The Croydon Health & Wellbeing Board convened to discuss several key issues, including the development of the board itself, the Better Care Fund, a pharmaceutical needs assessment, local community partnerships, and the Director of Public Health's annual report. The board approved a themed approach for its forward plan, discussed representation from the voluntary sector, and approved the addition of a representative from the Croydon Resident Voices Group to its membership. The board also signed off on the Better Care Fund Year End Submission for 2024/25 and received updates on the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment and Local Community Partnerships.

Health and Wellbeing Board Development

The board approved a themed approach for the Health & Wellbeing Board (HWB) forward plan while maintaining the current meeting cycle. The board also agreed to review its terms of reference to reflect current membership as 'core' membership, but allow for a separate list of additional non-voting members. This change aims to provide more flexibility in board membership.

The board also discussed how the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) can be clearly represented on the HWB and approved the addition of a representative from the Croydon Resident Voices Group to the board's membership.

These recommendations were made to enable the HWB to deliver its function as a system leader for integrated working and to foster and support the board's ability to further develop input from the community and voluntary sector and resident and citizen voice effectively.

Better Care Fund Plan 2024-25 End of Year Submission

The board signed off the Better Care Fund (BCF) Year End Submission for 2024/25 to NHS England. The BCF is a government initiative that requires local councils and integrated care boards to agree on a joint plan for using pooled funds to support health and social care integration¹. The One Croydon Alliance delivers the BCF in Croydon. The alliance is a health and care partnership created from a shared ambition to use outcomes-based commissioning and population health management approaches to improve the lives of people in Croydon. Partners in the alliance include Croydon Council, South West London Integrated Care Board, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, The Croydon GP Collaborative, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and voluntary sector partners including Age UK Croydon.

The board heard that the submission deadline for the end-of-year report was 6 June 2025, and that an interim sign-off was agreed by the Director of Adult Social Services and the Place Based Lead for Health to meet the deadline.

The report highlighted key successes and challenges, including an underspend against the Disabilities Facilities Grant (DFG) due to a late-year uplift in January 2025. The report also noted that Croydon did not meet its target for performance metric four (Residential Admissions), mainly due to the acuity and demand levels seen from both acute hospital and community admissions into care homes.

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

The board was updated on the timelines to produce and publish the 2025 Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA). Every Health and Wellbeing Board in England has a statutory responsibility to publish and keep up to date a statement of the needs for pharmaceutical services of the population in its area². The PNA is used as a basis for determining market entry to a pharmaceutical list, meaning that any new pharmacy wishing to open must demonstrate that it meets a need identified in the PNA.

In January 2025, Soar Beyond was commissioned to produce the 2025 PNA on behalf of South West London boroughs, including Croydon. A South West London steering group has been established with representatives from South West London Integrated Care, Local Pharmaceutical Committee, South West London Healthwatch, and local authority colleagues.

The board was informed that two surveys were conducted from 28 April to 25 May to gather views from pharmacy contractors and residents, and that a 60-day consultation would take place from 7 July 2025. The draft PNA structure was included in the report.

The board was asked to approve the timeframe for the development and publication of the PNA for 2025, support the promotion and completion of the 60-day consultation, and schedule an online forum on 16 September to discuss and comment on the final draft version of the PNA before publication.

Local Community Partnerships

The board received a summary report on Local Community Partnerships (LCPs). By December 2024, LCPs, led by 13 co-chairs, had collectively attracted 679 unique Voluntary and Community Sector organisations. Through facilitated solutions-focused engagement activity, locally owned Community Plans have been developed with input from over 2,000 individuals living and working in Croydon.

The report identified barriers to partnership working, including reaching marginalised groups and people who are distrustful of services. It also highlighted opportunities for partnership working through community hubs, project activity (Locality Commissioning Model) and Asset Based Community Development.

The report recommended that the HWB champion the existing infrastructure of LCPs, Community Hubs, locality partnership projects, and Asset Based Community Development activity so that they work effectively together in partnership so that no community is left behind.

Annual Director of Public Health Report

The board received a summary of the 2024 Director of Public Health Annual Report on creative health. The report focuses on creative health, building upon the legacy of Croydon's experience as London Borough of Culture in 2023. Creative health refers to the role of arts and creativity in enhancing individual and community well-being.

The report makes the case for further cross-sector support to enable a joined-up approach to developing a sustainable creative health offer for residents. It calls upon every sector in Croydon to unite behind creative health, prioritising prevention, embedding creativity in existing pathways, leveraging community assets, and simplifying evaluation.

The report sets out next steps for Croydon Council and NHS bodies, including designating creative health as a high-impact priority in all prevention strategies, agreeing long-term funding for the Creative Health team, reviewing existing social prescribing structures, and reviewing commissioning practices to ensure they reduce health inequalities.

Health and Wellbeing Board Forward Plan

The board received an update on the forward plan. Alongside standardised items, the board was to hear in the future the following suggested items:

• Homeless Health Needs Assessment
• Review of Membership of the Health and Wellbeing Board
• Workshops around anti-racism framework

A supplementary agenda item provided an updated version of the live forward plan.