, fit with the Public Health and County strategies where this was not explicit. It was acknowledged that this would be explored, and the intention was for the JSNA to support this, with data to inform the strategies, and potentially also direct resource. It was noted that although a short list of priorities had been agreed however, work still continued in other areas.

·        Following on with the point that other issues would be dealt with as well as the priorities, it was queried how and where resourcing issues would be resolved, as it was recognised that there was not enough resource to work on all identified issues.

·        The Healthwatch representative was encouraged to see health positively engaged at primary care level, and wondered where the voice of the public entered the process. It was acknowledged there could be  greater public engagement, with local Councillors fully briefed, but this should not slow progress. A District Councillor was able to reassure the Board that Councillors were kept informed.

·        Redditch District Council was excited about the opportunity to address health inequalities and felt it was very important to invest the time to ensure it progressed. The Board was also reassured that although the JSNA provided information to inform strategy, that was checked against experiences ‘on the ground’ before resources were committed.

·        It was hoped that collaborative working should be able to bring extra resource to the area, although it was pointed out that the PCN areas were not co-terminus with the District Council areas.

·        A Board member further commended Redditch’s visionary approach, commenting that district collaboratives were a solution to the problem of how to engage with all GPs. The collaboratives were also a way to break down the ‘illness’ model, using positive language, such as ‘healthy weight’ rather than ‘obesity’ to engage children and families and put individuals at the heart of the service, instead of making available a range of services which the population could access. He felt other areas would be keen to follow Redditch’s lead.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board noted the contents of the Worcestershire Primary Care Networks (PCNs) prioritisation ‘plan on a page’ 2021/22.