Health and wellbeing

This page gives information about the initial stages of North Yorkshire County Council adopting the health and wellbeing agenda and the creation of a health and wellbeing board to oversee this role.

Work is ongoing to prepare the Council for its new duties under the public health agenda and there is good engagement between the Council and the emerging clinical commissioning groups. There is also preparatory work ongoing aimed at a better integration of the operational side of health and social care services, involving NHS acute and community services. We are also working closely with borough and district councils and with the community and voluntary sectors to increase the profile of public health generally.

Two of the main areas of work so far are the creation of North Yorkshire's health and wellbeing board and Local Healthwatch organisation. We have also set up a Health matters newsletter to inform GPs about Council social care services and our work on the health and wellbeing agenda.

North Yorkshire's health and wellbeing board

Health and wellbeing boards will be a forum for local commissioners across the NHS; public health and social care; elected representatives; and representatives of Healthwatch to discuss how to work together to better the health and wellbeing outcomes of the people in their area.

North Yorkshire's health and wellbeing board is currently in 'shadow form' and will remain so for the next year. It is awaiting the passage of legislation in Parliament and will, in time, become a formal committee of North Yorkshire County Council.

See the health and wellbeing board page for more information and the latest board developments.

Local Healthwatch

The Health and Social Care Act introduces a new independent consumer champion for health and social care, Healthwatch.

Local councils have the responsibility to make sure their area has a Local Healthwatch organisation. This will replace Local Involvement Networks (LINks) and provide a single point of contact for people to report their experiences, concerns or their compliments about health and social care.

See the Healthwatch page for information about the Local Healthwatch for North Yorkshire.

Health matters newsletter for GPs

GPs have always been central to health care provision, but now more than ever with the development of clinical commissioning groups. We want to make sure GPs are fully informed about the important services the County Council offers and about how we can make the most of the opportunities provided by the changes ahead.

To this end, we have created a 'Health matters' newsletter for GPs. You can download the latest edition to the right of the page.

Safer communities

Establishing and maintaining safer communities is a critical part of the health and wellbeing agenda. We have a duty to work with other organisations such as district councils and the police to reduce crime, disorder and anti social behaviour and their causes. We have created a safer communities section to explain our responsibilities and what we are doing to create safer communities in North Yorkshire. The section also includes details of the York and North Yorkshire safer communities forum as well as information on community safety agreements; police and crime commissioners; and district community safety partnerships.

	Health and wellbeing information from NHS Choices You can get health and wellbeing information from the NHS Choices website. The site provides a wealth of information on many subjects, including NHS services in England; medical conditions and treatments; lifestyle and health advice; and the science behind health stories in the news.