HEALTH

A catalyst for collaboration - case studies

Tameside MBC

With an above average take up of NHS Health Check already, the council wanted to develop its model of community delivery to help reach communities most at risk from poor health that are least likely to be able to easily access health services.

Working closely with the public health team, councillors wanted to identify how best to utilise a community or general practice-based approach for delivering Health Checks.

A stakeholder event involving 14 organisations focused on opportunities and challenges of delivering Health Checks as well as creating new and improved partnerships between the council, the Clinical Commissioning Group and a range of other partners.

Councillors reported that the approach to identifying and hearing from stakeholders was a particularly successful element of the Centre for Public Scrutiny's (CfPS) ‘return on investment' approach to council scrutiny.

During the Health Check review the approach brought people together, building relationships across organisations.

Support from CfPS helped to keep the scrutiny review on track and the review itself helped to raise the profile of the Health Check programme.

As well as recognising the potential benefits of the Health Check programme, councillors identified opportunities for take up and effectiveness to be improved. 

The review concluded that Health Check needs to engage community leaders, using local settings such as community centres and local pharmacies to reach people at risk of poor health through a community based approach, building on the successful ‘My Active Life' scheme run by Tameside Sports Trust to explore further commissioning opportunities.


Devon

The council was keen to explore how the NHS Health Check programme could most benefit people in groups most at risk from poor health or with the poorest health outcomes.

Councillors decided to focus their review around socially isolated groups, recognising that isolation is not just about geography and is an issue in both urban and rural settings.

Consequently they decided to explore the benefits of the Health Check to the farming community, homeless people, military veterans and offenders. They involved a range of expert witnesses and stakeholders including local veterans' support groups, the Probation Trust, drug and alcohol service providers and health outreach services for homeless people.

Councillors wanted to supplement existing data (as the Health Check programme is relatively new and responsibility for it has transferred to local government), so they developed a qualitative survey with Clinical Commissioning Groups to help gain insight about to the take up of NHS Health Check and to gather views from general practice about the programme's effectiveness.

The survey had a high response rate which meant that views from general practice influenced the review.  Insight from stakeholders was used as the basis to engage with groups across Devon that are not often heard and this demonstrated that to maximise take up, Health Checks need to be visible and accessible with clear benefits that people understand.

Strategically, Health Check can be a gateway to improving people's health by creating a ‘whole person' approach to developing the right care pathways for people, ensuring marginalised groups are included.
 

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