The Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board was scheduled to discuss a number of topics at its meeting, including the North East child poverty action plan, the development of a Gateshead anti-poverty strategy, the Healthwatch Gateshead annual review, and the Better Care Fund. Members were also scheduled to discuss a review of pharmaceutical needs in the area.

North East Child Poverty Action Plan

The board was scheduled to receive an update on the co-development and planned implementation of the North East child poverty action plan. The five-year plan was formally approved by the North East Combined Authority (NECA) Cabinet on 22 July 2025, alongside £28.6 million of new investment.

The plan sets out a vision for the North East to be a place where every baby, child and young person is supported to thrive and achieve their potential, regardless of their background or where they live. According to the report pack, around 120,600 (30%) babies, children and young people are growing up in poverty across the NECA area, including approximately 12,450 (31%) in Gateshead.

The plan addresses three strategic priorities:

• Supporting children and families here and now, including helping families maximise their incomes.
• Breaking down the barriers to opportunity that poverty can bring, including investing more in giving babies, children and young people the best start in life.
• Tackling longer-term, structural challenges, including those which will help to make work pay and create the infrastructure of opportunity for more families.

The report pack stated that the action plan outlines 36 projects and sub-projects to be developed and delivered in partnership by 2030.

Gateshead Anti-Poverty Strategy

The board was scheduled to discuss a proposed statement of intent to tackle poverty in Gateshead in the short, medium and long term. The report pack stated that in February/March 2025, the Community, Health and Wellbeing Service within Public Health & Wellbeing at Gateshead Council proposed an approach to the initial, foundational work required to develop a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy for Gateshead.

The aims of the initial development period (June-October 2025) were listed as:

• Creating a shared understanding of the prevalence, causes, drivers and impacts of poverty across Gateshead.
• Combining the data and evidence with intelligence and insights from across strategic partners, the VCSE sector, local communities and residents with lived experience of poverty.
• Ensuring political and senior leadership agree the appropriate governance arrangements and the conditions for meaningful partnership and collaborative working to develop and deliver the strategy and action plan.
• Mapping out co-dependencies/alignment with other existing strategies and those in development.
• Creating an overview of current projects and programmes of work to prevent, reduce and mitigate against poverty.
• Further developing and understanding the current and emerging policy drivers across local, regional and national policy and opportunities to influence.
• Seeking feedback and an early view on the primary focus of the strategy, priorities and any exclusions.

The key objectives for the anti-poverty strategy were listed as:

• Tackling poverty as a strategic priority across organisations in Gateshead as a key element to delivering Thrive and the Health & Wellbeing Strategy.
• Identifying and understanding the links between poverty, income, standard of living and people's ability to achieve good health and wellbeing.
• Taking poverty into consideration in all aspects of decision-making, policy development and service design as part of the Health in All Policies approach.
• Alignment with activity and policy development occurring at regional and national level around child poverty reduction.

The report pack stated that a Gateshead Poverty Summit would be held on 6 November 2025 at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art to share the findings from development work, map existing provision and programmes, and discuss and agree the strategic framework, priorities and focus of the strategy and action plan.

The proposed statement of intent included in the report pack stated that in Gateshead there are 32,899 households (36.6% of all households) with a household income of less than £25,000 and therefore below the poverty line. It also stated that 74% of these households (24,321, 27.1% of all households) have an income of less than £20,000 and are in deep poverty.

HDRC Case Study - Warm Spaces

The board was scheduled to receive a presentation and a report titled: Warm Welcome: Implications for Practice and Policy in Public Health to Challenge Poverty, from the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) team.

The research aimed to contribute to the current sparse knowledge around the demographics of those using Warm Welcome sites (previously known as Warm Spaces) across the borough of Gateshead and explore the purpose for attending the designated sites.

The study utilised focus groups for data collection, of which the recruitment was assisted by colleagues in Gateshead Council from the Communities, Health and Wellbeing Team. In total, 5 focus groups were held with 44 participants situated across Gateshead at a range of community venues, including church halls, libraries and community centres.

The research looked at four themes: 1) Reasons people attend, 2) Poverty and causes, 3) Barriers to people attending, and 4) Benefits to attending.

It was found that the following was working well for attendees: the social and mental health impact; the community support networks; the food offering; and utility savings. Areas for challenge included mobilisation issues which limited access and transport for attendees. The issue of stigmatization of using the sites was raised by attendees, as well as mental health barriers.

Healthwatch Annual Review

The board was scheduled to receive the Healthwatch Gateshead Annual Report 2024/25. According to the report pack, Healthwatch Gateshead is an independent health and social care champion, hosted by a not-for-profit organisation, Tell Us North CIC.

