Agenda and minutes

For Members of the Board to note any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

·       Kim Wright (Chief Executive, Brent Council)

·       Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children, Young People and Community Development)

·       Tom Shakespeare (Director – Brent Integrated Care Partnership)

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

Personal interests were declared as follows:

·       Councillor Nerva – Councillor Member of the North West London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB)

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 20 November 2025, be approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

None.

This will be a themed Health and Wellbeing Board meeting focused on health inequalities and neighbourhoods in Brent.

To provide a presentation highlighting Brent’s work to tackle inequalities, including key data on inequalities within Brent and compared to reginal and national data, best practice in tackling inequalities, and using best practice and local insight to further develop the approach to tackling health inequalities within Brent.

Ruth du Plessis (Director of Public Health and Leisure, Brent Council) and Dr Rammya Mathew (Vice Chair of Brent Health and Wellbeing Board) led a presentation on inequalities in Brent, highlighting what inequalities were in terms of key data and national and regional comparators, best practice for tackling inequalities.  Also how local insights and data had been used to further develop the approach to tackling health inequalities in Brent, and how Brent continued to refine efforts towards tackling inequalities. They highlighted the following key points:

·       The recently published Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2025 was used to indicate Brent’s position in terms of inequalities across the 296 local authority areas. Brent was ranked 41^st most deprived area in England and 12^th highest for income deprivation. Within London, Brent remained the 4^th most deprived borough since the last IMD in 2019. Data showed clear gaps in life expectancy at birth between the most deprived and least deprived areas in Brent, and a gender gap with males living an average of 6 years less than females in Brent.

·       Brent was focused on tackling inequalities through a prevention lens, based on population health data and the wider determinants of health, using evidence-based interventions that were tailored to local need. In order to do this, health services were being asked to design services based on the wider determinants of health, using neighbourhood health as an opportunity to tackle inequalities as core business.

·       Workstream one was for all partners to take a ‘no wrong door’ approach, taking a joined-up, system-wide approach to supporting vulnerable residents and identifying those who may need additional support.

·       Workstream two focused on community connectedness, building trust, capability and connection with Brent’s diverse communities, including through aligning community-based roles such as social prescribers, community connectors and health educators, and embedding VCSE partners, into the inequalities programme. This workstream would also review community grants to ensure alignment with resident-identified needs and population health priorities.

·       Population health management was the third workstream, using data and insight to target resources where they were most needed, applying proportionate universalism (universal services for all with more intensive support for communities with greatest need) and aiming to reach residents with unmet needs.

The Chair thanked colleagues for their presentation and invited contributions from those present. The following points were made:

·       The Chair highlighted the importance of learning from this work in order to inform public services across Brent and future plan in relation to inequalities and neighbourhoods. He noted that working together in neighbourhoods and the Brent Health Matters Annual Report were also due to be discussed during the meeting, which all linked with the work being done to understand and address inequalities in Brent.

·       Councillor Donnelly-Jackson advised that she was pleased that the Council had adopted the Socio-economic Duty, ensuring that socio-economic status was considered as a protected characteristic, and encouraged other partners to do the same.

·       Noting the references in the presentation to unmet need, the Board asked for further clarity on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6a

To present the Public Health Annual Report (PHAR), highlighting how Public Health in Brent is addressing health inequalities through community centred approaches, with a focus on community engagement, social capital, and Radical Place Leadership.

Ruth du Plessis (Director of Public Health and Leisure, Brent Council) introduced the report and led a presentation detailing the Public Health Annual Report and the work of Public Health in Brent in addressing health inequalities in Brent. She advised Public Health was working through community-centred approaches and emphasised the three themes for reshaping public health – Community Engagement, Social Capital, and Radical Place Leadership. She thanked those involved in the drafting of the report for their collaboration, particularly Janice Constance (Principal Public Health Strategist, Brent Council) and her team, and communities and partners who had input.

The Chair thanked Ruth du Plessis for the introduction and invited contributions from those present, with the following points raised:

• The Board were pleased that Social Capital was a key theme for Public Health and that the report encapsulated the importance of relationships and networks through warm welcome spaces and the library exercise project, where over 270 residents had taken part.
• The Board commended the work in the report, particularly the integration of sports, culture and libraries, school-based oral health assessments, translation of letters into community languages and bigger policy campaigns such as treating gambling harm as a public health issue.
• The Board asked for more detail on how Public Health would ensure a joined-up, system-wide approach was in place to support vulnerable residents who may be using warm spaces. Ruth du Plessis advised that Public Health wanted to make every contact count, whichever way people presented to services. To do that, there was a need to upskill the workforce, and she highlighted that library staff had been very keen to support this approach and willing to learn these skills. Public Health wanted to build more on that with the neighbourhoods workstreams, and there was also the new Joy app that supported that join-up. Robyn Doran added that she had attended Willesden library recently and witnessed people using the blood pressure machines that were available, and in her local library there had been vaccinations being provided by CLCH, showcasing that approach towards making every contact count and bringing healthcare into the community.
• The Board raised concerns that 43.4% of 5-year-olds in Brent had obvious dental decay, compared to 22.4% nationally. They recognised the work Public Health were doing in that space, particularly with the oral health bus and its impactful visits to schools, but asked whether any more resource could be put in to make bigger improvements, raising concerns that this could affect the quality of life of those children and the number of children attending A&E. Ruth du Plessis acknowledged the concerns raised and advised that Public Health were putting more resource into oral health having secured more funding, and were pulling together dental packs and looking to expand the work particularly for children in school.
• The Board highlighted that progress with the Food Strategy had been challenged at a recent scrutiny meeting and asked for an update on where that was. Ruth du Plessis highlighted that the Food Strategy had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6b

To provide an update on the impact and outcomes of the Brent Health Matters adults’ programme, including the achievements, challenges and future plans.

