This meeting of the Wandsworth Health and Wellbeing Board is scheduled to include updates on several public health initiatives and a discussion about how the Board can improve its partnership working. It will also include discussion of proposals to make the services offered to the residents of Wandsworth more culturally aware, and the South West London Mental Health Strategy.

The Joint Local Health & Wellbeing Strategy

This report pack includes an update on the Council’s Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JLHWS), which was adopted in 2023. The report summarises the activities undertaken in 2024 in relation to several of the Strategy's steps, including an overview of the activities delivered in relation to:

• Adult immunisations,
• Cervical cancer screening,
• Climate change and air quality.
• Bowel cancer screening
• Breast cancer screening

The report also sets out several goals for the coming year including

Improving community engagement to address inequalities by developing outreach programmes based on joint working. Using population health management approaches to understand groups with lower uptake. Improving access to immunisation services and uptake through innovation of the system: e.g., creating a centralised call centre for all immunisations. Improving access to better quality data to better identify gaps in uptake.

The report states that

Delivery of the JLHWS will drive the work of the board over the next 5 years and the HWB will continue to receive quarterly updates on the delivery of the strategy on a quarterly cycle.

South West London Mental Health Strategy

The meeting will also receive an update on the South West London Mental Health Strategy, which was launched in July 2023. This strategy is a collaboration between all six South West London Boroughs and sets out several ambitions for the boroughs' Mental Health services. The report pack provided to attendees lists several ambitions for the coming year including:

• Improving Mental Health support for children, young people and families,
• Improving and transforming pathways for adults with severe mental illness,
• Supporting the South London Listens programme to strengthen community networks and deliver change for the population,
• Making plans for improving support for people with complex needs,
• Developing an understanding of healthy environments and how to promote and expand these,
• Planning mental health campaigns to support reduction in stigma and increase in mental health literacy.

The report notes the success of several initiatives undertaken in 2024 including:

• The extension of the perinatal mental health offer, including the establishment of the Perinatal Trauma and Loss Team,
• Improvements to the neurodevelopmental pathway, including a move to digital screening,
• The launch of a pilot programme of Primary Care Network workers in Wandsworth,
• The embedding of peer support and welfare advice services within community services,
• The launch of the Enhanced Response Practitioners service,
• The launch and embedding of the NHS 111 'press 2 for mental health' pathway.

Culturally Mindful

The report pack includes a paper entitled Culturally Mindful, which outlines a proposed scheme by that name. It is described as

The Culturally Mindful Programme; a professional development opportunity for 10 Global Majority artists whilst opening residency opportunities for 10 host organisations in support of mental health prevention and early intervention work with underserved communities delivered as part of the Wandsworth’s year as the Mayor of London’s London Borough of Culture.

This scheme is in part a response to the 2020 report Enough is Enough which found that:

Key issues identified include higher rates of Mental Health Act detentions, lower referral rates to therapy, and increased involvement of police during mental health crises. These inequities are rooted in systemic challenges such as socio-economic factors, cultural stigma, and racism within health services.

The paper states that the programme

aims to co-design culturally relevant creative health initiatives. These initiatives will not only align with the recommendations of the Enough is Enough report but also contribute to long-term systemic changes by addressing the underlying causes of mental health inequities in Wandsworth.

The Culturally Mindful programme is scheduled to launch in February 2025 with 10 Global Majority artists being trained and placed in residencies with host organisations between June 2025 and January 2026.

NHS 10 Year Health Plan Consultation

The report pack also includes a paper reporting on the responses made to the recent consultation on the government's NHS 10 Year Health Plan. The paper includes a summary of the consultation, the responses made by various stakeholders, and details of the next steps with the plan.

Better Care Fund Quarter 2 2024-25 Update

A further report included in the report pack is a Better Care Fund Quarter 2 2024-25 Update. The Better Care Fund is a national programme that

supports local systems to successfully deliver the integration of health and social care in a way that supports person-centred care, sustainability and better outcomes for people and carers.

The report provides a detailed update on the spending against the budget set out in the Fund, and the impact of the projects funded by the Better Care Fund. Of particular note is the observation that the

Borough wide winter readiness meetings have been conducted via the Merton and Wandsworth Urgent and Emergency Care Delivery Board, and Council commissioned provider capacity is reported to the South West London Surge hub daily so that the wider health and care system can understand the available capacity to discharge.

The report also notes that the

BCF discharge fund has enabled the Council to provide a mental health discharge team who are working well with the South West London and St Georges MH trust interface team to smooth discharges from secondary MH beds.

Work Programme

Finally the report pack includes the Board's proposed Work Programme for the coming year. This document sets out the schedule of the Board's meetings and seminars. The most significant item on the Work Programme is a seminar scheduled for 4 March 2025 entitled Developing our partnership which will be led by associates of the Local Government Association, Jonathan McShane and Dr Debbie Frost.