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A cautious welcome for 10-year health and wellbeing strategy


It’s very encouraging that Northumberland County Council and Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group (the NHS organisation that plans and buys healthcare for people living in the county) have produce a 10-year health and wellbeing strategy.

I’ve have no doubt all the organisations involved in drawing up the strategy are committed to making a difference to everyone living in Northumberland. They say they want people to live longer but not just that, live longer and stay healthy for longer. They also say they want to reduce the gap between our most and least deprived communities. We know that people living in deprived areas of our county can die up to 15 years earlier than those living in affluent areas. This is no different than the picture is nationally and has been a very difficult thing to tackle because it’s not just about what the health service or local authority can provide.

One of the aims of the strategy is to tackle some of the wider determinants of health This is all about having a home, being able to afford to heat it, a pleasant environment, leisure facilities, good education, a decent income, access to a car or affordable transport and a job.

I really welcome this strategy, but I’m not seeing evidence of a council committed to these standards. I would love nothing better than be part of a county where every baby born has the chance of a long, healthy and happy life but when I see young children not having access to pre-school care, children receiving free school meals, people depending on food banks, people feeling suicidal because they haven’t got their Universal Credit, people having to make decisions about whether they heat their homes or feed their families, job losses and the swathe of cuts being imposed in the latest budget round, I’m not filled with confidence that any of the (in their words ‘aspirational’) things can happen.

I am involved in an organisation which support people of all ages in the Druridge Bay area and, in the wider SE of Northumberland, another organisation which works with young people to get them opportunities for training, work placements and jobs. These things are just small pieces of a bigger jigsaw which improve health and wellbeing in our area.

In my view if you’re serious about improving health and wellbeing you have to put your money where your mouth is. I’d like to see clearly set out targets for each of the 10 years of this strategy with money allocated to each area, a bit more detail about how these things are going to be achieved and regular updates to show we’re going in the right direction.

There are four themes in the strategy:

  • giving children and young people the best start in life

  • empowering people and communities (in other words giving people more control and power to do things which help them live healthier, happier, longer lives)

  • tackling some of the wider determinants of health (housing, education, diet, alcohol, employment, income)

  • adopting a whole system approach to health and social care (everyone working together to make it better for people who live here. You’d like to think you didn’t need a strategy to tell our local organisations to do this)

If this strategy is successful, then the county will feel different. In fact, it will be different. All of things in the bullet points above will have happened and we’ll see the gap closed between the health and life expectancy of people in our county.

I will do my best to make this strategy happens because it’s what I think the county needs but the county council needs to put its money where its mouth is and put effort and money into areas such as education and housing if they are to have an impact on the people they serve.


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