Agenda and draft minutes

Resolved to appoint Dr Hussein Mawji as Vice-Chair of the Board for the 2025-26 Municipal Year

In the absence of the Chair, Dr Mawji agreed to chair the meeting.

Councillor Helen Kalsi – work commitments

Councillor Cheryl Barnard - leave

Councillor Neghat Khan – other council business

Victoria McGregor-Riley

Tim Guyler

Sajeeda Rose

Damien West

None.

Minutes of the meeting held on 26 February 2025, for confirmation

The Board confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 26 February 2025 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Director of Public Health

David Johns, Deputy Director of Public Health, and Jessica Tomlinson, Public Health Manager, introduced the report and delivered a presentation on the Nottingham City Best Start Strategy for 2025-35, highlighting the following:

(a)  the Strategy is informed by the national and local context, local professional knowledge and experience, Nottingham data, and engagement with professionals, parents, caregivers and children. Data shows that Nottingham is worse than the England average in most best start metrics;

(b)  engagement began with a workshop in October 2024 with over 80 attendees, including parents, caregivers and professionals. Priorities and themes were developed and then further engagement was undertaken on these;

(c)  the strategy’s vision is that every child has the best start in life, with families, communities, and services working together to make Nottingham a great place to grow up;

(d)  the priorities and commitments of the strategy that have been developed are:

1.  Foundations for a Healthier Future:

2.  Healthy Beginnings:

3.  Healthy Relationships:

4.  Growing up Safe:

5.  Big Little Moments: Chat Play Read:

(e)  3-year delivery plans will be developed initially, working with partners and developing tangible steps and solutions.

The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:

(f)  a lot of this work learns from the award winning work of Small Steps Big Changes which has now come to an end;

(g)  one of the key principles of the Strategy is for systems and partners to work together, as they are all trying to achieve progress in this area. Existing services for children must be seamlessly linked in, with improved  connections and relationships between professionals;

(h)  the core themes are deliberately broad so that they can be flexible should priorities change over the 10-year lifetime of the Strategy;

(i)  universal services are important but an extra layer of support needs to be provided for those communities that struggle to access these. Communities members will be asked where they have the greatest access challenges;

(j)  Nottingham Police & Crime Commissioner, Raleigh Education Trust and It’s in Nottingham Foundation are working together with a vision of creating sustained positive outcomes for children and young people in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire through greater collaboration between private, public and third sector organisations, called ‘Thinking Differently’. This would support work being undertaken by the Board. Further details are available from Chris Pearson.

Resolved to

(1)  endorse the ambition and priorities of the Nottingham City Best Start Strategy, recognising the shared vision for improving outcomes for children aged 0-5y in Nottingham City;

(2)  commit to supporting the development of the first 3-year delivery plan, with each organisation securing approval for its specific contributions;

(3)  agree to integrate future reporting on the Best Start Strategy within the refreshed Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy reporting framework, ensuring ongoing accountability and visibility.

Report of the Director of Public Health

Hannah Stovin, Senior Public Health Intelligence Manager, presented the report providing the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Workplan 2025-2026 to the Board for ratification.

The JSNA workplan for 2025-2026 has been compiled by Public Health and Commissioning colleagues, and agreed by the Director of Public Health, and includes the following topics:

Work already in progress:

· JSNA Dashboards

· Women’s Health Needs Assessment

· Homelessness

· Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

· Best Start Strategy

To be completed:

· Children in Care / Care Leavers

· Work and Health

· Dementia – Working age and 65+

· Tuberculosis in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire

· Adults with Learning Disabilities

· Inclusion Health Groups and SMD

· Food Security and Sustainability

· Adolescents and Teenage Pregnancy

· All age alcohol related harm

· LGBTQ+ / and Transgender Health

Future planned work (2026 and beyond)

· DSVA (Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse)

Resolved to ratify and accept the JSNA Workplan 2025-2026 for Nottingham City

Update from the Nottingham City Place-Based Partnership

Rich Brady, Director of Strategy and Partnership, Nottingham City Place-Based Partnership (PBP), presented the report providing a summary of achievements across the four programmes and providing reflections on the benefits and challenges of the PBP’s collaborative delivery model, highlighting the following:

(a)  over the course of the Strategy, the programmes have supported thousands of residents, delivering measurable improvements in health outcomes and improved access to services through increased coordination. Each programme faced specific challenges that have at time compromised delivery, however all have laid strong foundations for long-term change;

(b)  the smoking workstream has supported 2,600 Nottingham adults to successfully quit smoking, supported by Thriving Nottingham. The police have seized a number of illegal vapes. Smoking is still above the national average but early indications are positive that things are moving in the right direction;

