West Lancashire Borough Council: Public Health Strategy Report

This report outlines the West Lancashire Borough Council's health strategy, aiming to improve the wellbeing and health of adults and children within the borough. The strategy focuses on reducing health disparities and enhancing the welfare of residents through three priority areas: achieving consistent health focus, incorporating health considerations into all plans, and prioritizing community value in procurement. The council intends to tackle health inequalities by aligning existing services with a person-centered approach, creating a 'living document' to adapt to changing needs. The report details the context, scope, governance, and the rationale behind the strategy's development, including the challenges of an aging population, funding reductions, and health inequalities within the borough. It emphasizes the importance of behavior, social circumstances, and environmental factors in shaping health outcomes, and the council's role in improving public health and promoting wellbeing. The strategy aims to ensure West Lancashire is a healthier place to live, focusing on individual health needs and promoting wellness across the population.

Executive Summary
This strategy has been formulated by West Lancashire Borough Council. The main motive
behind the creation of this strategy is to make improvement in wellbeing or health of adults and
children in its borough.
Vision behind creation of Strategy
Make reduction in health disparities and improve the welfare and health of our residents and
local communities. For attaining this vision, we have discovered three priority areas which help
us in fulfilling the motive behind the creation of vision. These are following:
 Attain wellbeing and health consistency and deliberate focus.
 Incorporate wellbeing and health within all plans, policy documents, and projects.
 Place community value at the heart of our procurement and commissioning cycles.
All these priorities are selected due to our strategic ability to link social gradients in health. The
Council strongly believes that it can tackle with the health inequalities by strategic alignment of
existing services. This allows realignment of existing services with more person-centered and
integrated approach.
It is necessary for us to steers the strategy towards creating a framework. With the help of this
strategic framework, we can successfully achieve our vision statement. It is because of strategic
framework permit over time for the realignment of existing services. This realignment facilitates
us in utilizing more person-centered and integrated approach.
With the help of such integrated approach, we can build the brighter future, as we want to our
future generation, community members, and people. Lancashire Borough Council wishes that the

building strategy is in the form of "living document." It is because, with the help of living
document, it can ensure effective planning as per change in needs and wants of people.
Lancashire Borough Council considers that every person has a legal or lawful right to enjoy good
health. In addition, it is the vision of council to support the health of a person by offering
effective and efficient services. Apart of this, we progress in our vision through collaboration and
partnership with community and general people.
Introduction
Our Motive: Our main motive is to be a council which is aspiring for West Lancashire.
Behind the creation of strategy, there is a clear wish to promote wellness through West
Lancashire. This not only improves health but also improve the wellbeing of people. In our
strategy, we also highlighted our principles, strategic approach, duties and responsibilities to
attain this by promoting efficient life quality and avoiding health inequalities for everyone who
works and lives in the borough. On the other hand, priorities are developed in such manner so
that it can guide us specifically without any confusion. In addition, we have developed our policy
framework for improving health outcomes. These policy frameworks are a combination of
shared vision, better working, and effective collaboration between different council services
which improved health outcomes by identifying the different factors that influence the quality of
life. Thus, by the policy framework we able to maintain health quality and can attain our vision
significantly. Apart of this, it is also decided that whenever a strategy is implemented, we will
establish an efficient and supportive environment. Such environment helps us in tackle the health
challenge and determines the scene for the future development of health.

While making or enforcing the strategy, we faced a high-level argument in the NHS "Five Year
Forward View." This argument is regarding the future health of a large number of citizens,
children, and community members. Apart of this, it is also for the economic prosperity of
Britain, and sustainability of NHS. The strategy concludes that wellbeing and good health is
demanded by every individual, so it is their responsibility to play their role effectively, and we
will play ours.
Context and Scope
It is a strategic document which highlights different possible actions and high-level objectives
regarding the priority areas. Furthermore, this document does not give in-depth information
about the delivery of priorities and details contained in the policy document. All work contained
in the document will follow and led by the Council’s wellbeing and health strategy manager.
Governance & Regulation
Generally, it can be said that the overall delivery of three important areas cannot be delivered in
silos. We have discovered that the document of policy will in living form. Apart from if this, it
will evolve and change dependent on the wellbeing and health requirements of our community,
especially in relation to providing effective health outcomes in the improved, equitable, and
effective ways by which we can utilize our services in a significant manner.
Moreover, every predetermined priority will need a joined up and cohesive approach. These
approaches ensure us regarding the achievement of the milestones. Generally, Council Wellbeing
and health manager are responsible for introducing supporting policy with which predetermined
strategy can change in action plan. This ensures us effectively delivery of council milestone.
Such type of actions mainly required support from officers and internal services or buy-in.

