Wandsworth Local Health & Wellbeing Strategy (2024 - 2029) Insight Report

Executive Summary

The Wandsworth Joint Local Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2024-2029 was published in January 2024, setting out the local health and wellbeing priorities. It sets out 19 local health and wellbeing priorities for the next five years.

To help further refine our local step priorities and codesign our approach to achieving them, we sought feedback on which priorities are most important to our communities and how best to work together as a system to make these improvements. We ran focus group workshops at our Thinking Partners meetings on:

11 December 2024
12 February 2025

Thinking Partners members are mostly from our voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector. It is a sub-group of the Wandsworth Health and Care Committee that meets quarterly providing a space to collaborate, network and update on projects happening in Wandsworth. Members share their experiences and insight from the communities they reach and work in partnership to help shape local plans and influence how services are developed and delivered.

This report summarises the insights gathered from these workshops and how the system can work together to achieve these priorities.

Key themes – what we heard

Theme 1: Mental health

Key priorities were identified as addressing health inequalities, co-producing services with people with lived experience, and improving access especially for young people with learning disabilities.

Maximising engagement with services, promoting local community initiatives, and better links with statutory services were seen a key enablers to success.

Recommendations include:

Increasing support for autism and ADHD
Improving mental health services for children aged 5-8
Culturally appropriate support
Creative interventions
Sustainable funding for VCSE organisation projects

Theme 2: Healthy behaviours

Increased promotion of physical activity, healthy eating at an early age, recognising cultural differences and providing affordable options, and specific support for people with mental health challenges to stay healthy were identified as key priorities.

Statutory services should use community resources and engage with the VCSE who can support and promote the opportunities available to them.

Recommendations include:

Creating safe, welcoming spaces
Supporting children from low-income households’
Support voluntary projects to be sustainable when there are changes to funding

Theme 3: Prevention

Improving vaccine uptake through myth busting and expand focus beyond the national cancer screening campaigns to include HPV and prostate cancer screening promotion to address health inequalities in specific communities.

Targeted, culturally sensitive campaigns and one-on-one conversations to build trust through community-based outreach – trusted healthcare professionals, and hyper-local communication channels are key.

Recommendations include

Training for voluntary and community sector staff to support a holistic approach to providing health advice
Improved accessibility of screening programmes
Creating comfortable health intervention spaces
Using real life stories to counter mis-information and build trust.

Across the two online workshops in December 2024 and February 2025 Thinking Partners discussed three questions:

Theme 4: Environment

Addressing air pollution is an important priority especially for vulnerable groups with respiratory conditions with more education and training on air quality management, particularly in community settings. The role of the Council in air quality regulation and community engagement is also crucial.

Poor housing conditions, particularly in social housing and the impact of noise pollution can affect health and wellbeing of the community.

Financial challenges faced by VCSE organisations can hamper the ability to support.

Recommendations include

Incorporating the home environment in to our making every contact count approach, particularly support for hoarding and ventilation.
Creative approaches to improving air quality.

Theme 5: Older Age Support:

Falls prevention, addressing frailty, and reducing social isolation, especially for vulnerable groups like those with dementia or disabilities, would make the biggest difference to older people living in Wandsworth

Tackling the accessibility challenges and access to good transport options were key to improving support to older people.

Recommendations include:

Community based initiatives, such as exercise programmes
Subsidised gym memberships
Dementia friendly spaces
Ongoing training for carers

Across all themes the importance of communication and engagement was heard, especially that health messaging should be clear and consistent, using multiple channels including social media and building trust through outreach with healthcare professionals.

Introduction

To help codesign the local step priorities, we sought feedback on which priorities are most important to our communities and how best to work together as a system to make these improvements with our Thinking Partners members.

This report summarises the insight gathered from this engagement.

Approach to engagement

Thinking Partners provided a forum for Wandsworth VCSE organisations to discuss the priorities, partnership working opportunities and any gaps in the Wandsworth Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy. We invited our Thinking Partner members to join us at focus groups at meetings on:

11 December 2024
12 February 2025

Over 20 VSCE organisations took part across the engagement and break-out rooms were held for in-depth focus group discussions. There were also representatives from Wandsworth Council who are the nominated leads for each priority, to provide expertise and guidance during the discussions.

