The Hillingdon Health and Wellbeing Board is scheduled to meet to discuss a range of health and wellbeing issues in the borough, including childhood obesity, health protection, and the performance of integrated health services. The board will also be asked to approve a draft of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2026-2031 for public consultation.

Here are the key topics that the Health and Wellbeing Board are scheduled to discuss:

Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026-2031

The Health and Wellbeing Board will be asked to approve a draft of the Draft Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026-2031 for public and stakeholder engagement. The strategy, which has been developed by the Hillingdon Health and Care Partnership (HHCP), sets out a shared vision for a fairer, healthier, more integrated Hillingdon and is structured around four life-course outcomes:

• Best Start in Life
• Live Well
• Age Well
• Healthy Places

The draft strategy identifies seven high-impact programmes, including neighbourhood proactive care, hypertension detection, mental health early intervention, frailty and falls, and reducing No Criteria to Reside¹. It also describes how these outcomes will be delivered through Hillingdon's Place Operating Model, including Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, Local Access Hubs, Family Hubs and the Borough-wide Reactive Care Service, supported by enabling work on workforce, digital, estates, data and community partnerships.

The draft strategy is scheduled to be used as the basis of a public and partner engagement process, running January–February 2026.

Integrated Health and Wellbeing Performance Report and Service Update

The Health and Wellbeing Board is scheduled to receive an Integrated Health and Wellbeing Performance Report and Service Update, which provides an overview of progress against its five strategic priorities: Best Start in Life, Live Well, Age Well, Healthy Places, and Equity & Inclusion. The report summarises delivery achievements, emerging performance trends, risks to outcomes, and the key areas where continued board sponsorship is required.

The update covers progress in three main areas:

• Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) delivering preventative, personalised care
• Reactive Care Programme strengthening urgent community response
• Best Start in Life developing the Child Health Hub model

The report notes that emergency demand remains high, but there are early signs of improved hospital flow. It also notes that all three INTs are now live borough-wide, and that frailty management is reducing admissions. Hypertension outcomes are also reported to be strong, and the reactive care model is maturing.

The report identifies a number of major challenges, including high A&E demand, sustaining NC2R improvements, growth in long-term conditions, CYP neurodevelopmental demand, and winter pressures.

Childhood Obesity Update

The Health and Wellbeing Board will receive a Childhood Obesity Update from Sharon Stoltz, Interim Director of Public Health and Julie Kelly, Corporate Director, Children's Services. The report is intended to brief the Board on the long-term impacts of childhood obesity and highlights some of the work going on to address it.

The report notes that excess weight impacts negatively on children's health and wellbeing outcomes and can have a significant long term negative impact on their educational and life chances into adulthood. It also notes that excess weight in parents can have a negative impact on the healthy weight of their children.

The report provides data on childhood obesity in Hillingdon, including data from the National Childhood Measurement Programme (NCMP). In 2024/25, 19.9% of children in Reception were overweight or living with obesity, and 36.2% of children in year 6 were overweight or living with obesity.

The report also highlights a number of key progress areas, including:

• Understanding the school food landscape
• Improving school food provision
• Increasing uptake of universal free school meal provision
• Healthy School London Programme
• Parent information sessions
• Partnership with The Felix Project²
• Free access to physical activity in the community
• Children's weight management programme

Hillingdon Health Protection Committee

The Health and Wellbeing Board will be asked to approve the establishment of a Hillingdon Health Protection Committee. The proposed Terms of Reference for the Committee are attached as an appendix to the report.

The report notes that local authorities have a statutory duty under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 for protecting the health of their population from preventable health threats. The Health Protection Committee will provide assurance to the Director of Public Health, the council and the Health and Wellbeing Board that there are safe and effective arrangements in place to protect the health of the people of Hillingdon.

The Committee will include the following areas of health protection:

• Vaccination and immunisation
• Cancer and non-cancer screening programmes
• Communicable diseases
• Environmental hazards
• Disease surveillance
• Data sharing and notification processes
• Workforce capacity and capability

Occupational Therapy Service Update

The Health and Wellbeing Board will receive an Occupational Therapy Service Update from Julie Kelly, Corporate Director, Children's Services. The report is intended to brief the Board on the challenges of the delivery of Occupational Therapy (OT) statutory contacts for children with SEND³, as outlined in their Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs).

The report notes that in the academic year 2024 / 25, approximately 400 children and young people did not receive their full allocation of OT contacts as set out in their EHCP. The report states that this matter is being brought to the Board's attention because of the potential risk if the service is unable to meet the current demand and sets out how the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) service will recover from the current backlog.

The report sets out a recovery plan, which includes:

• Plans to recover any missed contacts through separate commissioning arrangements in conjunction with families
• Assessment of the therapy needs of all affected children
• Commissioning additional capacity from the independent therapy market

Reports Referred from Cabinet / Health and Social Care Select Committee: GP Coverage in Hillingdon Single Meeting Review

The Health and Wellbeing Board will consider when future updates will be brought to the Board regarding the Reports Referred from Cabinet / Health and Social Care Select Committee: GP Coverage in Hillingdon Single Meeting Review.

At its meeting on 19 June 2025, the Health and Social Care Select Committee confirmed that it would undertake a single meeting review of General Practitioner (GP) coverage in Hillingdon. The review, which was undertaken on 22 July 2025, aimed to consider the number and location of GPs in the Borough as well as the adequacy of the provision in serving the local population now and into the future.

The Committee devised the following recommendations which are based around meeting future demand, the expansion of the champions role, awareness raising, streamlining IT systems, improving online bookings and equality:

• officers work with partners to identify where GP surgeries are likely to be needed by 2035

• The Health and Wellbeing Board partners be asked to:

  • investigate a reduction in the complexity and quantity of data governance and IT systems currently being used in Hillingdon to enable patient data to be easily passed between professionals
  • subject to the outcome of the pilot, expand the provision of champions to other health related issues
  • increase awareness that the nature of community care is changing

• The Confederation Hillingdon CIC be asked to:

  • investigate the possibility of increasing patients' use of online bookings systems, including being able to specify convenient call back times
  • ensure equality with regard to the ability to request to be seen by the same sex medical professionals at GP surgeries

• The Health and Social Care Select Committee be provided with an update by March 2027 on any progress made in progressing these recommendations alongside the implementation of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan and the development of neighbourhoods

• Actions to progress all the above recommendations from the Select Committee be regularly monitored at Health & Wellbeing Board meetings and added to its work programme

Board Planner & Future Agenda Items

The Health and Wellbeing Board will consider the Board Planner & Future Agenda Items for the forthcoming cycle of meetings.