Working together to help residents ‘live their best life’

There has been lots of work happening within West Northamptonshire over the last 12 months that really shines a spotlight on togetherness and the importance of this to make meaningful change, that better supports health and wellbeing outcomes for residents.

When I say ‘togetherness’, this isn’t only about partner organisations working together – it is about these organisations working together, towards the same vision and aims, and this is what we are seeing within our local health, care and voluntary sector partners currently. Colleagues from across local authority, health, police and fire service, town and parishes, voluntary and community sector organisations as well as many more are all coming together in a way that we haven’t seen before. This is exciting, however I believe it is also essential in bringing about change.

A strong example of this, which is in its draft stages, is our Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for West Northamptonshire. This is due to be discussed at our Cabinet this evening, before it goes to its final point of discussion and sign off, at the West Health and Wellbeing Board with these partner organisations.

Over the last year, this strategy has been developed to focus on improving the health and wellbeing of West Northamptonshire residents and how we will focus on tackling health inequalities. The strategy looks at what are called ‘wider determinants’ which are external factors that can impact a person’s health and wellbeing. Such as; access to the best education and learning, good housing in places which are clean and green, feeling safe in your homes. These are just a few external factors that can affect a persons wellbeing – and it isn’t just one organisaiton that can make a difference or create change, it is all of us working together. This strategy has been created with community focus at the heart and sets out how we will deliver this over the next five years, with residents, community organisations, parishes and many more organisations contributing to its development.

There are 10 ambitions outlined in the strategy that have been created which together with our communities, we aim to achieve via the implementation of our nine Local Area Partnerships (LAPs). These LAPs are enabling us to look at areas at a local level and understand the difference challenges each area faces – with many differences in each of our areas. Each of our LAPs covers communities of between 30,000 and 50,000 people, so your neighbourhood may be part of a LAP with surrounding villages or towns and will be made up of local organisations specific to your area.

I look back over the two years and where we are now feels different with a new level of partnership working happening and a central focus on how we better bring residents in to conversations about their communities and their wellbeing through our LAPs.

There is still much work to do and to ensure the delivery of this is right, it will take time. This is just the start and there are many conversations happening between organisations and communities that will help us to keep moving in this positive direction, together. The impact and change will be achieved by us delivering on what the strategy sets out, however I feel encouraged to see the journey this strategy has been on for development and I am excited to see how we deliver this with communities and partners within our local area partnerships as this progresses.