To present a Health and Wellbeing Strategy and delivery plan for Cabinet approval following input and feedback from stakeholder and public consultation.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

a)       acknowledges and takes on board the outcome of the consultation for the draft Health and Wellbeing Strategy, noting that the majority of responses to the online survey either strongly agree or agree that the document effectively identifies the key health issues faced by Tendring residents;

b)       approves and adopts the Health and Wellbeing Strategy as amended;

c)       authorises the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships to accept and to allocate Essex County Council’s Public Health Improvement funding, to support the delivery of objectives in this Strategy; and

d)       authorises the Assistant Director (Sport, Culture and Health) to enter into the associated funding agreements.

Cabinet considered a report of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder (A.5) which presented a Health and Wellbeing Strategy and delivery plan for Cabinet’s approval following input and feedback from stakeholder and public consultation. This Strategy would set the direction for the Council’s focus on supporting residents to live a healthier, fulfilled and independent lives for longer.

It was reported that evidence from data showed that, although there were some improving figures, when compared to other areas in Essex, Tendring still had higher than average levels of certain preventable long-term conditions, poorer mental health, excess weight/obesity and lower physical activity levels.

It was believed that adoption of this Strategy and the delivery plan within it would help support partnership working to deliver improvements around the wider determinants of health in the District which would have a direct impact on health and wellbeing outcomes.

Considering the data and partner feedback as detailed in the draft Strategy, the following strategic objectives were considered key to improving the health and wellbeing of residents:

1. The Wider Determinants of Health

2. Improving Wellbeing and Resilience

3. Encouraging a healthier lifestyle

4. Improving Long Term Condition Prevention and Management

5. Suicide Prevention

Members were made aware that the Strategy had been presented with a delivery plan to impact on all of the objectives set out above. Although it would not be possible for the Council to fund all the actions listed, adopting a delivery plan would allow the Council to proactively look for external funding opportunities.

A key focus of this work was to ensure that all residents felt represented by the Strategy and were supported in living a healthier, independent and fulfilling life. This could be achieved by working closely with health partners to deliver initiatives that helped to tackle some of the District’s health needs. Understanding how the wider determinants of health could have a real impact on health outcomes was critical to improving the quality of life for many of residents.

Cabinet recalled that, on 17 September 2024, the Council had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Essex County Council’s Public Health Team, which set out the agreement by which a total of £54,000 in funding was allocated to the Council, to promote health and wellbeing priorities in the District.  Delegations to the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships to accept and allocate additional funding from Essex County Council to support delivery of this strategy were recommended through this report.

Following adoption of this Strategy, it was proposed that an executive decision be brought forward under delegated authority to the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships, together with the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Public Realm, to develop and deliver a series of pilot projects across the District, to support improvements in public health. 

Informed by those pilot schemes, it was proposed also to allocate a future budget to launch a new Active Wellbeing Fund to be allocated through an open call process, with the details and projects approved by the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships, together with the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Public Realm.  Those significant projects would be shared with partners at the Community Safety Partnership and the Health and Wellbeing Board, to help facilitate success in delivery.

The Leader of the Conservative Group asked a question about the large number of proposed projects (the majority of which would be in partnership with external organisations) and how they would be monitored as to their progress against timetables, to which the Partnerships Portfolio Holder, the Leisure and Public Realm Portfolio Holder, the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council, in turn, responded.

Members were cognisant that following an announcement by the then Deputy Prime Minister in February 2025, six new areas had been confirmed to join the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme, which included Greater Essex. As such, Mayoral elections will take place in 2026 and in addition, local government reorganisation was likely to be implemented in Greater Essex during the period of this Strategy.

It was recognised that this Strategy set out the vision for health and wellbeing in Tendring for the next five years. In terms of any reorganisation, the Strategy sought to offer the potential for consistency whilst any new unitary authority considered its own health and wellbeing priorities.

The Strategy aligned with partners such as Essex County Council and the North East Essex Alliance in terms of their emerging place plan approach and supported a wider determinants, prevention and early intervention model. This model recognised the Government’s thinking around its 10 Year Health Plan for England which had, as one of the key strands, tackling the causes of ill health and therefore was well placed to ensure an ongoing consistent approach was maintained during any period of local government reorganisation.

Following the consultation exercise, the following amendments and additions had been made to the Health and Wellbeing Strategy:

·      further detail on the significance of the new NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England following its recent release in July 2025.

·      further detail as to the Council’s business as usual work in other areas which impacted on the health and wellbeing of Tendring residents, including housing, homelessness and damp and mould, planning, community transport, employment, education, leisure and physical activity.

The delivery plan had been updated also to respond to the consultation and to help focus on the work the Council had the most influence over to be able to support, deliver and fund work across the five strategic priorities.

The reasoning behind the Cabinet’s decision was therefore as follows:-

(i)       for the Council to adopt a strategic approach towards Health and Wellbeing, to support local people and local communities to live healthier, independent and fulfilled lives;

(ii)      the Health and Wellbeing Strategy was closely aligned with the Sport and Activity Strategy, both of which aimed to support healthy lifestyles by improving physical and mental health. Developing a joint fund enabled the benefits of both strategies to be amplified together; and

(iii)    pilot projects would enable progress to be made rapidly on the fund, with lessons learnt from the new approach to be applied to the longer-term fund.

Consequently, it was moved by Councillor Placey, seconded by Councillor Barry and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

a)       acknowledges and takes on board the outcome of the consultation for the draft Health and Wellbeing Strategy, noting that the majority of responses to the online survey either strongly agree or agree that the document effectively identifies the key health issues faced by Tendring residents;

b)       approves and adopts the Health and Wellbeing Strategy as amended;

c)       authorises the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships to accept and to allocate Essex County Council’s Public Health Improvement funding, to support the delivery of objectives in this Strategy; and

d)       authorises the Assistant Director (Sport, Culture and Health) to enter into the associated funding agreements.