Theme 3: Prevention:

Which priorities are the most important to you and the people you work with?
How can your services can help achieve these prioritise?
How best we can work together to make these improvements

We grouped the priorities together into five themes for discussion at the workshops.

The December 2024 workshop focused on:

Theme 1: Mental health:

Step 1 Self harm and mental health
Step 4 A&E attendance and hospital admissions due to self-harm
Step 16 Mental health and suicide prevention

Theme 2: Healthy behaviours:

Step 2 Childhood obesity
Step 9 Type 2 Diabetes
Step 10 Cardiovascular disease
Step 15 Smoking
Step 13 Physical activity and healthy eating
Step 14 Alcohol

Theme 2: Healthy behaviours

The February 2025 workshop focused on:

Step 3 Childhood immunisations
Step 5 Adult immunisations
Step 6 Bowel cancer screening
Step 7 Cervical cancer screening
Step 8 Breast cancer screening

Theme 4: Environment:

Step 11 Air quality
Step 12 Climate change

Theme 5: Older Age Support:

Step 17 Falls
Step 18 Dementia
Step 19 Social isolation

Who did we hear from

The following VCSE organisations took part in the workshops:

Estate Art Roehampton – who support residents with their physical and mental health through creative community-led projects.
Live Karma Yoga offer yoga, mindfulness and movement practices with a commitment to being inclusive and accessible to all.
Nourish by Nadrat, a nutritionist running healthy eating and lifestyle community programmes in Earlsfield.
MindWorks UK – provide a confidential counselling and psychotherapy service in a variety of different languages
A2ndVoice support autistic people and their families
SEN Parenting – work with parents and carers of children and young people who are autistic and/or with a learning disability or other special needs.
Generate – support people with a learning disability and their families based in Summerstown
Sound Minds, a mental health charity transforming lives through music, film and art.
Healthwatch Wandsworth, the independent champion for people in Wandsworth who use health and social care services
Wandsworth Care Alliance which is Wandsworth’s infrastructure organisations, working for the wellbeing of the Wandsworth community
Wandsworth Patient Forum – which brings together Patient Participation Group representatives from GP practices across the borough
Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network – a community organisation dedicated to eradicating healthcare inequalities, uniting with communities to co-create solutions that address ethnic disparities
Wandsworth Talking Therapies – provide free confidential psychological and wellbeing interventions for common mental health problems in community settings including churches.
Share Community – provide programmes and activities to support adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental health needs to live happier, healthier and more independent lives
Putney Mead Medical Centre – an NHS GP practice based in Putney
Royal Trinity Hospice – who provide free specialist palliative and end of life care for people
Katherine Lowe Settlement – championing the values of older people and families from refugee communities and their value to society
Balham Autumn Rose Club – A weekly club for over 60s offering friendship, fun, and learning

Key themes

Which priorities are the most important to you and the people you work with?

Theme 1: Mental Health

Address inequalities – all the priorities should be looked at through an equalities lens, provide culturally appropriate and sensitive information and flexible support that does not discriminate.
Co-production of services with people with lived experience and better coordination of services.
Support people with learning disabilities and autism to access mental health services.

Theme 2: Healthy behaviours

Addressing inequalities – look at all initiatives through an equality’s lens. Inclusive messaging.
Healthy eating – healthier cooking methods, culturally focussed, affordable, cooking events to address social isolation.
Tailored support and communication for people with mental health challenges, where existing information may not be sufficient.

Theme 3: Prevention

All were identified as important, increasing vaccine take up is seen as key with a significant role of myth busting in addressing vaccine hesitancy, particularly at the grassroots level through targeted health campaigns. This includes combating misinformation, especially regarding Covid vaccines, MMR, and the RSV vaccine.
Screening and preventative health with cancer identified as a priority. Particularly focusing on the importance of HPV vaccination for cancer prevention, and prostate cancer screening for high-risk groups like Black men.
Demonstrating an understanding of community specific beliefs, particularly when looking at HPV vaccination and prostate cancer screening. There needs to be recognition of stigma around vaccination in some communities, and the importance of easy to understand materials to improve uptake.

