To: Future Oxfordshire Partnership
Title of Report: Update following the Joint Workshop between the Health & Wellbeing Board and the Future Oxfordshire Partnership
Date: 27 September 2022
Report of: Rosie Rowe, Healthy Place Shaping Lead, Oxfordshire County Council
Status: Open
1. Introduction
The Future Oxfordshire Partnership Board met with Oxfordshire’s Health & Wellbeing Board on 9 March 2022 to discuss two key challenges for the county: climate action and obesity.
At the meeting, members identified a number of additional common areas of concern:
• Reducing obesity and promoting healthy weight
• access to green space
• active travel
• air quality
• retrofit in housing and ongoing involvement of health partners in climate action
• promoting sustained behaviour change in support of climate action
• engagement with the ICS
• the Inclusive Economy Partnership
• Social prescribing
The Board chairs requested that a report be presented to both Boards providing an update on action to address these challenges. The purpose of this paper is to provide that update and request that the Boards indicate which of these topics they would like to prioritise for discussion at their next workshop in autumn 2022.
2. Update on Reducing Obesity and Promoting Healthy Weight
Since the workshop in March the draft action plan for WSA Obesity has been finalised with actions focussed on prevention, support, healthy weight environment and system leadership. A clear focus needs to be on the healthy weight environment. A Health Needs Assessment (HNA) is underway which will provide a quantitative and qualitative description of the health needs and determinants relating to excess weight for the Oxfordshire population and make evidence based recommendations. This will enable us prioritise resources and actions. The HNA will be used to inform development of our local strategy and action plan for supporting healthy weight, reducing excess weight and reducing associated health inequalities. In addition, promoting healthy weight will be the focus of the 2022 Annual Report by the Director for Public Health.
3. Update on Access to Green Spaces
In January 2022 OCC published its report Making the Case for Investment in Green Infrastructure in Oxfordshire, providing robust evidence on the significant contribution Green Infrastructure can make to nature recovery, economic development, sustainable housing provision, and social wellbeing. It is currently working to test Natural England’s new Green Infrastructure standards to (re)assess access to green spaces in Oxfordshire.
In May 2022 the Health Improvement Board approved a public health programme aiming to improve equity in access to greenspace and nature in Oxfordshire. Although this is a relatively new area of focus for public health, it will build on multiple examples of ‘on the ground’ of organisations working with communities to improve health and wellbeing through nature. The programme has five key priorities:
- Raise the profile of ‘nature for health’ across relevant sectors and advocate for equitable access as a key health and sustainability goal
- Ensure that local planning policy reflects national guidance and best practice in relation to green infrastructure standards
- Collaborate with all districts, the NHS and other partners to support delivery of targeted nature-based activities or interventions to address health inequalities, including through green social prescribing
- Work with a range of stakeholders to raise public awareness of opportunities to participate in nature-based activities, including facilitated sessions and ‘self-care’ through nature
- Identify and address local and national gaps in data, evidence and insight
At a strategic level the Local Nature Partnership has agreed to establish a Nature and Health subgroup which will support partnership working to progress this work as well as providing expert input into the Local Nature Recovery Strategy. It is hoped that health and care organisations will be well represented on this sub group.
4. Update on Active Travel
Progress has been made in terms of both policy and infrastructure delivery to increase active travel across the County. Oxfordshire County Council’s Local Transport and Connectivity Plan 2022-2050 (LTCP) outlines a clear vision to deliver a net-zero Oxfordshire transport and travel system that enables the county to thrive whilst protecting the environment and making Oxfordshire a better place to live for all residents. It aims to achieve this by including policies that seek to reduce the need to travel, discourage unnecessary individual private vehicle journeys and make walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choice. Following public consultation, further detail has been provided within policies as to how they provide for disabled residents’ transport needs and it now includes a ‘Vision zero’ road safety policy to increase safety for cyclists. An active travel strategy with action plan has also been prepared which will go with the LTCP for approval in July.
An additional £10.4M has been secured from the Department for Transport to deliver five schemes that will enable active travel in Oxford, Bicester and Witney and to design or assess the feasibility of seven schemes in Abingdon, Eynsham, Oxford, Bicester and Berinsfield.
