Health and Wellbeing System Diagnostic Tool

Health and Wellbeing System Diagnostic Tool

Introduction

A significant number of health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) are now beginning to play a genuine leadership role across local health and care systems, showing great progress over the past 3 years.

The most effective HWBs lead a place-based approach to health and wellbeing, where all partners share a common understanding and vision, key priorities and resources for achieving these. It is imperative that the HWB is the place where senior leaders come together to develop this oversight.

The Diagnostic Tool 2016/17

This refreshed diagnostic tool is the central part of our offer to HWBs and aims to support the rapid development of HWBs across the country towards effective system leadership and innovation and to step up to the current challenges. The programme and self-assessment tool is grounded in the current policy context and is based on our latest research into the drivers and barriers of being effective HWBs, which can be found in The Force Begins to Awaken:

Drivers of and barriers to effective health and wellbeing boards
Committed leaders, both political and managerial
Collaborative plumbing, often reflecting a history of partnership working
Clarity of purpose, being clear about the primary task of the board
A geography that works, or has been made to work
The response to austerity, which can drive either collaboration or a retreat to silos
A focus on place, with local priorities that drive collaboration
A director of public health, who gets it
High quality support, and a flexible approach to the council committee thing
Churn in the system, within local government and health
Getting the basics right, to enable effective systems leadership

The tool can be used as a self-service downloadable resource for HWBs and local systems to use themselves or as the basis of a facilitated one day workshop.

If your board or system identifies a development need in two or more of these areas we would very much want to hear from you. You can contact John Tench directly at the LGA to discuss facilitated support to work through some of the challenges raised . Or contact your local LGA Principal Adviser.

Diagnostic questions

Committed Leadership:

Yes / No / Unsure
Do the HWB Chair and Vice-Chair have a real determination to secure change?
Do the council leader and chief executive recognise the importance and potential of the HWB and give the board the attention that it requires?
Does the board have shared leadership across the local authority and the CCG?
Does the HWB engage with the public as a partnership (in addition to engaging as individual organisations)?

Collaborative Plumbing:

Yes / No / unsure
Is the board one of a number of mechanisms for joint working between health and local government?
Are there effective mechanisms in place for collaboration and good personal relationships between key stakeholders (i.e. development sessions away from public board meetings)?
Is there parity of esteem between board members?
Is there a shared understanding of each other’s needs and constraints?
Is the board able to have meaningful conversations and reach solutions to disagreements?

Clarity of Purpose:

Yes / No / Unsure
Is there a shared understanding ofthe primary role and purposeof the HWB?
Doesthe HWB see itself as a driver of change?
Does the HWB understand its role in relationship to other partnerships within the system?

Making the Geography work:

Yes / No / Unsure
Does the HWB operate in a complex geography (i.e. a large number of districts or CCGs, or a large geographical area)?
Does the HWB have effective mechanisms in place to manage the geography in which it operates? (i.e. effective sub-structures)

The Response to National Pressure:

Yes / No / Unsure
Is the HWB able to balance the national requirements placed on it – and particularly the CCG(s) – with the need to develop and pursue a local agenda?
Does the HWB act as a place where local government and health openly discuss financial challenges to the system?
Is the HWB engaging with the Sustainability and Transformation Planning process?

A Focus on Place:

Yes / No / Unsure
Is the HWB agenda structured around place issues such as resilience, workforce, or children as opposed to condition-based issues such as obesity or diabetes?
Does the board have a clear vision for place-based integration by 2020?

A Director of Public Health who ‘gets it’

Yes / No / Unsure
Does the Director of Public Health help to drive the HWB agenda ensuring that there is a maintained focus on prevention and the wider determinants of health, as well as integration?

Churn in the system

Yes / No / Unsure
Does the HWB often have to deal with membership changes of key stakeholders?
Does the HWB have effective mechanisms in place to ensure continuity when membership changes?

Getting the Basics Right

Yes / No / unsure
Does the HWB have officer support for policy and project management (as opposed to just committee administration)?
Does the HWB have effective support in the agenda planning process which takes into account the input from key partnership organisations?
Is the HWB supported to meet in a variety of venues and not just in committee room style meetings (i.e. workshops, round-table discussions)?
Does the HWB have support arrangements in place to effectively monitor outcomes and report back on action following board meetings?

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