Agenda item

In developing the Surrey Health and Wellbeing Strategy in 2019 we identified the vital role that community engagement and development would play in delivering on our 10-year goals to improve health and wellbeing through a more preventive approach and addressing wider determinants. A range of fantastic community focused initiatives and approaches have since been progressed across our partnership, most notably in the form of the ongoing response to Covid-19. This has given extra energy to our shared ambition to engage with and empower communities, and a number of key opportunities have been identified to build on progress to date. Work is already underway across the partnership to make the most of these opportunities and through the spring and summer we will also create a roadmap for embedding the empowerment of communities into our longer-term efforts to improve health and wellbeing and address health inequalities.

Witnesses:

Marie Snelling - Executive Director of Communities and Transformation (SCC)

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    The Executive Director of Communities and Transformation (SCC) shared:

·         Three key points that had resonated most strongly in the recent discussions about the work with a variety of partners:

-       That work done by individual organisations or as a system of public agencies, needed to be done alongside the communities served; recognising the need to harness the multitude of talents, ideas and capabilities. 

-       That better engagement with Surrey’s communities and empowerment depended on assisting them and partners to continue to strengthen collaboration, coordinate responses, to share insights and challenges; the continued evolution of the Council’s leadership and culture was vital. 

-       That the rhetoric around empowering communities needed to be put into action, building upon the examples referenced in the report and through Covid-19 recovery it was an important time to harness the renewed ambition in the system to drive the empowerment of Surrey’s communities in a tangible and sustainable way to narrow health inequalities.

Professor Helen Rostill left the meeting at 3.25pm

·         That based upon her experience, she noted that she did not think it would be easy for a number of reasons:

-     Making it real would challenge some of our traditional ways of working, including our decision-making and established processes.

-     That it required a relentless focus on outcomes for people, meaning the need to put aside preconceptions and organisational barriers.

-     That acknowledgement of where approaches were not working well was vital as well prioritising innovation to take a wide and organic approach to community engagement.

-     That by combining the large ambitions set out in the report with some pragmatic action, there would be a real impact for Surrey’s communities.

Dr Claire Fuller joined the meeting at 3.28pm

2.    A Board member noted the need to bear in mind the structures already in place that could help support some of the work, such as VCFS organisations. He noted that the extent to which communities are empowered could take the system in uncomfortable directions but that was not necessarily a bad thing.

-       In response, the Executive Director of Communities and Transformation (SCC) recognised that the VCFS was vital to the work and recognised that some of the work could be uncomfortable but it was vital to be willing to understand the need for it.

3.    A Board member referred to the section in the report on ambition regarding the difficulty in engaging with some communities effectively, noting that through the pandemic the Community Impact Assessment (CIA) and the work through the BAME Alliance and other networks, the issue of trust in big public sector organisations was highlighted. He noted that current work on engagement around the vaccination programme and the work within PCNs was an opportunity to build trust and the need to connect workstreams and conversations to look at successes and failures around engagement potentially linking the work on devolution and the future integrated system.

-       In response, the Executive Director of Communities and Transformation (SCC) noted that she was happy to liaise with the Board member outside of the meeting. She recognised the need to develop and coordinate the current work on listening to hidden voices and engaging with hard to reach communities across the system and welcomed diverse ways of achieving that.

4.      The Chairman noted that it was a long-term piece of work that underpinned the work carried out across the system and that it would be good to have a regular progress update.

RESOLVED:

1.    Endorsed the renewed ambition to empower communities (see section 5.2).

2.    Confirmed support for the ongoing work on key opportunities, and highlighted any additional suggested areas of focus (see section 5.3).

3.    Agreed that the Executive Director of Communities and Transformation (SCC) leads and coordinates, on behalf of the wider system, the development of a longer-term roadmap to embed the empowerment of communities at the heart of our efforts to improve health and wellbeing and address health inequalities (see section 5.4).

Actions/further information to be provided:

1.    The Executive Director of Communities and Transformation (SCC) will liaise with the Board member regarding the need to develop and coordinate the current work on listening to hidden voices and engaging with hard to reach communities.

2.    The Board will receive a progress update in due course.