Putting health at the heart of the community

Putting health at the heart of the community

Local organisations have reaffirmed their commitment to working together to put integrated health and care services at the heart of the community.

The Healthier Wigan Partnership (HWP) which brings the local council, NHS and community and voluntary organisations together, has committed to tackling health inequalities by transforming services in the community.

The pledge follows the official launch of Wigan Borough’s plan; ‘Progress with Unity’, which is designed to create a fairer and more prosperous borough. The plan sets out two key missions, which includes tackling inequalities through collective, targeted action. 

As part of their commitment, organisations will continue to work together to deliver three key priorities in communities, focussing on: 

1. Addressing health inequalities
2. Transforming local services in communities
3. Developing a sustainable workforce

The existence of health inequalities in England by socioeconomic deprivation is well documented: life expectancy gap of 8 years for women and 10 years for men and a near two-decade gap in healthy life expectancy.

Karen Parker, chief officer at Health Watch Wigan, said:

“We know that listening to communities helps us to understand the reasons why people face different health outcomes. As part of our Healthier Wigan Partnerships renewed commitment, we will support the system to work more closely with our local communities to address these inequalities by listening to what matters to them to create fairer health opportunities.”

The second priority focuses on transforming local health and care services, with initiatives are already underway to support this mission, including a new community health check scheme which targets those who work unsociable hours or who struggle to attend health checks. The scheme sees nurses work at various public events in Wigan Borough, including food banks and with businesses, such as Heinz to offer health checks in the workplace. 

Chief Executive of Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, Mary Fleming, fully supports the approach, commenting:  

“Improving access to preventative care and providing integrated services in the community is a key part of our plan. By transforming community services we’ll be able to ensure that the hospital is able to respond to those in urgent need while improving the level of care our residents receive.”

In Wigan Borough, the proportion of residents aged 65+ is 19.3% which is higher than the national average of 18.6%. The borough is also experiencing a higher rate of growth over the last decade (23%) compared to the national average (20%).

This trend is putting additional strain across health, care and voluntary sector services with one in ten education leavers needed to enter the profession to keep up with growing demand. The third priority focuses on creating a sustainable workforce.

Councillor Keith Cunliffe, cabinet member for health and social care at Wigan Council, said: “Our workforce priority is about creating rewarding career opportunities to ensure we are adequately equipped to respond to the health challenges of the future. In 2023 we signed up to the Real Living Wage in recognition of the important roles of those who choose to work in the care sector. We will continue to prioritise this to ensure we can create a sustainable workforce to support some of our most vulnerable residents.”

Since 2015, all health and care partners in Wigan Borough have been working together under the Healthier Wigan Partnership to integrate services and improve the health and wellbeing of residents.  In July 2022, the Integrated Care Systems (ICS) replaced the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG).

Chair of the Locality GP Board, Dr Tim Dalton said: “Through the Healthier Wigan Partnership, we’ve been working closely together for several years to integrate health and care services into the heart of the local community.

“This approach has seen GP surgeries joining together to understand the needs of their local communities and reorganising how they deliver services, for example holding outreach clinics for health checks and vaccinations.”

Wigan Borough now forms part of the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), with Chief Executive of Wigan Council, Alison Mckenzie-Folan OBE, taking a lead role.

“In Wigan Borough we’re no stranger to working collaboratively and doing things differently if it means better outcomes for residents. Progress with Unity allows us to go one step further by removing organisational structures and barriers to enable us to focus on the priorities and needs of our residents together.”