Newham's Health and Wellbeing Board has outlined a comprehensive plan for future development, focusing on improving resident health outcomes and tackling inequalities across the borough. The board met on Monday, June 29, 2026, to discuss key strategies for enhancing the health and wellbeing of Newham's residents.
The board's discussions centred on a strategic vision that prioritises prevention and aims to enable residents to live healthier lives. A core tenet of this vision is the commitment to tackling inequality, which was described as fundamental to the work of the board and its partners. This approach necessitates genuine partnership between the council, NHS, voluntary sector, and local communities to achieve equitable health outcomes.
Insights presented to the board highlighted that while residents often have positive experiences once they access services, the process of accessing healthcare remains a significant challenge. Inequalities are particularly pronounced for certain communities who face barriers related to information, navigation, and language. Dianne Barham, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Newham, noted that seldom-heard communities who face barriers related to information, navigation, and understanding the system, particularly if they do not have English as a first language or lack the resources to wait on the phone.
She added that anybody who maybe doesn't have enough money for the internet or a mobile phone, et cetera, again, are the ones that are experiencing those inequalities.
The board also reviewed survey findings that indicated concerns among residents regarding the prospect of growing older in Newham, especially given the projected increase in the older population. The Newham Residents Survey 2025 found that 44% of residents reporting they were 'just getting by' financially, and 4% having skipped meals due to lack of money.
The survey also highlighted that disabled residents were more likely to report loneliness, weaker personal support networks, financial difficulty, food insecurity, and lower life satisfaction.
Furthermore, social renters reported weaker personal support networks, financial difficulty, and food insecurity,
and Black residents were less satisfied with home safety, more likely to report food insecurity, and less confident in having people to rely on.
Discussions also covered a neighbourhood approach to health and care, which brings together partners from the NHS, the London Borough of Newham, and the voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector. This model aims to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities by fostering community-led, inclusive, and equitable working. This approach is underpinned by a draft Memorandum of Understanding and partnership principles with the VCFSE sector, emphasising community-led, inclusive, and equitable working.
The principles for partnership with the VCFSE sector emphasise: Community-led and inclusive approaches, with VCFSE partners involved in co-design and decision-making from the outset; Shared leadership, ensuring VCFSE partners are active participants in governance, not just consultees; Early involvement, avoiding late-stage or tokenistic engagement; Fair resourcing and sustainable partnership, recognising capacity and funding requirements; Recognition of community assets, including trusted spaces and networks that support prevention and engagement.
Furthermore, plans for integrating adult health and social care services were detailed, with key investment areas focused on proactive care to reduce hospital admissions, prevent avoidable long-term care, and enhance efficiency through service transformation and integration. The Better Care Fund (BCF) 2026-27 plan outlines key investment areas: Investment in neighbourhood-based proactive care aims to contain the growth of non-elective admissions for those aged 65+ to 1% per year through early intervention and community-based support.
Targets are set to maintain recent performance in discharges and reduce the average delay from Discharge Ready Date
through initiatives like home-based intermediate care, mental health bedded intermediate care, and homelessness support.
Preventing avoidable long-term care home admissions is driven by enhancing extra care capacity and maximising the number of people returning home through reablement and home care services,
with Newham's Newham Living
programme aiming to develop new supported housing alternatives.
Finally, a development process for the Health and Wellbeing Board itself was presented, aiming to strengthen its role as a strategically aligned and equity-led partnership in response to significant change, with new political leadership, local government reform, changes to NHS commissioning, and a new national framework for neighbourhood health.
This presents an opportunity to strengthen the Board's role as a place-based partnership that is strategically aligned and equity-led.
The proposed approach involves understanding perspectives, agreeing on the Board's future role, membership, and ways of working, and supporting induction and transition.
Metrics to measure the success of the plan include: non-elective admissions to hospital for people aged 65 and over per 100,000 population; average length of discharge delay for all acute adult patients; long-term admissions to residential and nursing care homes for people aged 65 and over per 100,000 population; and the proportion of people aged 65 and over discharged from hospital with reablement who remained in the community within 12 weeks of discharge. These metrics are outlined in the Better Care Fund (BCF) 2026-27 plan.
