Issue - meetings

The Homes, Health & Wellbeing Team Manager introduced the report seeking adoption of the Lincolnshire District Councils’ Health and Wellbeing Strategy the principles of which would provide a framework for improving health and wellbeing across the county, demonstrating how District Councils deliver services which contribute and support the health and care system.

It was advised that Health and Wellbeing had been embedded in the ‘Our People’ and ‘Our Place’ themes of the Council’s Corporate Plan and the new plan retained this focus and contains strategic aims and objectives relating to improving health outcomes and promoting wellbeing through the promotion of healthy lifestyles. This has influenced the focus of the Council’s work with other Lincolnshire districts in the development of shared district Health and Wellbeing strategic aims and objectives.

The Strategy was based on five key ‘lever’ areas which district councils are uniquely positioned in the system to influence and where they can most effectively work with partners to deliver sustainable change. These include Housing and Homelessness; Activity and Wellbeing; Environment and Climate; Economic Inclusion and Working with Communities.

The Lincolnshire District Councils had approved this Strategy through their relevant governance routes. For West Lindsey, the Strategy had been developed to align with existing policies, strategies, projects and workstreams in operation across the Council, including the Corporate Plan, the Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, the Housing Strategy and the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan. As such, the District Health and Wellbeing Strategy aligns these threads into one overarching strategy that sits in support of delivering the Council’s Corporate Plan.

Each lever area would be allocated to a Team Manager in the relevant area to implement through their business plans and the overall co-ordination of the Strategy will be led by the Homes, Health and Wellbeing Team Manager.

The business planning process was used to identify action already being taken in support of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and to identify and address any gaps to ensure new actions were deliverable, appropriately resourced and that they offer value for money.

The premise of this really was that the majority of this work was being undertaken in one form or another already and there was a need to start ensuring that those outcomes were captured and areas where more could be done these could be scoped and delivered under the health and wellbeing umbrella.

A Councillor in welcoming the strategy highlighted the need for a concurrent action plan to be in place with some of the questions that might need to be asked and were relevant to members of local communities. It was emphasised that there would be variations in priorities within the district. It was requested that update reports be presented on the overall strategy and identifying what has been done, what we're able to do and any new issues.

Members spoke in support of the strategy and noted that the process had been ongoing and the impact of the Covid pandemic had clearly demonstrated the role and impact that district councils  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13