Theme 4: Environment

Air pollution has an impact on health particularly across the life course, and local quality of life.
Both outdoor and indoor air quality are important, the focus on reducing pollution and managing the effects, especially for vulnerable populations like those with respiratory conditions, COPD and asthma.
Educate and support people to improve indoor air quality through community outreach and training for staff working in the community important for promoting positive behaviour change. Goal should be to educate and support individuals, , in improving air quality in their living spaces.
Climate change is important, there is a strong connection between this and air quality.

Theme 5: Old Age Support

Falls prevention is an important focus, improve balance and strength and initiatives that can help reverse frailty particularly in older adults.
Early intervention to prevent frailty and continuous training before people reach age 65.
Community-based initiatives, such as falls prevention training in libraries and subsidised gym memberships, are key.
Addressing social isolation is another important issue, particularly for older adults and vulnerable groups such as dementia sufferers and those with a disability.
It is important to create environments where people with dementia feel recognised and supported without stigma.
Recognise cultural differences in addressing health issues, and that interventions and services are accessible to all
Mental health and selfcare for older people is as important as physical activity
Professionals and community members need the right skills and knowledge to support vulnerable populations effectively.
Empowering individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing through education, community engagement, and easy access to resources.
Encouraging people to stay active and engaged, both mentally and physically, in ways that are enjoyable and not purely for exercise.

How can your services help to achieve the priorities and how can we best work together to make these improvements?

Theme 1: Mental health

Support people with learning disabilities and autism to access mental health services with an emphasis on early access and crisis prevention to support the statutory sector.
VCSE can reach our diverse communities and facilitation of co-production of services with people with lived experience
Integration of physical and mental health in the community between the VCSE and statutory sector for seamless and holistic approach

Theme 2: Healthy behaviours

Make every contact count – making the most of when people engage with local services to promote holistic health and care support and local priorities.
Promote VCSE services in pathways – ensuring better connection to local community and voluntary sector services and promoted in pathways. There are a lot of local initiatives run by VCSE organisations in Wandsworth that could help people if more people knew about them. Draw on lived experiences of people in the voluntary sector who have used local services to help improve them.
Linking strategies so there is a coordinated approach and reduce duplication (e.g. Wandsworth Youth Strategy, Preventing Violence against women strategy, Nighttime Strategy).

Theme 3: Prevention

One to one conversations to build trust provide the focus for personalised, one-on-one conversations to build trust and overcome barriers to vaccination, as mass communication alone is often ineffective
Reaching out to work with communities at a grassroots level community based health outreach including grassroots initiatives highlighted as essential in reaching vulnerable populations, especially those in areas where there is a lack of engagement with statutory health services. Examples include health buses, community champions, and local events designed to create safe, familiar spaces for discussing health concerns.
‘Come and have a chat’ with a trusted health professional The importance of trusted healthcare professionals engaging with people in community settings is also stressed, as they help build trust and provide authoritative information.
Share messages through local networks and leaders, such as WhatsApp groups, community newsletters, and social media, to increase the reach of public health messages. But also important to use local community leaders and local networks.

Theme 4: Environment

To treat people holistically – no two people are the same and will have different needs. VCSE partners are well placed to do this.
Air quality education and training This could include training for staff working in the VCSE sector with vulnerable people. This could include understanding mould and ventilation issues and addressing low-level carbon monoxide poisoning.
Work closely with Wandsworth Council in managing air quality and pollution including actions such as implementing no-idling policies, traffic diversions and thinking about air quality data in decision-making.
Engage communities through outreach at events and outreach. Involve residents in improving air quality and create connections between different organisations and the communities locally.

Theme 5: Older Age Support

Falls prevention is an important focus, improve balance and strength and initiatives that can help reverse frailty particularly in older adults.
Early intervention to prevent frailty and continuous training before people reach age 65.
Community-based initiatives, such as falls prevention training in libraries and subsidised gym memberships, are key.
Addressing social isolation is another important issue, particularly for older adults and vulnerable groups such as dementia sufferers and those with a disability.
It is important to create environments where people with dementia feel recognised and supported without stigma.
Recognise cultural differences in addressing health issues, and that interventions and services are accessible to all
Mental health and selfcare for older people is as important as physical activity
Professionals and community members need the right skills and knowledge to support vulnerable populations effectively.
Empowering individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing through education, community engagement, and easy access to resources.
Encouraging people to stay active and engaged, both mentally and physically, in ways that are enjoyable and not purely for exercise.

