Leicester's Care, Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2027

For everyone in Leicester to have the same opportunities for good health and wellbeing, support and services need to be tailored to the needs of the different groups and communities in our city. For example, people with long-term conditions living in more deprived areas need higher levels of support and different services to obtain the same level of control of their long-term conditions as someone living in a less deprived area.

To effectively tackle health inequalities and address unequal opportunities for good health and wellbeing, universal services need to be resourced and delivered at a scale and intensity that is proportionate to need and disadvantage. This is called proportionate universalism, and we are committed to this principle as the Health and Wellbeing Board.

We also want to tackle the Inverse Care Law. This means that the people who most need health care are least likely to receive it. Unfortunately, this can also apply to other services and support. It is unfair and unjust. We recognise this will require greater collective partnership action to address the wider determinants of health, and require targeted action to improve the lives of people in the city that are currently at risk of poor health outcomes.

Leicester’s Health and Wellbeing Board consists of a range of organisations working in partnership to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Leicester. The board includes representatives from Leicester City Council (both elected members and officers), the NHS, a representative of the city’s sports community, the Police, the universities, and Healthwatch.

This strategy sets out the priorities of the Health and Wellbeing Board, and its member organisations, for the next five years, working in conjunction with a whole range of organisations, boards, groups, and communities.

In addition, this strategy is part of wider work to support of the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Integrated Care System (ICS) to create an offer to the local population of each area, to ensure that in that area everyone can:

• access clear advice on staying well.
• access a range of preventative services.
• access simple, joined-up care and treatment when they need it.
• access digital services (with non-digital alternatives) that put the citizen at the heart of their own care.
• access proactive support to keep as well as possible, where they are vulnerable or at high risk.

Through employment, training, procurement and volunteering activities, anchor institutions such as the NHS and local authorities play a full part in social and economic development and environmental sustainability.