FINDINGS Joint health and wellbeing strategy labels: 29 All 151 Health and Wellbeing Boards’ joint health However, there’s still a way to go. Fifty-six of and wellbeing strategies were read and labelled the strategies have been labelled neither strong accordingly: nor weak, weak or very weak, meaning 37 per cent still do not incorporate a full understanding of > Very strong: 57 (38 per cent) prevention or emphasise the importance of taking > Strong: 38 (25 per cent) a preventative approach. Many of these strategies > Neither strong or weak: 48 (32 per cent) understand prevention only as minimising the risk of > Weak: 7 (5 per cent) people developing care and support needs (primary > Very weak: 1 prevention), or as targeting people at high risk of developing needs (secondary prevention). > Prevention is mentioned in all but one strategy. Recommendation: > In total, 140 strategies include prevention in their > Health and Wellbeing Boards should fully vision, goals, priorities, approaches, principles or incorporate and prioritise prevention in their values. This has increased from 72 per cent joint health and wellbeing strategies. A well- to 93 per cent. rounded understanding of prevention should > It’s the ‘primary approach/ principle/ value’ of 10 be clearly emphasised throughout the strategy strategies and listed as an ‘approach/ principle/ and across the life course and pathology of a value’ in another 66. range of conditions or illnesses mentioned. > Fifty-five strategies mention prevention within their ‘priorities’, five in their ‘goals’ and five in their ‘visions’. The Care Act, NHS Five Year Forward View > Of the 120 that had some sort of summary (an and Better Care Fund executive summary/ foreword/ plan on a page or separate summary strategy), 80 (67 per cent) Only around a third of the strategies have been mention prevention. This has increased from updated since 2014 and only 32 (21 per cent) 57 per cent last year. mention the Care Act (or Care Bill) despite it being > Only about a third of all strategies have ‘the most significant reform of care and support in 30 been updated since 2014 (some have even more than 60 years.’ been out of date since the end of 2013). Only five of the 33 that mention the Care Act (or An overview Care Bill) explicitly refer to the prevention duty (Section 2 of the Care Act). However, others mention Prevention is being better understood and is the Care Act putting greater responsibilities on increasingly prioritised. The number of strategies local authorities, including ‘an increased focus on rated very strong has increased by 10 per cent prevention’. since last year’s review. The number of those that Of the strategies that mention the Care Act (or include prevention in their vision, goals, priorities, Care Bill), 23 (72 per cent) were labelled very strong approaches, principles, values or summary has or strong. This indicates that the Care Act (when increased by 21 per cent. engaged with properly) has likely had a positive This improvement could be due to the Care Act influence on the prioritisation and understanding of coming into force. However, other imperatives for prevention. an increased focus on prevention include the transfer of public health responsibilities to local government and Public Health England, the NHS Five Year 29. While there are 152 local authorities with responsibility for adult social care, Bournemouth Forward View, and the Better Care Fund. and Poole share a Health and Wellbeing Board. 30. Care and Support Minister, The Rt Hon Norman Lamb (15 May 2014). British Red Cross Prevention in action [email protected] l l 13