Cumberland Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023 to 2028

Welcome to our Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  This Strategy sets out the vision and priorities that will shape how the council, the NHS and other partners will work together through the Cumberland Health and Wellbeing Board over the next five years, and underpins the Board’s ultimate aim to improve the overall health and wellbeing of the people of Cumberland and reduce health inequalities.  This strategy is important - it is a shared agreement between each partner organisation on the Health and Wellbeing Board.  It is about what we can change and want to change with and for the people of Cumberland.

Health and wellbeing is about much more than the absence of illness and disease, it’s about more than health and social care services. It is widely recognised that only about 20% of determinants of health are directly related to medical factors.  Every aspect of life - education, childcare, housing, employment, lifestyle, the quality of the local environment, and the type of community we live in - can affect our health and wellbeing at any point through our lives. Part of our job as a Board is to ensure that we all work well together so that we can achieve the best possible outcomes for local people and communities. We have a responsibility to make sure that our individual plans all face the same way and that when we invest the Cumberland pound we invest it wisely.

The strategy acts as a high level framework setting a shared strategic direction for the council and partners, identifying shared priorities and outcomes, and providing an overarching framework for commissioning and service planning across health and social care, and influencing activity in other areas such as housing and education.

Context

The previous Cumbria Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy was put in place for 2019-2029.  In 2023 the local government structures in Cumbria were completely changed and seven councils in Cumbria were replaced by two, Cumberland Council being one of them.  Alongside this significant change to local government structures, healthcare structures have been fundamentally changed as well. In 2022 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were abolished and their functions assumed by integrated care boards (ICBs).  

The Covid-19 pandemic placed further pressure on our health and care services and significantly impacted on the health and wellbeing of our communities.  Added to this the cost-of-living crisis is impacting significantly on the lives of our residents.

The increased widening of health inequalities nationally had been noted through the Marmot Review published just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The pandemic has further highlighted the differences we see between health and wellbeing outcomes for specific populations and communities and has increased pressure on our health and care services. The report of the Cumbria Health and Wellbeing Board Inequalities Task and Finish Group who undertook their work in 2021 concluded that Covid-19 has negatively impacted on the existing health inequalities faced by certain population groups in Cumbria and recommended that the two new councils in Cumbria prioritise reducing health inequalities. The Lancashire and Cumbria Health Equity Commission’s work in 2021/22 highlighted the significant problems related to health inequalities and the social determinants of health in the area and set out a series of recommendations around longer term approaches, bringing sectors and organisations together and acting on the drivers of poor health to more effectively reduce health inequalities.  Both of these pieces of work have been taken into account in developing this strategy.  

The Cumberland Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-2028 is a revision of the Cumbria Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2019-2029.   The four key themes within the Cumbria Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy remain a good fit to respond to the challenges facing our area and already recognised the importance of action to address the wider determinants of health.  Much work has already been done in partnership to develop new NHS strategies over the past year and the review has updated the existing strategy to ensure alignment with work undertaken through other governance routes.

The priorities for the strategy are evidenced based, building upon the data and intelligence provided through our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). This evidence base is regularly reviewed and updated.  More information on the JSNA can be accessed on the Cumbria Observatory.

We are facing challenge and change within our collective systems, but as a health and wellbeing partnership the Board remains committed to building on and cementing the already successful partnerships we have developed, overcoming traditional barriers between organisations, developing integrated arrangements and encouraging a greater focus on prevention.