Barking and Dagenham Council is charting a new course with its vision, 'Our B&D: Building Communities and Driving Opportunities', superseding the 'Barking and Dagenham Together' Borough Manifesto adopted in 2017.

The Health & Wellbeing Board and ICB Sub-Committee convened on Tuesday 09 September 2025, to discuss the new vision, among other health and wellbeing issues in the borough. The report pack presented to the committees explained that the Borough Manifesto had lost its relevancy due to demographic changes, Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, NHS re-organisations, and changes to the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector.

The new 'Our B&D' vision is narrower in scope and more focused than its predecessor, the 'Barking and Dagenham Together' Borough Manifesto, which had 10 themes. The new vision will be understood and translated through an overlapping and intersecting conceptual framework of People, Place, and Partnerships, providing lenses through which to consider key challenges and develop solutions in line with those principles. The proposed outcomes and indicators include:

  • Reduced child poverty
  • Inclusive economy
  • Independent adulthood in communities
  • Stable and decent homes
  • Healthier and fairer borough
  • Safer and cleaner borough

The council proposes to measure the success of the 'Our B&D' vision using specific indicators tied to each of these outcomes.

During the meeting, there was a discussion about the proposed outcomes and indicators, and how they support and advance the priorities of the Health & Wellbeing Board and ICB Sub-Committee.

Councillor Maureen Worby, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Health and Housing, stated that she wanted to bring some of the strategies that underpin this, some of the details, to the next meeting. She also volunteered to attend a meeting with GPs to discuss housing issues.

Dr Jagan John noted the importance of making the vision usable for GPs and suggested aligning it to the neighbourhood, as the community would be the best people to talk about some of these things. The meeting transcript suggests that the neighbourhood is the vehicle that could translate some of the metrics of the 'Our B&D' vision. The council is also working on linking all of their data up and making it more sophisticated to get some profiles for each neighbourhood.

Cam outlined that loneliness should be a priority area, and that there should be a focus on safeguarding and families with complex needs.

There was also a discussion about employment, with Cam noting that a lot of children in Barking and Dagenham when they're asked what they want to do when they grow up turn around and say I don't want to work because they don't have a positive role model at home who works.