The meeting covered a wide range of topics relating to the Health and Wellbeing of people in Islington, including proposals for a new joint strategy, progress with the Evidence Islington programme, and delivery of the North Central London Population Health and Care Strategy.

Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy

The Board was asked to consider a new draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy ¹ that covers the period up to 2030, and which sets out four overarching goals for improving life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the Borough, while addressing health inequalities: The report ² highlights a number of important areas where action is needed. For example, it notes that:

Disability-free life expectancy at birth in 2018–20 was 62.0 years for men (London: 64.4; England: 62.4) and 64.8 years for women (London: 63.3; England: 60.9).

A number of key strategic priority areas are proposed where it is felt that the Health and Wellbeing Board, working in partnership, can add value and make a real impact on residents lives. For example, under the Age Well goal, it is proposed to create an Age Friendly Community by applying to join the Age Friendly Communities network. ³

Another key strategic priority is to take a whole-systems, life-course approach to promoting healthy weight and reducing excess weight, recognising that this is now the biggest single contributor to disability and ill-health in Islington. ⁴

Following agreement from the Board, the strategy was scheduled to go out to public consultation.

North Central London Delivery Plan

The meeting included a report ⁵ that provides an update on the North Central London Delivery Plan. ⁶ This plan sets out how North Central London Integrated Care Board intends to deliver the Population Health and Integrated Care Strategy, which was endorsed in April 2023.

The delivery plan includes a focus on:

• Deprived communities - The 20% most deprived communities in North Central London.
• Key communities - Groups that experience greater health inequalities and poorer outcomes, such as:
  • Adults with severe mental illness and adults with learning disabilities.
  • Family carers.
  • Older adults with care and support needs.
  • Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
  • Children Looked After (CLA) and care leavers.
• Wider determinants - Factors that can affect health, such as housing, employment, and education.
• NCL population health risks - Five key health risk areas:
  • Childhood immunisations.
  • Heart health.
  • Cancer.
  • Lung health.
  • Mental health and wellbeing across all ages.

The delivery plan outlines a number of actions that the Integrated Care Board will take to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities across these areas. For example, the plan includes an ambition to:

Increase routine childhood immunisation vaccine uptake with a focus on most deprived communities and communities with lowest uptake.

The Integrated Care Board has also identified a number of areas to super-charge. These are areas where the Integrated Care Partnership will focus its resources and efforts to accelerate and deepen impact. These areas include:

• Childhood immunisations
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• Family Help in Early Years
• Mental Health
• Heart Health

The report asked the Board to consider how to work together with system partners to assure delivery of the Delivery Plan.

Evidence Islington

The Board was asked to note progress on the Evidence Islington programme, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). ⁷

The programme is working to ensure that evidence is used to inform decision making at the Council, and that residents are actively involved in research. Evidence Islington has three key workstreams:

1. Creating a sustainable research culture that places evidence at the heart of how the Council works with communities.
2. Strengthening and maturing the Council's data infrastructure to enable it to generate high-quality insights and evaluate impact.
3. Building capacity and participation in research with residents and voluntary and community organisations, ensuring they are central to the design and delivery of the programme.

The report ⁸ highlights a number of successes during the first year of the programme. These include:

• Recruiting the core delivery team and establishing a Strategic Delivery Board with representation from across the council, residents and key partners such as Healthwatch Islington.
• Commissioning a new data insight hub.
• Delivering a programme of capacity building activities, including an evaluation toolkit and monthly journal club.
• Developing a co-designed Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy, including an Evidence Islington community researcher programme and resident network.

Looking forward, the report sets out a number of priorities for the next 12 months, such as:

• Completing the baseline evaluation of the programme.
• Developing and disseminating research projects in priority areas such as Housing and Environment.
• Establishing a training programme to build research capacity within the council and with partner organisations.
• Identifying opportunities to apply for research funding to support work programmes.