Apart of this, core functions of the council can only complete by high accountability, and this
can achieve by formulating a team for every priority. All necessary freedom and autonomy
should provide to those team members for ensuring efficiency in produced outcomes. During
their task performance, implementation plan and progress should discuss to measure efficiency
and outcomes. Furthermore, Strategy manager will be responsible for managing the group and
holding a quarterly meeting. This meeting schedule will discuss and informed to all in advance
on an annual basis. Apart from holding a meeting, regular updates on the success of the
predetermined priorities should report to the Leisure director and wellbeing services. With the
success information, the manager also needs to represent performance metrics and action plans
on a quarterly basis.
Furthermore, the manager should take initiatives to measure the requirements of West
Lancashire people regarding the strategy. This helps us in maintaining the quality of study with
the changing needs of the people. Apart of this, the developed strategy should in the form of
"living document" so that evolvement can perform as per requirement of people and formal
governance.
Reason behind development of this Strategy
We can say that everyone is influenced by health and wellbeing levels experiencing by us. A
large number of West Lancashire residents celebrate wellbeing and good health. On the other
hand, it can be said that West Lancashire performs effectively in comparison to its competitors.
In doing so, West Lancashire residents face a lot of problems like the low level of physical
activity in adults and children. The fact behind this problem is that if someone lives in the most
deprived ward of West Lancashire, then he or she will leave 8.8 years less than other least

deprived area. Due to this, it can be said that West Lancashire has a strong heritage, clear
identification, and cultural home to #### inhabitants.
Moreover, West Lancashire is a borough of different contrasts with industrial heritage, rural, new
town developments, and idyllic villages. Apart of this, the Skelmersdale town is considered
largest, highly reputed, and center of the borough. In the Skelmersdale town, there is a great
difference in the quality of life and prosperity between affluent outer suburbs and inner wards or
villages. On the other hand, ### neighborhoods and 68,000 residents among the most deprived
areas of UK mainly concentrated surround the Skelmersdale town. Furthermore, it can be said
that population of West Lancashire is continuously growing from last 30 years and during 20##
it will be approximate ###.
Most part of our population is covered by young individuals, but due to the passage of time, the
population is aging speedily. Due to the high older age people, we are currently facing high
issues regarding their care system of dementia and physical frailty. This not only creates success
problem but also influence our vision outcomes. On the other hand, the big challenge faced by us
is managing the significant reduction in our funding system. This issue arises due to growing
demand for our services.
The NHS will be nearby £30 billion short of funds by the end of this decade whilst local authorities
have had cuts imposed by the central government of more than 30% in recent years.
Furthermore, it can be said that funding squeeze influences the financial capability of the system
in a great manner.
With this, the further era will come up with the increasing demand for social and health care. The
main reason behind this rising demand will be demographic fact. This fact concludes that there

will be a steep growth in the number of old age people and it is sure that old people have a
greater number of long-term conditions in comparison to the normal population. On the other
hand, the situation of change social and health care is known as overwhelming. This was done by
considering some of the killer problems in our borough such as #### and smoking related issues.
Moreover, ## of the young population are extremely overweight. Expectancy of life within West
Lancashire different considerably with men in our most communities living more than 9 years
longer than those in our most deprived areas.
According to the Health and Social care Act, the central government is responsible for managing
issues related to the health inequalities and others. On the other hand, for fulfilling the purpose of
government, it is supported by a new executive agency or a framework which are known as
Public Health England or public health outcomes framework. Apart of this, it has been identified
that local authorities have significant capabilities to tackle and effect the requirements of their
communities and manage the whole infrastructure to influence and deal with the economic,
physical, and social conditions which threaten well-being and health of societies.
Culture, society, and environment in which we grow up, born, and work play an important role in
shaping our health indirectly and directly. Furthermore, they also built our personality and
lifestyle by improving life expectancy and quality of life. The Below mentioned figure represent
the different associated factors for premature death. By seeing the below-mentioned diagram,
one can easily determine that a large percentage of our health is contributed by our behavior. On
the other hand, other big percentages are significantly contributed by our genes, which one can
see in their health care, genetic predisposition, social circumstances, and environmental
exposure. Some of those environmental situations and social circumstances we might have some
control over. So, if someone considers those, over half of the relationship between longevity and

premature death build due to behavior, social circumstances, and environmental exposure, and
things that we have strong control over and can effect through the work and services performed
by us.
During the time of economic hardship and tough reductions in growing pressure on the National
Health Service, we are able to identify our central or core business role which is to improve
public health services. This not only helps us in delivering our services best but also helpful in
playing a good role as stewards of community wellbeing and leader. By working with this role,
we can significantly improve and protect the quality of lives of our residents.
Still, there are a large number of people who think health as the remit of the NHS. This thinking
of people shows that wellbeing and good health is liked and demanded by everyone, and all has a

