The Buckinghamshire Health and Wellbeing Board met to discuss cardiovascular disease prevention, the new health and wellbeing strategy, the Better Care Fund, the NHS 10-year plan, and updates from the Integrated Care Boards. The board endorsed a report on cardiovascular disease, approved the new Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy and its action plans, and ratified the Better Care Fund plan for 2025-26. They also noted updates from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) and the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB).

New Health and Wellbeing Strategy

The board approved the new Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy and its action plans. The strategy, developed over 18 months, aims to help people in Buckinghamshire live healthier and more independent lives, focusing on physical, mental, and social wellbeing, as well as the wider determinants of health¹. The strategy's overarching aims are to reduce health inequalities, improve population health, and ensure the sustainability of services. It will be delivered through the 'Start Well', 'Live Well', and 'Age Well' delivery groups.

Key principles of the strategy include:

• Working with communities to understand their needs and make the best use of local assets.
• Joining up care to coordinate services around the individual, ensuring seamless and personalised care.
• Using data, community insights, and professional insights to drive service improvements.
• Addressing health inequalities across all services.

Councillor Steve Bowles, Cabinet Member for Communities, Buckinghamshire Council, highlighted the importance of bringing partners together to tackle health inequalities and commended the tangible action plans for oversight and monitoring.

David Walker, Chair of Oxford Health, stressed the need for a richer dialogue with local colleagues to move into the prevention space, particularly in mental health.

The board agreed to monitor progress on the action plans at their quarterly meetings.

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

The board endorsed a report on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and inequalities, which was a focus in the last health and well-being strategy. Tiffany Burritch, consultant in public health at Buckinghamshire Council, presented the work of the CVD prevention working group over the past three years, highlighting accomplishments such as:

• Increasing NHS health checks in deprived Primary Care Networks (PCNs) from 1,400 to over 6,000.
• Increasing smoking cessation support for mental health inpatients.
• Reducing the proportion of women smoking at the time of delivery from 7% to 4%.
• Creating 35 smoke-free parks and playgrounds, with 18 in Opportunity Bucks wards².
• Conducting almost 9,000 health MOTs through health kiosks in libraries.

David Walker, Chair of Oxford Health, commended the tobacco control measures and the creation of smoke-free environments. He also raised the question of whether the successes in CVD prevention could lead to a reduction in demand on stretched health services.

Neil Macdonald, chief executive of Buckinghamshire Health Care and Justice Trust, suggested using richer data sets to target individuals for interventions. Tiffany Burritch, consultant in public health at Buckinghamshire Council, mentioned an ongoing equity audit using linked data sets from primary and secondary care to examine cholesterol and blood pressure pathways.

John Meech, Healthwatch Bucks chair, emphasised the importance of involving the voluntary sector and community in initiatives like the Pump It Up project.

Better Care Fund

Craig McArdle, corporate director for adults and health at Buckinghamshire Council, presented the Better Care Fund (BCF) 2024-2025 outturn and the 2025-26 plan. The BCF is a joint fund between the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Buckinghamshire Council to promote the integration of health and social care services.

Key points included:

• Strong performance in preventing avoidable admissions and managing discharges in 2024-2025.
• An area for improvement is admissions due to falls, which is being addressed in the new health and wellbeing strategy.
• The 2025-2026 plan focuses on integrated neighbourhood teams and additional investment in dementia support services.
• The plan has been submitted to NHS England and approved without conditions.
• The Better Care Fund is under review, and its future is uncertain.

John Meech, Healthwatch Bucks chair, inquired about the community involvement of the new integration leads working with population health management. Gemma Thomas, director of strategy for BHT and director for integrated care for the Buckinghamshire Executive Partnership, confirmed that the integration leads would be based in the communities and engage with voluntary organisations to understand community needs.

The board ratified the agreed plan for 2025-26 and delegated authority for the development of future BCF plans to the Buckinghamshire Council and Integrated Care Board Joint Commissioning Group.

NHS 10-Year Plan

Gemma Thomas, director of strategy for BHT and director for integrated care for the Buckinghamshire Executive Partnership, provided a summary of the NHS 10-year plan, highlighting its three shifts:

• From hospital to community, with a focus on integrated neighbourhood teams and preventative care.
• From analogue to digital, using the NHS app and a single patient record.
• From treatment to prevention, with a focus on smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, and obesity management.

David Munday, director of public health at Buckinghamshire Council, noted that the health and wellbeing strategy aligns well with the 10-year plan.

Sarah Ashmead, corporate director for children's services, Buckinghamshire Council, mentioned the rollout of Best Start family hubs from next April, which will require integration with integrated neighbourhood teams.

Dr George Gavriel, Bucks GPPA, cautioned that the plan mentions general practice minimally and that there is uncertainty and fear among GPs regarding the 10-year plan.

Kate Walker, chief exec at Community and Pet Bucks, emphasised the role of the voluntary community sector and the need for their involvement in shaping the 10-year plan for Buckinghamshire.

Integrated Care Board Updates

Nicola Newstone, assistant director of Buck's Place for the Bob ICB, provided an update from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB), including:

• An annual requirement for ICBs and partner NHS trusts to prepare a plan on planned capital resource use.
• Key priorities for 2025/26, including neighbourhood health, population health approaches, prevention, and digitisation.
• Additional investment into urgent dental care provision.
• The development of a new operating model following cost reduction announcements and the ICB blueprint.

Michelle Evans-Riches from the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) reported on discussions at their board meeting on 27 June, including:

• An update from their joint seminar with the health and care partnership in May.
• A consultation period for the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, with one option being a satellite radiotherapy unit at Luton and Dunstable Hospital.
• A wide-scale transformation programme on community and mental health services.

Neil Macdonald, chief executive of Buckinghamshire Health Care and Justice Trust, commented on the Mount Vernon consultation, noting that the options being pursued are not coming towards Buckinghamshire. He said that a specific consultation slash council response would be required in terms of the overall population movements.

John Meech, Healthwatch Bucks chair, supported the point on radiotherapy, noting anecdotal evidence of transport issues to Mount Vernon and the difficulties of getting north-south in Buckinghamshire.

Healthwatch Bucks Annual Report Update

John Meech, Healthwatch Bucks chair, provided a verbal update on Healthwatch's activities, highlighting that they had listened to more than 3,000 experiences, produced 13 reports, and had around 2,000 meaningful conversations with people. He emphasised the importance of getting closer to communities and creatively finding and utilising additional funding. He said that the organisation had added social value by helping volunteers to get experience with their career journeys and move people from unemployment into work.

David Munday, director of public health at Buckinghamshire Council, underlined the value of the community research work and its contribution to the Prevention and Health Inequalities Forum.

Forward Plan

The board discussed the forward plan for the next meeting on 18 September 2025, which will include items on the Buckinghamshire Executive Partnership, Healthwatch update, BMLK ICB, BOB ICB, dashboard, and primary care estate strategy. David Munday, director of public health at Buckinghamshire Council, requested that the pharmaceutical needs assessment be added to the agenda.