The future of public health and local government


The development of health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) gives councils a greater say in health provision than they have had in a generation. Shadow boards are being created at great speed in the midst of a bewildering local government agenda that mixes deep cuts with major structural reform of almost every area of local public service.

If HWBs succeed, they could deliver very significant benefits to local communities.
By bringing together public health, the NHS and social care, they can provide a platform for redesigning services from vaccination to domiciliary care in ways that promote prevention and join up services around the needs of citizens. To do so HWBs not only need to be effective within but also able to engage the rest of local government in achieving their aims.

The fact that 132 shadow boards are already being set up demonstrates the enthusiasm with which councils are grasping this agenda. But senior figures in the sector are asking important questions about how councils and their health partners will develop new ways of working to maximise the potential of public health.

While the boards will have formal powers, their success will depend far more on the quality of partnership working and the ability of board members to work collaboratively to influence the local health economy.

The project’s goal will be to support the development of effective shadow boards as they prepare to go live in 2013. We will work with officials and politicians involved in the set-up process to set out a broad vision for effective health and wellbeing boards, and then identify the key barriers and enablers to achieving that vision. In doing this, the report will identify and share early learning and good practices, analyse the key goals that HWBs are seeking to achieve and make policy and practice recommendations for ensuring the boards reach their full potential.

The research will be assisted by an expert taskforce of key professionals in social care, public health and the NHS to help drive the agenda forward and ensure the relevancy, rigour and practical applicability of the recommendations.

As part of the research we have put together a survey for key figures in local government and the NHS to assess their levels of confidence in the emerging arrangements and identify challenges moving forward.

The questionnaire should take about 15 minutes to complete and respondent names will not be used in any publication. Early copies of the survey findings will be available to survey respondents.

Click on the following survey link to take this survey: Click Here

Or copy and paste the following link in your browser to take the survey:

http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?B284FAE0BBF6E1E3B2F7EE


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