responsibility to contribute more to the benefit of society as well as the organization. On the
other hand, it can be said that health is not only an issue for the NHS but also the issue of other
organizations. Each of us wants to ensure Wet Lancashire a happier and healthier place to live
and this strategy establish the framework to fulfill all such requirements and objectives.
What do we want to attain?
The main motive behind the creation of this strategy is to bring improvement in the health of
human beings and promote wellness throughout the West Lancashire population. Furthermore,
the strategy mainly focuses on the care and health requirements of individuals, treating specific
problems, conditions, and diseases. It focuses less on preventing ill health, and on using and
recognizing the broad array of assets at our disposal to support this. Moreover, as a particular
country, we have tended to deliver treatment and services around predetermined illness, instead
of following a person-centered and a more holistic approach. It means that during the
development of our services, we need to focus more on people needs, family situations, values,
lifestyle, and their social circumstances. This helps us in delivering such services which fit easily
into the requirements of people.
Apart of this we already know the fact that we cannot survive more in the market by organization
treatment and provide services around a specific illness. So, for this purpose, we need to change
our services and treatment according to the changing environment and growing demand for
individuals, especially at the expense of preventive actions. On the other hand, we need to
perform efforts for identifying better opportunities and achieve better results for families and
their individuals. But it can perform only by using collective and financial resources effectively.

Following a service approach which is holistic in nature proves unchartered territory for the
council. But if we understand anything from the service approach we need to apply it to
improving our health and wellbeing services for people and should establish a strategy on the
basis of priority. It is because strategy helps us by defining the outline of our work objectives or
below-mentioned priorities:
 Attain wellbeing and health consistency and deliberate focus.
 Incorporate wellbeing and health within all plans, policy documents, and projects.
 Place community value at the heart of our procurement and commissioning cycles.
As described earlier, the central government has transferred responsibilities related to local
authorities to improve the wellbeing and the health of their residents and communities by
managing in-depth reasons behind poor health, consider as health inequalities. This action has
taken by the local authority to think differently about how they think more about the offering
services and provide improved services. This action of local authority not only improves its
performance but also helpful in making the healthier life of individuals. Moreover, they
developed a strategy with the intention to offer the overarching framework. With the help of this
framework, they can deliver real solutions by focusing on health outcomes. We improve these
health outcomes by targeting the three predetermined priorities. These priorities have the
capability to place wellbeing and health at the heart of every people and permit for a joined-up
and more cohesive way of working.
These priorities help us in rebalancing our focus. With the help of these priorities, focus can
transfer from expensive specialist services to effective universal services for the main motive of
improving wellbeing and health. All such actions prove helpful in underpinning the strategic
framework to change our public services to ensure that our main focus behind service delivery is

people. On the other hand, the strategy is developed for the long term with the goal of add our
contribution towards alleviating demand on economic cost, local health services, the cost of ill-
health and the linked broader social costs.
How did we reach our priorities?
We understand poor access to healthcare, lack of income, unsafe workplaces, and inappropriate
housing is key factors that influence the well-being and health of communities and individuals.
In the same manner, safety and employment, excellent education, interesting environments, and
crime free all support excellent and safe living and directly give their contribution towards the
wellbeing of communities and residents. Apart of this, we can observe the presence of health
inequalities by seeing evidence and outcomes of comparison among life expectancy of people
who are part of least deprived communities and less affluent areas. Sir Michael Marmot who is a
professor wrote a post which is known as 2010 strategic review-"Fair Society Healthy Lives." In
his post, he clearly defines that if anyone wants to reduce the health inequalities, they should
focus more on dealing the wider determinants which influence the quality of life in a significant
manner. On the basis of this post, it can be clearly stated that there is a link between the health
inequalities and determinants of health.
Moreover, it can be said that it is necessary for health and wellbeing to address the role of the
wider economic and social determinants of ill health. These help us not only making the large-
scale progress but also in tackling the large-scale health problems which can influence the lives
of people in a negative manner. While tackling the problem of health inequalities, we mainly
face the problem of failure. It is because of different determinants described in the below

mentioned figure. Apart of this, the following figure also defines the layers of influence on an
individual potential for health.
There is a compelling case of business for putting the health of the public at the top of the agenda
proposed by the local government. After giving all explanation regarding the strategies and
actions, it has been difficult for us to decide which action is most beneficial and cost effective
among actions. For deciding or taking such decision, following things are taken into
consideration:
 What does the evidence conclude about which actions are most cost effective and
efficient?
 How do the areas that diverse departments are responsible for influence health of people?
 How can our services build the way they work to certify greater influence on the health of
the public?
 Which activities prove helpful in dealing with social determinants of health, create value,
and save money?
On the other hand, the main purpose behind the creation of priorities is to establish the
foundation for a more innovative, creative, and joined-up approach with defensive action at its

heart. All this can effectively define by the downward-upstream stream diagram representing
below:
Strategy helps us in achieving the set of priorities in an effective manner. We developed the
strategy by following underlined principles. These involve how effectively to fulfill health
requirements of people earlier, improve equity and quality, effective use of limited resources at
the time of growing demand, improve results, financial constraints, and growing expectations.
All these principles help us in shaped the actions of the established strategy.
Priorities
The well-being and health priorities have been formulated to offer different high-level priorities
which are a challenge to span and resolve organizational responsibilities. We measure these
priorities on a continuous basis to identify progress and success in achieving predetermined goals
and objectives.
Priority 1
Establish “social value” at the heart of procurement and commissioning.