The Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board was scheduled to discuss the development of the Board itself, including its purpose and working principles, and to consider the development of a Neighbourhood Health Strategy for the borough. The meeting also included a review of the Better Care Fund Plan for 2026-27.

Health and Wellbeing Board: Follow-up Development Session

The Board was scheduled to discuss the outcomes of a previous development session held on 15 June 2026. The aim was to strengthen the Board's focus, inclusivity, collective accountability, and ability to demonstrate impact on health inequalities. This included agreeing on a clearer shared purpose, establishing agreed working principles, mapping members' contributions and identifying any gaps, outlining practical support for effective participation, and developing a Board-owned process for identifying a small number of impact priorities. The proposed purpose statement was: The Health and Wellbeing Board brings partners, elected members and communities together to provide collective leadership on improving health and reducing inequalities. It focuses on issues where joint action, influence and accountability can achieve more than any organisation acting alone. Success would be measured by clearer collective decisions, visible partner action, stronger community influence, measurable progress in reducing inequalities, and evidence that health is considered across wider policy and investment decisions. The Board was also to consider a concise set of working principles to guide agenda-setting, papers, chairing, member conduct, minutes, and action tracking. A contributions map was to be presented to identify gaps in representation or expertise, particularly regarding community voice and the borough's diversity. Finally, practical changes to support member participation were to be discussed, including a clear role description and induction offer, standards for papers, meeting adjustments, and improved communication.

Developing Our Neighbourhood Health Programme in Tower Hamlets

This item was scheduled to be an interactive development session for the Board to shape and take collective ownership of the borough's Neighbourhood Health Strategy. The session was intended to consider the national and regional context, alignment with the Council's neighbourhood plans and One Stop Shops¹, the role of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams² and the voluntary sector, resident engagement, and learning from local progress. The aim was to seek agreement on the direction of travel and the further work required to develop an inclusive, partnership-led strategy for formal approval by April 2027. The session would explore what neighbourhood health means in practice, including the purpose and operation of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, and how health, care, Council services, primary care, and the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector can work as equal partners. The discussion was to draw on Tower Hamlets' experience, including the development of local neighbourhood teams, existing partnership and community assets, and alignment with One Stop Shops. Resident engagement and co-production were to be central themes, with discussion on how diverse resident voices can shape priorities, service design, delivery, and evaluation. An indicative timetable proposed that the final Neighbourhood Health Strategy would return to the Board for approval by April 2027.

Better Care Fund Plan 2026-27

The Board was scheduled to consider the Better Care Fund (BCF) Plan for 2026-27. This national policy programme requires the Council and the North East London NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB)³ to agree on how integrated preventative care for residents is delivered. The plan was presented as reflecting joint working across the Council, the ICB, and Community Health, outlining both a narrative plan and a numerical template. The BCF plan is reinforced by financial contributions from the NHS Minimum Contribution, Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), Better Care Grant, and additional ICB and Local Authority contributions. Improvements to the plan were noted, including greater transparency, clearer categorisation of schemes, a detailed breakdown of the Better Care Grant, clearer separation of ICB-funded discharge schemes, a more robust Tower Hamlets Connect Service, and an additional Adult Social Care scheme for one-to-one home care for complex discharge cases. The Board was asked to retrospectively approve the report, as the national submission deadline had passed. The report indicated that if the BCF plan was not approved, Tower Hamlets would not be granted national assurance, which is a requirement to receive financial contributions.