The health and wellbeing board (HWB) is the senior leadership and oversight body for integration and improving wellbeing in South Tyneside. It has taken forward new ways of working to establish an infrastructure for integration and to tackle health inequalities and the wider determinants of health. This case study forms part of our integrated care systems (ICS) resource.
A 2018 LGA health and care peer challenge resulted in positive feedback on the strength of partnerships and the “appetite… for a genuinely transformative approach to enable radical service re-design and delivery.”
The HWB has a comprehensive approach to monitoring performance, with regular dashboard information and ‘deep dives’ into specific areas to identify and unblock any barriers and advise on future action.
The joint health and wellbeing strategy considers both people and place, and links with South Tyneside Local Plan for tackling the wider determinants such as green space, economic regeneration and a new housing strategy for the borough.
Developments overseen by the HWB include:
- South Tyneside Alliance is a wide partnership of commissioners and providers from all sectors, established in 2017 to help develop integrated commissioning and delivery. It works to the alliance model ‘A Better U’, a set of behaviours including: being proactive, fair, minimum bureaucracy and person-centred. These behaviours are promoted through a shared learning culture for staff from all organisations.
- Integrated health and social care teams have resulted in significant reductions in delayed transfers of care and a continued fall in permanent admissions to residential homes.
- An improved continuing healthcare fast-track process, designed by front-line staff, has led to quicker decision making.
- Child and adolescent mental health services have been remodelled and co-produced through engaging with parents and young people with experience of mental health services.
- A reducing smoking in pregnancy reduction scheme and new referral pathway resulted in a reduction in smoking at time of delivery from 25 per cent to 14.7 per cent.
“We have a commitment locally that we use integration as a means to an end, not an end in itself. This is to ensure that we remain clear about the collective purpose of our actions and that those actions are done to get the best for the people of South Tyneside. A true sense of place means a true focus on people and doing the best for people, not organisational structure.”
Councillor Iain Malcolm, Leader, South Tyneside Council and Chair, South Tyneside Health and Wellbeing Board
South Tyneside is part of Cumbria and the North East aspiring integrated care system, which is developing four integrated care partnerships (ICPs) for at-scale activity. The ICP across County Durham, South Tyneside and Sunderland is at an early stage of development.
Horizon-scanning and looking for opportunities is built into the HWB’s work programme. Priorities include supporting primary care networks, the local hospital becoming smoke-free, and opportunities from economic regeneration in the town centre and new transport interchange. The HWB also recognises the potential for further developing its system of joint commissioning and pooled budgets across the place.
For more information
Tom Hall, Director of Public Health
[email protected]