In 2022/2 the County’s Cycling & Walking Activation Programme is taking forward a number of interventions to enable residents to walk and cycle more, with a particular focus on addressing the barriers to active travel experienced by people living in areas of greater deprivation. These seek to promote active travel to school and work and to promote behaviour change when people move into a new development.
5. Update on Air Quality
District Council Air Quality leads are now meeting on a regular basis with public health and transport colleagues in Oxfordshire County Council. Current priorities are to complete the Annual Status Reports which provide an overview of air quality in each district; updating Air Quality Management Area action plans; and developing a new air quality website for Oxfordshire. The development of the website is funded by a DEFRA grant; it will provide publicly accessible information about air quality across the County, including an alert system on days when air quality is poor, and it will promote action to prevent poor air quality – linked to initiatives such as Clean Air Day.
6. Update on retrofit in housing and PAZCO
OCC has now employed a domestic retrofit lead to coordinate and convene work taking place with multiple stakeholders in county and regionally on retrofit.
In its follow up to the publication of the Pathways to a Zero Carbon Oxfordshire (PAZCO) report, scoping work is currently taking place on themes for joint workshops to be held with system partners including organisations in the health and care system.
7. Update on countywide communications and marketing strategy for climate action.
A joint project team is in place, which is led by OCC and which comprises representatives from all six local authorities and OxLEP. The team has developed a co-ordinated plan to encourage and support climate-action-related behaviour change among local residents and businesses, with activity being delivered from the start of May 2022. This activity stands independently of the individual messages and initiatives being developed by each organisation around climate action.
A simple-to-use online tool is being developed which will allow people to select, like and engage with climate action initiatives that interest them and explore and decide what they can do to reduce their carbon emissions. This provides a practical call to action for people to use.
A content calendar for social media campaigns has been developed, with monthly themes identified so that all partners can promote similar messages using similar graphics during the same period. The first campaign launched at the start of May with a biodiversity theme to tie in with No Mow May and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (with its tree planting message). A wide range of partners are being engaged to promote these communications and encourage individual climate action including partners in the health and care system.
8. Update on the work of the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP)
The OIEP launched in March 2021 and is a formal strand of the wider Future Oxfordshire Partnership. It brings together over a hundred organisations - employers, business, education, community groups and local government - to tackle inequality in terms of income, housing affordability and life expectancy.
Its Mission is as follows:
‘The Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership is working together to create a more equal and sustainable region that creates opportunities and benefits for all people within the county. We are working to tackle some of our region’s biggest problems to create a fairer environment where everyone can contribute and share in our success’
The aim of the OIEP is to create an environment and communities that can adapt to change, a region that is resilient in the face of shocks to the economy and a workforce that responds to different needs and different kinds of work in the future.
The partnership is co-chaired by Baroness Jan Royall (Somerville College) and Jeremy Long (OxLEP) with input from countywide partners from the private, public (including district, city and county authorities) education and Voluntary and Community Sectors. The City Council has been supporting the partnership, providing secretariat and programme support; from June 2022 this will be funded by the Future Oxfordshire Partnership. The OIEP has set up four subgroups to address the following areas:
- Social Value and Procurement
- Inclusive Employers
- Educational attainment and
- Place-based interventions.
It is also developing a digital platform and an ‘Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Charter’ and pledge scheme so that businesses and residents can pledge commitment and resource to the work. System partners across health, care and local government will be encouraged to sign up to the Charter when it is formally launched later this year.
9. Update on Social Prescribing
OCCG are currently Social Prescribing working across Health and Social Care to map the range of social prescribing initiatives; define the vision for social prescribing and develop a social prescribing strategy for Oxfordshire. This work will continue with the transition to the ICS.
10. Engagement with the ICS
A meeting is scheduled for 22 June 2022 with the ICS Interim Director Strategic Delivery & Partnerships to discuss representation from the local authorities on the ICS sustainability steering group.
In line with the transfer of responsibilities from OCCG to BOB ICS, it has been proposed that the Future Oxfordshire Partnership Board Terms of Reference are amended to include a representative from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board to replace the CCG representative as a non-voting member of the Board.
11. Recommendations
· That the Future Oxfordshire Partnership and Oxfordshire’s Health & Wellbeing Board note the action being taken to address common areas of concern.
· That the Boards note that they will continue to discuss common issues of concern either through specific joint workshops or through potential future Integrated Care System structures established to support place working in Oxfordshire.
Background Papers
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