Health and Wellbeing Board

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.