Nipa Shah (Director of Brent Health Matters) welcomed two Brent Health Matters (BHM) Community Champions, Viorica and Bee, to the meeting, who provided an outline of their role within the community. Viorica explained that her role was to promote health education and prevention, and provide information and resources to people to improve their health. She had a specific focus on educating people about diabetes, expanding people’s knowledge and facilitating them to take care of their own health and view their health as a priority. She highlighted that it was a very active role, attending many different events and speaking with many different communities, particularly as she spoke 4 languages. She had also had the opportunity to translate for the clinical team when needed. Bee volunteered as a Brent Family Help Parent Champion, doing outreach in nurseries, largely with under 5-year-olds such as through rhythm and singing exercises, ensuring a physical presence in spaces where parents gathered in order to provide information on the services provided in Brent. This also included attending libraries, schools, events and functions to promote Brent’s services, focusing on vaccinations and oral hygiene with an early year’s focus. She added that she had benefited from volunteering as she had learned more about the breadth of services available in Brent which she could then share with others. She worked closely with BHM co-ordinators in Kilburn, and she had connected Oxford University to Brent parents who had undertaken a study to understand the impact of social media on vaccination uptake. That study had been complimentary to Brent’s work on vaccinations and outreach during covid.

Nipa Shah then took the Board through the presentation included with the agenda pack, highlighting the following key points:

• She thanked Viorica and Bee for their remarks, highlighting their contributions as live examples of champions acting as the voice for services, helping to build trust amongst communities.
• She reminded members that BHM had been set up following the first wave of Covid, where Brent had been disproportionately impacted by the number of cases and deaths.
• BHM was funded by NWL Integrated Care Board (ICB), with the Council employed team and Health Educators funded through the Public Health Grant.
• NWL ICB had also funded the focused work on children and young people through the health inequalities pot, but that would come to an end in March 2026. A business case was being put forward for continued funding for the children and young people workstream.
• Post-covid, she felt that trust in the system had been at a minimum, and it had taken time and focus talking to communities to understand what was important to them and how they could be supported to be in charge of their own health to improve their health and wellbeing outcomes.
• BHM was in contact with around 500 community organisations in Brent and was slowly trying to get from an informing stage to a co-creation and empowering stage, where BHM was only there to support the community to take responsibility for health  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6c

To provide an update on progress and next steps in developing a coordinated approach to neighbourhood working between Brent Council and the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP).

Dan Shurlock (Head of Place Leadership, Brent Council), Jonathan Turner (Borough Lead Director – Brent, NWL ICB) and Will Holt (Change and Improvement Programme Lead, Brent Council) introduced a paper providing an update on progress in developing a coordinated approach to neighbourhood working between Brent Council and the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). In presenting, they highlighted the following key points:

• It was felt that Brent had some pieces of neighbourhood working in train already, with some parts more mature than others, such as Brent Health Matters (BHM) and Public Health campaigns. There was also work being done to implement additional parts of the model, including Integrated Neighbourhood Teams with campus-style health hubs and more proactive prevention alongside local voluntary sector organisations (Radical Place Leadership), and a focus on piecing those workstreams together.
• Jonathan Turner highlighted some areas of achievement, including the Child Health Hubs, which had now been set up in all 5 neighbourhood areas with a standardised approach and appropriate referral pathway across all neighbourhoods. There was consultant and GP collaboration with other parts of the community system as well, with consultants out in the community, sometimes virtually, doing appointments for common child health conditions such as asthma and epilepsy. He advised that this was helping to upskill the GP population so that some of those issues that might otherwise have been referred to hospital could now be seen in the community. Links with Family Wellbeing Centres had also been built into referral pathways.
• The mental health pilot had been running across NW10, NW2 and HA9 postcodes, which had been an area of particular focus based on evidence. Community connectors, community psychologists and the Home Treatment Team Outreach Service had all been working together to pilot this outreach approach, and there had been significant activity with over 3,000 residents involved through training, workshops and co-production.
• Some of the neighbourhood health enabler workstreams were around digital infrastructure, estates optimisation, workforce, operational development and leadership. Estate optimisation was progressing with a new hub at Gladstone Park and a further hub in the pipeline in Alperton, and additional investment secured from the ICB to expand GP rooms at Wembley Centre for Health and Care. There had also been estate planning around the neighbourhood campus model, identifying possible sites for each of the 5 neighbourhoods that could be linked together to have Multidisciplinary team meetings and wider contributions from the voluntary sector within that, as well as Council services where appropriate. That was a developing piece of work which would need further input from estates teams to cost options for future bids.
• In relation to Radical Place Leadership (RPL), there was now a dedicated team of people working alongside residents in Harlesden, providing new 1 to 1 relational support and working in a much more preventative way ahead of crises presentations, particularly with people who might be at risk of financial hardship or homelessness.
• A strong presence had also been built to support community settings and build connections, and the team  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6d

The Chair gave members the opportunity to highlight any items they would like to see the Health and Wellbeing Board consider in the future, adding that there was one more meeting of the municipal cycle.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director – Democratic and Corporate Governance or their representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.