The Tameside Health and Wellbeing Board is scheduled to meet to discuss updates to the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment, suicide prevention, and the Better Care Fund. The board will be considering reports from James Mallion, Director of Public Health, Councillor John Taylor, Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Inclusivity, Stephanie Butterworth, Strategic Director of Adult Services and Stephanie Sloan, Deputy Place Based Lead, Tameside Locality.

Better Care Fund

The board will be asked to consider the Better Care Fund (BCF) Q1 Monitoring 2025/26 report. The report includes details of the Quarter 1 monitoring return against the 2025/26 BCF plan. The report pack states that locality areas are required to provide regular monitoring updates to the Health and Wellbeing Board as part of the national assurance and moderation process. The report pack includes a table that summarises the funding allocated to the council and the Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The report pack states that the 2025/26 revenue funding allocations awarded to the council are included within the 2025/26 Adult Services net revenue budget of £78.605m, and that the Disabled Facilities Grant allocation is included within the council's 2025/26 Adult Services capital programme.

The 2025/26 quarter 1 Tameside locality BCF plan monitoring return is provided in Appendix 1 for Better Care Fund Q1 monitoring 202526. The report pack notes that the return was submitted to the national team by the due deadline of 15 August 2025.

Suicide Prevention

The board will be asked to note the progress made in the first year of the Tameside Suicide Prevention Strategy, continue to support the work of the Partnership, and advocate for suicide prevention to be embedded across all workstreams and strategic partnerships.

The Tameside Suicide Prevention Strategy was published in 2024 and included seven themes for action to reduce the risk of suicide. The report pack notes that the most recent data for Tameside shows a small increase in the rate of suicides, which demonstrates the need to continue to take action to support people and reduce the risk of suicide in Tameside.

The report pack lists the seven strategic themes in the strategy:

• Get support to where it is needed most.
• Provide more opportunities for people to connect with and find support in their community.
• Foster a mental health aware community.
• Ensure a safer Tameside for those who experience crisis.
• Develop financial wellbeing in the Tameside population.
• Work together effectively to support people.
• Promote trauma awareness and nurture protective factors.

The report pack also notes that a programme of 'Trauma Informed Practice' training is being delivered to Tameside Council employers and partner agencies.

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

The board will be asked to note the final report and recommendations of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025-2027, and approve its publication. The report pack states that the Health and Wellbeing Board has a statutory duty to complete a needs assessment of community pharmacy provision across the borough every 3 years, in accordance with The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013.

The report pack notes that the updated PNA checks sufficiency of pharmacy provision for the population as well as making any recommendations as required, and that this assessment will also be utilised by NHS Greater Manchester ICB in decisions relating to pharmacy provision.

The report pack states that following the last update to the board the PNA draft entered its formal 60-day consultation, and that in total 3 responses during this consultation period were received and where possible all comments, changes and additions have been included in the final report.

The report pack also notes the conclusions of the report:

• There are a higher number of pharmacies per 100,000 population (24) compared with the England average (22).
• Currently there are 50 pharmacies in Tameside, a reduction of 3 since the last PNA.
• This figure includes 3 distance selling or internet pharmacies who do not exclusively serve the Tameside population as they are a service England wide footprint and 2 Dispensing Appliance Contractors who serve Tameside and beyond.
• Public consultation results indicate high levels of satisfaction with current pharmacy services in Tameside.
• There is good access to a range of pharmacies with almost all the population able to access pharmacies within 2 kilometres of their home.
• There is good location of pharmacies in relation to GP Practices across all four Tameside neighbourhoods / Primary Care Networks.
• Choice of pharmacy is good for most residents as many people tend to prefer to use a familiar or 'usual' pharmacy that they tend to stay with for a relatively long period of time, and this is to be encouraged as it promotes continuity of care.
• Analysis of opening hours and trading days shows there is adequate provision for out of hour's services across Tameside, albeit reduced from the last PNA.
• The maps and data contained in this document clearly show that services meet identified health and care needs in Tameside.

Health and Wellbeing Strategy Dashboard Updates

The board will be asked to note the Health and Wellbeing Strategy Dashboard Updates report, and the current position in the dashboards around the Best Start in Life and Living Well across the Life Course areas of focus within the JHWBS.

The report pack states that the report provides a summary of the progress made to date on the 22 outcome metrics in the JHWBS for two of the thematic areas, give Tameside children the best start in life and help people stay well across the life course and detect illnesses sooner.

The report pack also notes that the JHWBS dashboard has links to the ongoing corporate performance of the Public Health Team within Tameside Council, and in turn the corporate plan of Tameside Council.

The report pack includes detailed visual dashboards with narrative on the subsequent pages, against each of the two separate areas of focus in Appendix 1 for HWB Strategy and Appendix 2 for HWB Strategy.

The report pack notes some headlines around the ongoing achievements and challenges in each of the two areas of focus:

• Improvements in attainment for children with SEND has seen a decline in the latest data and remain worse than the national average.
• For improvements in children achieving a good level of development at EYFS, there have been improvements across both related indicators.
• In regard to improved oral health, the new supervised brushing scheme implemented within Tameside has seen promising onboarding of schools.
• For increase in borough wide school attendance, this has seen an increase in the number of children absent over the 2024 year.
• Breastfeeding initiation and prevalence at 6-8 weeks has continued to see an increase.
• In regard to an increase in childhood vaccination rates, MMR coverage for 2 doses at 5 year old has seen a slight decrease and is below the target value of 95% coverage.
• For increasing early help support, Family Hubs have established a key platform for a targeted universal support offer for young families.
• There continue to be high rates of under 18 conceptions and terminations, with conceptions increasing in the latest period.
• Reducing wait times to receive social, emotional and mental health support has seen a reduction in waits for mental health assessments with the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
• There has been a reduction in overweight and obese children in both Reception and Year 6 at primary school (via National Child Measurement Programme data).
• The rate of children living in poverty has continued to increase with more support needed for those families living in poverty.
• The number of mothers who smoke at the time of delivery has seen a significant reduction and is now just above the target level of 6%.
• For the reduction of under 18 hospital admissions for mental health conditions, Tameside has a significantly lower rate of admissions than the England average and is on a downward trend suggesting needs may be being met earlier.
• The healthy life expectancy for both males and females has seen a reduction and is significantly worse than the England average.
• For a reduction in inequality in life expectancy, for females, this has reduced across the borough, however for males the inequality gap has slightly widened.
• Increasing cancer screening - across Tameside uptake of breast screening and cervical cancer screening for 25-49 year olds has increased.
• Alcohol related cancer levels have increased, and Tameside is significantly worse than the England average.
• Smoking prevalence has seen a significant reduction and is now similar to the England average.
• Work to tackle high levels of early preventable mortality is continuing although in this time period there have been increases observed across some indicators, it should be noted that suicide rates are at a similar level to those observed nationally.
• The rate of hospital admissions for mental health issues has seen an increase for emergency hospital admissions for self-harm over this time period but has followed an overall reducing trend.
• For a reduction in emergency hospital admissions, the admission rate for violent crime has seen a reduction with Tameside having similar levels and not being significantly different than the England average.
• The percentage of persons reporting a long term mental health problem has increased over this time period, although this is not significantly different than the England average.