The report stated that Healthwatch Gateshead had supported 8,421 people to have their say and get information about their care. It also stated that the organisation's work is supported by 15 volunteers and 6 staff, and funded by Gateshead Council. In 2024/25 it received £140,250 from Gateshead Council, and £9,500 from the Integrated Care Board for project work and core funds.

The report listed the following research reports that had been published or were prepared for publishing:

• Exploring the experiences of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) - December 2024
• Covid 19 and Flu Vaccination Take Up by the Public - March 2025
• Women's Health Report: Menopause and HRT - May 2025
• Patient experiences of hospital discharge pathway 0 at the Gateshead NHS Foundation Trust - June 2025

The report also listed the organisation's emerging priorities for the next year as:

• Hospitals
• Mental Health
• NHS 111 service
• Social Care

Review of Pharmaceutical Needs Analysis

The board was scheduled to approve the final Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) 2025 for publication. The purpose of the PNA is to determine if there are sufficient community pharmacies to meet the needs of the population of Gateshead, and to determine other services which could be delivered by community pharmacies to meet the identified health needs of the population.

The draft PNA was developed through a steering group including representatives from the Council's Public Health team, the ICB, the Local Medical and Pharmaceutical Committees, and Healthwatch. Public engagement took place from 9 December 2024 to 19 January 2025, with a total of 355 comments received from the public. In addition, all 42 pharmacies in Gateshead responded to the provider engagement process between 9 December 2024 and 31 January 2025. The statutory consultation regarding the draft Gateshead PNA 2025 took place from 20 May to 19 July 2025, with a total of 56 responses received.

The draft PNA highlighted the provision of core and extended pharmacy services across Gateshead and made a number of recommendations. It also reflected progress on the recommendations from the 2022 report.

The draft PNA stated that there are 42 pharmacies in Gateshead, made up of 38 standard contract (40 hour) pharmacies, one former 100-hour service and 3 distance selling pharmacies, located primarily in areas of higher population density with 98.2% of residential addresses being within 1 mile of a community pharmacy.

The draft PNA also stated that while access is considered adequate in all localities, better access to essential services in East and West localities would be secured by further provision on weekday evenings after 6pm and by some provision on Sundays.

Better Care Fund

The board was scheduled to discuss and approve the Better Care Fund (BCF) S75 Agreement 2025-2026. The BCF programme supports local systems to deliver the integration of health, housing and social care. The BCF Policy Framework 2025-26 set out a vision, funding, oversight and support arrangements, focused on two overarching objectives:

• To support the shift from sickness to prevention including timely, proactive and joined-up support for people with more complex health and care needs; use of home adaptations and technology; and support for unpaid carers.
• To support people living independently and the shift from hospital to home including help prevent avoidable hospital admissions; achieve more timely and effective discharge from acute, community and mental health hospital settings; support people to recover in their own homes (or other usual place of residence); and reduce the proportion of people who need long-term residential or nursing home care.

The report pack stated that it is a requirement of the Better Care Fund arrangements that the ICB and the Council should establish a pooled fund for the purpose of achieving both the national and any local objectives.

The BCF value for 2025-2026 was listed as:

• Disabled Facilities Grant: £2,619,593
• NHS Minimum Contribution: £23,267,136
• Local Authority Better Care Grant: £14,047,284

The board was also scheduled to be informed of the delivery of the Better Care Fund plan in the first quarter of 2025-2026 and performance against the metrics set out in the BCF Policy Framework.

Local systems are expected to achieve the overarching objectives through delivery of 3 metrics:

• Emergency admissions to hospital for people aged 65+ per 100,000 population
• Average length of discharge delay for all acute adult patients
• Long-term admissions to residential care homes and nursing homes for people aged 65+ per 100,000 population.

The report pack stated that Gateshead did not achieve any of these metrics in quarter 1, but that plans were underway to improve performance by the end of quarter 2.

Other Items

• The board was also scheduled to discuss pharmacy notifications from the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB), and to review its work plan for 2025/26.
• The minutes from the previous meeting on 18 July 2025 were included in the report pack. At that meeting, the board discussed integrated trauma informed care, sports funding, the Gateshead Standard for Ageing Well, warm spaces, Gateshead College membership, and membership of cabinet member.
• The board was informed of a notification of application for consolidation of pharmacies at 9 Harras Bank, Birtley and 2 Imperial Buildings, Durham Road, Birtley.
• The board approved a representative from Gateshead College being invited to become an additional voting member.
• The board approved the Poverty Portfolio Holder being invited to become an additional voting member.