Are there any gaps you would like addressed?

Theme 1: Mental health

Diagnoses addressing cultural differences in autism and ADHD
Gaps in provision for children while waiting for an autism assessments, particularly for 5-8 year olds.
Improved approaches for neurodiverse populations and non-traditional interventions

Create safe spaces where people feel welcomed, comfortable and open to receiving information/advice about their health and wellbeing. For example, create female led spaces, religious focussed.
Support for children of less well-off families where they can’t afford after school activities (exercise) and school meals.
Sustainable funding model for VCSE projects as a recurrent funding plan for voluntary sector to help sustainability of local projects.
Improve accessibility – including easy read service information
Support health and wellbeing of community and voluntary sector providers staff by improving access to local services, ensure they are getting the support they need as well.

Theme 3: Prevention

Address barriers such as inconvenient times and locations to increase uptake of screening programmes
Vaccine clinics in community settings to provide calm and familiar environments for health interventions, rather than at a hospital or GP practice.
Use real-life people sharing their stories for communication,(case studies, community champions) is a more powerful tool than generic campaigns to counter misinformation and build trust

Theme 4: Environment

Poor housing conditions, especially in social housing, are a major concern. Issues such as mould, damp, and ventilation in homes are highlighted and there needs to be more support for people living in these conditions, including education on improving indoor air quality.
Limited funding for VCSE organisations to make an impact in this area due to limited resources, such as the difficulty in securing funding for projects.
Noise pollution from traffic and its impact on health, particularly in relation to older people and general community wellbeing.

Theme 5: Older age support

Create partnerships between various organisations, such as local councils, healthcare providers, social services, and VCSE organisations and groups
Codesign programmes to meet the needs of the community with multiple stakeholders .
Sustainable funding for community health programmes and services is needed, especially for ongoing activities and support, and the need for continuous conversations with NHS and council funders to ensure resources and funding are maintained
Continuous training for carers and those in the community to address issues such as falls prevention and frailty
Address barriers to access for people with mobility issues There are barriers to health and community services for people with mobility issues or without transport, ensure services are available during evenings and weekends to enable more people to access them

Across all priorities there was a focus on addressing inequalities, co-production and improving access to services especially in the community. Reaching the community more through community outreach, engaging the voluntary sector and targeted, culturally sensitive campaigns for screening and immunisations.

Gaps were identified for mental health for children and the transition to adult services, across all priorities and ask for more sustainable funding for local projects, and improving accessibility to services, campaigns and projects.

The impact of air pollution and poor housing on health and wellbeing and the importance of education, community engagement and managing air quality.

For older people falls prevention, frailty, and reducing social isolation for older adults, particularly those with dementia or disabilities are priorities. Key needs include community-based initiatives, sustainable funding, ongoing training for carers, and improved accessibility for people with mobility issues, alongside strong partnerships and co-designed programmes.

Recommendations for next steps

Working through Thinking Partners enabled the Health & Care Plan partnership to engage directly with VCSE organisations in Wandsworth, making it more impactful and enabling statutory partners to hear the views of those working with and representing local communities in Wandsworth. Their feedback can help inform any prospective services and help to tailor interventions to address health needs and help reduce health inequalities, ensuring views and experiences of our local communities inform decision making and service development.

Their feedback on the priorities, how we work together and any gaps that the plan needs to address will be shared with the programme leads for the Wandsworth Health and Care Strategy, ICB colleagues and other relevant stakeholders.

The feedback has been shared with the Wandsworth Health and Care Committee for oversight and ownership for what they will do differently in response to this feedback from community and voluntary sector partners:

Step Leads and Sponsors for each area will be requested to ensure their work is addressing the feedback and responding to any specific queries.
Progress will be monitored by the Wandsworth Health and Care Partnership Group
The report presented to the Health and Care Committee will be shared with Thinking Partners so they can see the collated feedback and suggested action plan
Engage with Thinking Partners in one year, to ensure continuous feedback and gauge how well the system is responding