The North Northamptonshire Health and Wellbeing Board met to discuss key strategic priorities, including smoking and vaping, physical activity, and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) action plan. The board approved the Better Care Fund quarterly report and heard updates on the director of public health’s annual report, Healthwatch, and Integrated Care Board (ICB) reconfiguration and neighbourhood health plans.

Health and Wellbeing Strategy Updates

The board received verbal updates on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, with detailed reports on smoking and vaping, and keeping active.

Smoking and Vaping

Rachel Clifford, Public Health Principal, and Sarah Petty, Public Health Practitioner, presented an update on the smoking and vaping strategy, highlighting that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable ill health and death in England. The report recommended that the board:

• note the progress made on implementation of the four workstreams and supports the next steps for continued implementation of the delivery plans.
• note the progress achieved through joint working, and the need for continued joint ownership and action across partners to achieve the aim of reducing smoking prevalence in North Northamptonshire.

The strategy includes four key objectives:

• Increasing the number of residents supported to stop smoking
• Providing targeted support to population groups with higher smoking prevalence
• Addressing smoking and vaping among children and young people
• Disrupting the sale of illegal tobacco and e-cigarette products, and reducing underage sales

Key achievements include expanding the stop smoking team, reducing waiting times for services, and a joint initiative with Trading Standards and Northamptonshire Police called Operation Stop, which tackles illegal tobacco and vape sales.

Councillor Brian Benneyworth, Chair of North Northants Council, praised the team's work, noting how much he had learned from them at summer events.

Jane Bethea, Director of Public Health, Communities and Leisure, highlighted the need to address the prescription of medications for smoking cessation and the challenges of engaging with communities where smoking rates are high. She also noted the importance of ensuring the NHS has the right offer in hospitals regarding smoking cessation support.

Keeping Active

Chris Holmes, Chief Executive, Northamptonshire Sport, provided an update on the Keeping Active theme and the Active Communities Strategy. He emphasised that the strategy's success relies on improved collaboration and system thinking, rather than a single intervention.

The strategy focuses on:

• Healthy Communities: Supporting residents of all ages to be more active.
• Connected Communities: Reducing inequalities by working with neighbourhoods and groups most affected by inactivity.
• Thriving Communities: Equipping the wider workforce to promote and enable physical activity.
• Green Communities: Encouraging the use of parks, green spaces, and active travel routes.

Key aspects of the strategy include a movement of people, increased community engagement, and a shift in mindsets and behaviours towards system change. The University of Northampton is providing support with data and insight.

Prince Caesar, Chair East Northants Place Based Partnership, asked about assisting local grassroots organisations to have a sustainable, keeping active agenda. Chris Holmes responded that the approach is about building the capacity of voluntary and community sector organisations, rather than just delivering programmes until funding runs out.

Toby Sanders, Chief Executive, NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board, asked if there were any areas of the work that the teams had been struggling with. Chris Holmes responded that one of the biggest opportunities that they have not tapped into fully yet is to have threaded physical activity a little bit more tightly into the enormous capacity that there is across the health system and the health workforce in particular.

Director of Public Health Annual Report

Jane Bethea presented the Director of Public Health Annual Report for 2024-2025¹, focusing on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy's delivery, particularly the 'Keeping Active' and 'Smoking and Vaping' themes. The report highlighted the importance of partnership working and the dynamic nature of the strategy, which allows for changes based on performance. The report also noted that the public health team is now fully staffed for the first time, enabling them to move forward effectively.

Councillor Eddie McDonald, Councillor and Portfolio Holder for Adults and Health Partnerships, raised concerns about indicators such as emotional wellbeing issues among care leavers and obesity rates in children. He asked how the board could galvanise action to address these issues. Jane Bethea suggested bringing specific topics back to the board for focused discussion and highlighted the potential role of anchor institutions² in providing opportunities for young people.

Better Care Fund Quarterly Update

Samantha Fitzgerald, Assistant Director Adult Social Care Operations, presented the Better Care Fund quarterly update, which supports the integration of health, social care, and housing services. The report covered performance in the first quarter of 2025-2026, focusing on metrics such as avoidable hospital admissions, delayed discharges, and admissions to long-term care.

The board approved the Better Care Fund quarterly report.

SEND Priority Action Plan Update

Helen Baines, Transformation Programme Manager, provided an update on the SEND Priority Action Plan, noting progress, achievements, and challenges. Key areas of focus include leadership and strategy, commissioning, and EHCPs³. Challenges remain in workforce capacity, sufficiency of provision, and financial pressures. David Maher, Managing Director and Deputy Chief Executive, Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, noted the improvements and the areas where it has not been possible to sustain that.

The board noted the progress of the priority action plan.

Healthwatch Update

Pratima Dattani, Chair, North Northants Healthwatch, presented an overview of Healthwatch North Northamptonshire's initial stages following the contract award in April 2025. Priorities include increasing public awareness, community engagement, and addressing issues in primary care, mental health support, and adult social care.

Healthwatch North Northamptonshire has already secured £60,000 in external funding for various research projects.

David Maher asked how the board could help Healthwatch develop as a trusted brand. Pratima Dattani urged board members to believe in and promote Healthwatch, and to involve them in community engagement plans.

The board noted the contents of the report.

ICB Update and Neighbourhood Health Plans

Toby Sanders provided an update on the ICB structure and neighbourhood health plans. He announced that the ICB is clustering with Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB to reduce running costs, but that the budget for Northamptonshire will remain in Northamptonshire.

Nikki Adams, Director of Integration at North Hampshire ICB, presented the new models program. The new models programme is just one part of neighbourhood working. The new model program is designed to add extra capacity for patients with the low complexity needs in exchange for protecting the time of the GP so that they can do a different offer and work more, much more proactively with patients with those complex health needs.

The board noted the information and the plan that was provided.

Other Business

Jane Bethea announced that the Corby Urgent Care Centre will be renamed the Corby Urgent Treatment Centre from 1 November, in line with a national move for all urgent treatment centres to have the same name.