Agenda item

(i)            To discuss and consider an overview of Oldham’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy from Katrina Stephens, Director of Public Health.

(ii)          To discuss and consider a presentation from Kathryn Willan regarding supporting our residents to gain the knowledge and skills to confidently make choices and participate in decisions about their own health

Consideration was given to a report regarding the Oldham Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2030. Katrina Stevens reminded the Board that the Strategy had been agreed in March 2023. The Strategy details key priorities for improving the health and wellbeing of residents in Oldham for the coming 8 years 2022-2030.

The Board received a presentation from Kathryn Willan, Public Health Registrar, regarding the supporting the residents of Oldham to gain knowledge and skills to confidently make choices and participate in decisions about their own health. Feedback was given from the ‘Community Explorers’ session on the health literacy theme of the Strategy.

The Board was informed the Board that the Engagement with ‘Community Explorers’ will help to gain insight into experiences of voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations operating in Oldham

•      The Community Explorers network is facilitated by Action Together, and has presence in each of the five districts. A 2015 study found a ‘mismatch between the complexity of health materials and the skills of the English adult working-age population’, and our residents told us the health and care system can be difficult to understand. Problems with communication have caused stress.

•      Limited health literacy is associated with increased risk of morbidity and premature death. People with limited health literacy are also more likely to use emergency services and incur higher healthcare costs.

Improved health literacy has the potential to:

•      Increase health knowledge and empower people to effectively manage long-term health conditions.

•      Reduce the burden on health and social care services.

•      Reduce health inequalities.

      Kathryn Willan highlighted the following goals:

•      Develop a common framework for engagement which can be used by all organisations and services, and provide the opportunity for residents to shape the offer to better suit them and their family.

•      Adopt a resident-focused approach to communication, ensuring residents feel listened to, language and communication is tailored to need, and steps are taken to ensure messaging has been understood.

•      Support established peer and patient support groups to grow and continue to improve their reach.

Kathryn Willan informed the Board that at the session which was held with residents people shared examples of where they, or residents they had worked with, hadn't felt listened to, and the barriers they had faced to accessing healthcare. So the session focused on this goal for most of the session. The sessions were held each month. The following themes were drawn from the discussion:

(a)  Flexibility

·         Life course approach

·         Digital inclusion

·         Community languages

·         Location and transport

(b)  Familiarity

·         Informal settings

·         Trusted voices

·         Shared language

(c)  Expectations

·         Clear routes to
appropriate care

·         Follow-up

·         Roles and responsibilities

Kathryn Willan emphasised the limitations of a 30 minute session which allowed one goal to be discussed. The limitations were:

•      Small number of organisations represented at a single meeting.

•      Representation of populations who are engaged with the community.

•      Limited time.

Dr. Jon Patterson concurred that health literacy was extremely important. He drew attention to the need for the safeguarding of disclosures which need to be put in place. It was his view that there should be a clear safety mechanism for disclosures.

It was suggested that digital inclusion was important and how this is taken forward within the communities.

Reference was made to various inner groups within communities who are in touch with each person in that community and people communicate through these inner groups. It was suggested that representatives from those groups would be valuable additions in the Community Explorers sessions.

Katrina Stevens, Director of Public Health, made reference to working with communities during Covid and the communities response. The link with Covid is dealing with the impact that Covid has had on the community. The community has been affected by Covid and therefore, the Covid resource fund can be utilised to help resource health literacy via Community Explorers.

Katrina Stevens, Director of Public Health, advised that due to the limited resources of the public health team it would be difficult to achieve the health literacy goals in order to deliver the Strategy objectives. In terms of the collective responsibility of the Board, there was a need for the individual organisations to work together to deliver those the health literacy goals.

Resolved: That

(1)          a further report be submitted to the next Board meeting detailing any positive changes and initiatives to achieve improvements to health literacy in the community in line with the Health and Wellbeing Strategy; and

(2)          the possibility of utilising Covid funding in relation to health literacy be explored.