The Strategic Director, Health and Wellbeing will submit Document “N” which summarises the main focus of the District’s new Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and its new Economic Strategy. It considers areas of crossover, connection and shared priorities, highlighting potential opportunities for joint working. The priorities of the 2016-2020 District Plan for Bradford and Airedale have informed both strategies.

Recommended-

That the Health and Wellbeing Board members consider how their organisations contribute to the priorities of the Economic Strategy and could help to support and develop synergies between the two strategies.

                                                                        (Sarah Muckle – 01274 432805)

The Strategic Director, Health and Wellbeing submitted Document “N” which summarised the main focus of the District’s new Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and its new Economic Strategy. It considered areas of crossover, connection and shared priorities, highlighted potential opportunities for joint working. The priorities of the 2016-2020 District Plan for Bradford and Airedale had informed both strategies.

It was reported that there were clear links and shared priorities and opportunities between the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the new Economic Strategy. Some of the joint challenges across the strategies included improving wellbeing, tackling poor air quality and improving housing supply and quality.  Links between Public Health and the Place Department’s Planning Teams had been strengthened to ensure that opportunities to improve health and wellbeing were considered in new housing, business and neighbourhood developments.  The work to deliver the Health and Wellbeing Strategy would support the aims of the Economic Strategy.

The Board were informed that the Economic Strategy would help to deliver inclusive and sustainable growth of the economy, supporting entrepreneurship and bringing the better, higher skilled jobs and opportunities that would help to improve people’s standards of living, enabling people to live in better quality housing and to lead healthier lives.

Members were informed that the targets for the Economic Strategy included increasing the value of the district economy by £4billion, getting 20,000 more people into work and 48,000 more people with NVQ3 Level Skills.

Members of the Board commented on the following:

·         A manufacturing event was being held in the Autumn

·         At the centre of the Northern Powerhouse and the UK, Bradford’s economic growth was critical to the wider economic success of the Leeds City Region and the UK.

·         The importance of a positive narrative regarding the economic progress was described; this would require the collation and sharing of good news stories to build momentum amongst stakeholders including businesses and investors.

·         In addition to a compelling narrative the Board noted the importance of data to measure the impact of the collective action inspired by the Economic Strategy.

·         Would like to see statistics on the number of objectives being achieved such as acquiring 48,000 more people with NVQ Level 3 Skills.

·         Up-skilling people in Bradford and retaining talent to work and live in Bradford was important.

·         Health and wellbeing of the workforce was an important consideration.

·         Small businesses were using the apprenticeship levy to up-skill their staff; the levy made training affordable; how could the work in this area be measured?

·         The key elements of the strategy interconnected; up-skilling  people; providing a fantastic place to live; businesses had a big role to play in ensuring people had good incomes; importance of good transport links for people to get to work, transport and digital connectivity was crucial to strengthen the global links and access new markets; importance of telling good news stories of Bradford was crucial to its success.

·         There were synergies between the ambitions of the economic strategy and the workforce needs of the health and care sector. For example the independent care sector locally employed over 14,000 people, predominantly in care delivery roles.  The sector had significant growth potential to meet demand, but suffered from high staff turnover and challenging recruitment and retention issues, which undermined quality of service and economic value added.  The need for a partnership approach to skills, routes into employment and development of the care workforce was agreed, and the potential for this to contribute to the economic strategy was recognised.

·         Needed to look at plans to fill gaps in the Health and Social Care Workforce and how they fitted in with the priorities of the Economic Strategy. 

·         Employment Opportunities funding had helped hundreds of people into employment; this funding would be ending in 2019, needed to influence government on the benefits that this funding had delivered.

·         It was noted that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority offered an opportunity to establish projects which would use money gathered through Business Rates to address systemic issues related to skills and economy. It was noted that a proposal was being developed which would focus on opportunities in the health and care sector.

·         Members needed to consider how their organisations contributed to the priorities of the Economic Strategy.

·         The West Yorkshire Police supported young people through the Safer Schools Partnership; West Yorkshire Police’s contribution to the priorities of the Economic Strategy could be considered at the Community Safety Partnership’s development day on10 May.

Resolved-

(1)That a progress report be presented to the Board in 12 months time which includes information on:

·         Employment and skills funding and how to sustain it

·         How plans to fill gaps in the Health and Social Care Workforce can contribute to the achievement of employment targets within the Economic Strategy

·         Corporate responsibility of businesses (education covenant, procurement etc)

·         How Key Performance Indicators will be achieved (such as 20,000 more people into employment, 48,000 more people with NVQ3 Level Skills)

(2)That an interim report be presented to the Board in July 2018 which reports on the plans to fill gaps in the Health and Social Care Workforce.

Action:           Strategic Director, Health and Wellbeing