West Berkshire Council: Public Consultation opens for the Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021-2030

Strategy to address five key areas to make a difference to people’s lives in Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham

Residents of West Berkshire are being invited to review the draft Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021-2030.

The draft strategy aims to drive positive change to tackle the underlying causes of poor health and wellbeing across West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham (the three local authorities within the Berkshire West Integrated Care Partnership). The draft strategy incorporates feedback from a previous public consultation that ended in February 2021.

The proposals focus on addressing the top five priorities identified by respondents:

• Reducing the differences in health between identified groups of people;
• Supporting individuals at high risk of poor health outcomes to live healthy lives;
• Helping children and families in early years;
• Promoting good mental health and wellbeing for all children and young people;
• Promoting good mental health and wellbeing for all adults.

This new consultation will run for six weeks, from Wednesday, 23 June to midnight on Wednesday, 4 August. The draft strategy and consultation survey can be accessed from https://info.westberks.gov.uk/DraftBerksWestHWBStrategy

Feedback from the consultation will help refine and confirm the vision outlined in the strategy, which will then be submitted to the three local Health and Wellbeing Boards.

The shared strategy has been developed by the three Boards together with the other members of the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP): the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group, the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and the South Central Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust. This collaborative approach between the seven public sector organisations will help ensure that all services are better co-ordinated to meet the diverse health and care needs of residents.

Graham Bridgman, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing for West Berkshire Council said:

“The Berkshire West Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021-2030 will establish our priorities for the next 10 years to enable residents of West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham to live happier and healthier lives. We are keen to have feedback from residents on the draft, which also seeks to reduce health inequalities as well as helping our district recover from Covid-19.

“This integrated approach across the three local authorities, together with the health organisations that are fellow members of the Integrated Care Partnership, is intended to ensure that residents can smoothly access care from different support settings as needed.”

The final strategy will be published in autumn 2021 and will be made available on each local authority’s website.

Anyone with questions can email berkshirewestwellbeing@gmail.com or call 07811 026070.