(c)  the Eating and Moving for Good Health workstream has supported over 2,000 adults with weight management services. There has been strong school engagement, supporting over 1,250 children to lose weight. However, childhood obesity rates remain above the national average;

(d)  the financial wellbeing workstream has been a challenge due to cost of living increases, funding cuts, economic strain and limited partner alignment. However, there have been some successes such as additional grants to financial advice services and real living wage commitments from community health providers;

(e)  334 people have received support one to one specialist support through the Severe Multiple Disadvantage workstream. This has led to significant reductions in offending, substance abuse, stress and anxiety, self-harm, and use of urgent healthcare;

(f)  while progress has been made, significant challenges remain, particularly in tackling complex and entrenched issues such as childhood obesity and smoking prevalence, which remain considerably higher than national levels The rising cost of living and systemic access barriers continue to affect many residents, especially those already facing disadvantage;

(g)  the PBP approach has provided a delivery-focused structure to support implementation of the JLHWS, offering a clear distinction between the strategic assurance role of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the day-to-day coordination and management of activity required to deliver against shared priorities.

(h)  looking ahead, each programme will continue under the refreshed JLHWS 2025- 2028, evolving in scope and ambition. The introduction of two new programmes, focused on reducing alcohol-related harm and ensuring children have the best start in life, will build on existing infrastructure and strengthen prevention efforts across the life course. These new programmes will align with and enhance the impact of current work, supporting a more joined-up, strategic approach to tackling the root causes of health inequality in Nottingham. Continued partner engagement will be essential to sustaining momentum, deepening collaboration, and driving forward progress.

The following points were made by Board members in the discussion that followed:

(i)  there has been an innovative approach in Nottingham City, using our resources to think differently about how we do things, like Thriving Nottingham and work with schools, delivering real value by taking a broader approach. The 3 year strategy enables us get things going and we are beginning to turn the tide on things like smoking rates and eating and moving;

(j)  one of the key achievements is partnership working. There are big changes coming up in NHS and local government so we need to be thinking about going forward and being even more radical in the future;

(k)  having financial resilience as a priority was a brave step and has been challenging, but is really powerful to make changes.

Resolved to note the Nottingham City Place-Based Partnership’s final delivery report on the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-25.

Report of the Corporate Direeector for Adult Social Care and Health (DASS)

Alison Donaldson, Programme and Strategy Manager, Commissioning and Partnerships, presented the report providing oversight of the monitored progress of delivery of the Nottingham City Better Care Fund 2024-25 plan and subsequent End of Year reporting that is due to be submitted to NHS England on the 6th June 2025.

Resolved to

(1)  approve the 2024-25 Better Care Fund End of Year Reporting;

(2)  retrospectively approve the 2025-26 Better Care Fund Planning Requirements for Nottingham City.

Update from the Joint Health Protection Board

Lucy Hubber, Director of Public Health, presented the report providing an update from the meeting of the Health Protection Board held in March 2025, highlighting the following:

(a)  the Board received an update on the pilot of opt-out blood-borne virus (BBV) testing within the Emergency Department at NUH. This has been a pilot was funded through a national programme since July 2024 and the report summarised the findings through the pilot programme;

(b)  colleagues from NHSE provided an overview of health inequalities and challenges in the prison population, including that this group experiences health inequalities which are considerably worse than other disadvantaged groups – average life expectancy of a prisoner is 56 compared to 81 for the general population, with higher rates of cardiovascular disease (34%) with hypertension, obesity and physical inactivity. Women in custody settings are 5 times more likely to have mental health concerns than the general female population. Suicide is the second leading cause of deaths in prisons with cases 40 times higher among recently released women than general population;

(c)  plans are afoot for the winter vaccination programme. Vaccination rates amongst children need to improve as they are poor compared to national average. The nursing team make multiple visits to families for extra support and to gather concerns people have;

(d)  there were recently some local exercises looking at how healthcare and local systems would respond during a pandemic, and to hold onto good work reached during the Covid pandemic;

(e)  Nottingham has slightly higher rates of tuberculosis than nationally, but not enough to take any additional action. Having said that it is entirely preventable and associated with poor living conditions so it is best to minimise the risk of harm, and get people to complete their treatment which can be demanding.

Updates from Board Members

Sarah Nardone, Director of Children’s Services, and Vicky Murphy, Director of Adult Social Services, presented their written updates to the Board.

For noting

The work plan was noted.

To agree to meet on the following Wednesdays at 1.30pm at Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham:

24 September 2025

26 November 2025

25 February 2026

Resolved to meet on the following Wednesdays at 1.30pm at Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham:

24 September 2025

26 November 2025

25 February 2026