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Health & Wellbeing Board - Thursday 23rd January, 2025 9.30 am

January 23, 2025 View on council website  Watch video of meeting  Watch video of meeting or read trancript
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Summary

The meeting agreed the key priorities that will shape the next 10 years of the Barnet Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, ahead of the final stage of public consultation. The Board also noted the ongoing progress to improve health and wellbeing of residents on the Grahame Park Estate, as well as receiving a verbal update on communicable diseases in the borough.

Grahame Park Estate

The Board received a presentation on the ongoing work to improve the health and wellbeing of residents on the Grahame Park Estate. The meeting heard about the refreshed governance structures now in place, which bring together over 20 different organisations in seven sub-project groups:

  • Adults, Health and Wellbeing
  • Children, Families and Young People
  • Community Safety
  • Communications, Culture and Engagement (including Community Participation)
  • Housing and Long Term Maintenance (to be implemented in the last quarter of 2024/25)
  • Make It Happen (Economic Development)
  • Meanwhile Placemaking

Councillor Alison Moore praised the work undertaken on the estate, especially around Clear, Hold, Build:

And one of the points about Clearhole Build, unlocking that good will is the wrong word, but helping people to feel more confident about the community has been really important in my mind with people's engagement.

The Board heard about how the Adults, Health and Wellbeing sub-group is working with a feasibility study commissioned by Notting Hill Genesis. The study, being undertaken by Locality Matters and SocioEconomics, is looking at what more can be done to improve the health and wellbeing of Grahame Park residents.

The Board also heard about the work of Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH). 760 of their service users in the past year were Grahame Park residents, with the most common services used being 24-hour nursing, musculoskeletal physiotherapy and podiatry. The Board discussed the challenges of managing long term conditions in Grahame Park, with Dr Nick Dattani, Clinical Director of Place for Barnet, suggesting that:

…when patients, you haven't actually grasped the underlying problem for the patient, they will come back and back and back, and you'll do multiple referrals with different agencies. And that's when you see this pattern. And often it can be loneliness, depression, unemployment, housing issues.

Councillor Paul Edwitz raised concerns about the high rates of unemployment on the estate, and the barriers this can create to residents accessing support.

The meeting heard about the work of the Healthy Heart project, which is raising awareness of cardiovascular disease, particularly among Grahame Park’s African, Caribbean and South Asian communities. The Healthy Heart team have undertaken work at the Centre of Excellence, Everglade Medical Practice, and in partnership with Colindale Communities Trust.

Ali Rahimi then described the work of the Grahame Park Community Garden, which is run by GROW. From January to October 2024, 550 people visited the garden through weekly drop-in sessions, after-school clubs and monthly workshops. Mr Rahimi also described how he personally benefitted from being involved with the project, after experiencing a period of depression and anxiety:

I had a 2023 life-saving operation. I had 24 hours to leave. So, I didn't remember the operation, everything else. So, I was confined to the house. And one day, I went out. It just happens to be Friday. Seeing them working there and starting. It took me out of all my depression and anxiety that I had.

Councillor Zahra Begg praised the work of the project, saying:

I just want to say a big thank you for your passion and commitment to the community. And we want other communities to know how they can embed it.

Dr Djomba closed the item by reiterating the Board’s commitment to working with partners to improve the health and wellbeing of Grahame Park residents.

Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy

The Board then moved on to discuss the next stage of the development of the Barnet Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The meeting heard from Claire O’Callaghan, Health and Wellbeing Policy Manager, about the progress that has been made in developing the strategy, before discussing the draft long-term priorities and short-term goals contained in the draft document.

Bryony, Peer Co-Production Engagement Leader at Inclusion Unlimited, spoke about the consultation process that had taken place on the draft priorities, describing how it had:

…really demonstrated the value of genuine engagement and actions. The process really underscored the importance of collaborative and community-led approaches to health and wellbeing, addressing issues at neighbourhood level and developing local partnerships.

The Board discussed each of the draft long-term priorities, which are:

  • Start and Grow Well: ensuring children have the best start in life
  • Live and Age Well: supporting adults to live healthier for longer
  • Better Places: supporting places and wider society to improve health and wellbeing
  • Better Health for All: ensuring services and systems work to improve health outcomes for all communities

A discussion took place about whether the strategy should focus specifically on violence against women and girls. Councillor Moore highlighted how this had not emerged as a priority from consultation work so far, but that:

…it's obviously such an important part of the work…I want to put just to the to the meeting today whether there is…an appetite for looking for work around the health and well-being and mental health aspects of the impacts of violence against women and girls within this?

Sarah Campbell, Healthwatch Barnet Manager, supported including this in the strategy:

I think personally, I think it would be great to add that in. Yeah, maybe also specifically mentioned, but we do get that feedback regularly from members of the public. It's a huge issue. You can't separate it from health.

Councillor Moore confirmed that the Board would take this point away, and look at how it might be included in the strategy.

The Board concluded the discussion by agreeing the four long-term priorities for the strategy. The document will now move to the final stage of public consultation, before being formally adopted at the meeting in May 2025.

Communicable Diseases Update

The meeting concluded with a verbal update on communicable diseases in the borough from Janet Djomba, Director of Public Health. The Board discussed the high rates of flu currently being seen in the borough and heard that whilst anecdotal reports of low vaccine availability in pharmacies had been received, the current situation was that there were sufficient flu vaccines in the borough.

Councillor Moore reflected that:

…because there was perhaps a slightly earlier start to the flu wave this year, and perhaps people's consciousness of when to have a flu vaccination and that people may be leaving it that bit longer, and therefore the peak demand is around December when people are thinking about having family around, visiting elderly relatives. And I don't know whether there's some thought perhaps to feed into regional or national comms about starting, you know, how that plays into those vaccine, the vaccine comms earlier in the autumn.

The Board also heard about the recent launch of the RSV vaccination programme. Dr Djomba also provided a brief update on the progress of Vaccination UK, the borough’s new school-age immunisation provider.

Councillor Moore formally closed the meeting at 11:30am.