The Health and Wellbeing Board of Durham County Council were scheduled to meet to discuss a range of health and wellbeing issues in the area, including alcohol harms, health protection, and mental health services. They were also scheduled to review the annual report of the board, and to discuss the Better Care Fund.

Here's a breakdown of the topics that were expected to be covered:

Health and Social Care

The Deputy Director of Place, Adult and Health Services, Durham County Council, was scheduled to give a presentation on health and social care in the area.

Reducing Alcohol Harms

The Health and Wellbeing Board were scheduled to discuss a report on reducing alcohol harms in County Durham. The report noted that mortality rates in the North East were significantly higher than the national average, and that nearly half of adults in the region drink above recommended low-risk guidelines. The report also included an update on the implementation of the Dame Carol Black funding¹ to help reduce alcohol harms.

The report stated that the County Durham and Darlington Combating Drugs and Alcohol Partnership (CDAP) was committed to reducing the impact of alcohol harms, and that County Durham continues to host Balance, the North East Alcohol Office.

Balance had developed a 'Reducing alcohol harm - a blueprint for national action', which sets out the scale of alcohol-related harms and a vision for change, with priorities including:

• Take steps to raise awareness of alcohol harms
• The introduction of mandatory health warnings and nutritional / unit information on alcohol labels
• Introduce pricing policies that improve public health and protect the public purse, including a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in England
• Introduce restrictions on alcohol marketing to protect children and vulnerable people
• Introduce a 'public health objective' in England and Wales and consideration of a wider overhaul of the Licensing Act
• Invest in prevention and early intervention and improving access to specialist support for at-risk drinkers
• Ensure that the alcohol industry is prohibited from involvement in the development of public policy.

-- Item 8 - Alcohol - Report.pdf

The report noted that estimates for unmet need in relation to alcohol dependency were high, and that males aged 18-24 were the most 'at risk' population.

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to support a call to action for all partners to promote alcohol harms prevention work, to recognise the levels of unmet need in local residents with alcohol dependence, and to encourage system-wide partners to access further training opportunities.

Health and Wellbeing Board Annual Report 2024-25

The Health and Wellbeing Board were scheduled to discuss their annual report for 2024-25. The report looks at progress against the four focused strategic priorities in the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-28:

• Making Smoking History: Reduction in the percentage of people who smoke to 5% by 2030
• Enabling Healthy weight for all: Fewer than 1 in 5 adults in County Durham will be living with obesity by 2034
• Improving Mental Health, Resilience and Wellbeing: Reduce the number of people in County Durham who self-reported feeling anxious to 10% or less by 2034
• Reducing Alcohol Harms: Reduce the number of alcohol specific deaths by 20% by 2034

The report includes updates and progress on key strategies and additional Health and Wellbeing Board development sessions that have taken place over the year.

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to note and agree the contents of the Health and Wellbeing Board Annual Report 2024/25 and authorise publication, to note the timeline and next steps outlined in the report, and to share the Health and Wellbeing Board annual report within their organisations to showcase this good work and share learning with partners.

Health Protection Assurance Annual Report

The Health and Wellbeing Board were scheduled to discuss the Health Protection Assurance Annual Report June 2025.

The report stated that health protection is a critical public health function, and that delivering high quality health protection services keeps residents safe from a range of risks and environmental hazards.

The report draws on a number of case studies to show the work that has been carried out during the last year with communities, including work with Horden Together, the school immunisation programme, social care settings, and communication resources and campaigns.

The report noted key improvements and achievements in 2024/5, including high levels of coverage across all the screening programmes, County Durham being ranked the highest local authority in the North East for MMR2 coverage, regional recognition of the work of the County Durham Immunisation Steering Group, and a co-ordinated approach to the management and control of a range of outbreaks of communicable diseases.

The report also highlighted areas for improvement and further assurance in 2025/6, including the HPADP using the 'What Good Looks Like Health Protection documents to collectively gain assurance on their health protection responsibilities, supporting the delivery of the Childhood Immunisations Project, working with Children and Young Peoples Service colleagues to reverse the downward trend in vaccination uptake amongst children in care, working with the County Durham sexual health service and key partners to increase HIV testing, and actively participating in and receive reports regarding Exercise Pegasus and the development of Local Pandemic Preparedness Plans.

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to note the content of the report, to note that the report highlights improved performance across a number of health protection programmes, to continue to support collaborative system working and review processes and procedures to ensure that these are effective in preventing, detecting, escalating and managing health protection incidents, to work collaboratively across system partners to identify, address and mitigate the impacts of the national reconfiguration of NHSE, DHSC and ICBs and the potential impact on health protection assurance, and to support efforts to address the identified areas for improvement and further assurance, particularly the delivery and uptake of identified vaccination programmes, STI screening and treatment and improvements to infection prevention and control measures.

Mental Health Partnership Governance Review

The Health and Wellbeing Board were scheduled to discuss a report to secure agreement to streamline and make more efficient the system governance for mental health and wellbeing, with implementation from September 2025.

The report stated that improving the mental health and wellbeing of children and adults living in County Durham is identified as a priority for action in the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-2028.

It was proposed that a new Mental Health and Wellbeing System Partnership Board (MHWSPB) will be created which will report directly to the Health and Wellbeing Board, bringing system decision makers/leaders, strategic commissioners/ funders and people who direct the delivery of mental health support and services in County Durham together, dissolving the current Mental Health Strategic Partnership and Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Commissioning and Contracting Group, which will form part of the MHWSPB.

It was proposed that there are four sub-groups of the MHWSPB which will translate strategic action into delivery and also make recommendations to the MHWSPB on funding.

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to approve the proposed governance structure for mental health and wellbeing across County Durham, to agree to the dissolution of the current Mental Health Strategic Partnership and Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Commissioning and Contracting Group whilst retaining a separate Learning Disabilities Commissioning and Contracting Group which will feed into the County Durham Care Partnership Executive, and to agree to the delegation of authority to the new Mental Health and Wellbeing System Partnership Board to refine the model as and when required, with updates on progress to the Health and Wellbeing Board on an annual basis.

Better Care Fund

The Health and Wellbeing Board were scheduled to discuss the Better Care Fund (BCF) 2024-25 Q4 End of Year Submission, and the BCF Plan for 2025-26.

The BCF is a jointly agreed programme of service delivery underpinned by funding from the NHS and Local Government and managed through a pooled budget arrangement which focusses on health and social care initiatives to enable integration of services in the community, with the vision to support people to live healthy, independent and dignified lives, through joining up health social care and housing services seamlessly around the person, underpinned by two core objectives:

• Enable people to stay well, safe and independent at home for longer
• Provide the right care in the right place at the right time

The BCF metrics for 2024 to 2025 required local areas to set ambitions against the following metrics:

• Avoidable admissions
• Discharge to usual place of residence
• Falls in people over 65 years
• Permanent admissions to care homes for people over 65 years

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to note the contents of the report, and to agree to receive future BCF performance updates at the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The BCF total pooled budget for County Durham in 2025-26 is £109.3m.

The Health and Wellbeing Board were asked to note the contents of the report, and to agree to receive BCF updates at Health and Wellbeing Board meetings.