Agenda item

To present the first draft of a new Food Strategy for Brent, fulfilling commitment 1.1 of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Shadi Ambrosini (Public Health Strategist, Brent Council), Aisling Rogers (Health Improvement Delivery Specialist, Brent Council) and Alex Colas (Co-Chair of the Food Partnership Steering Group), presented the first draft of a new Food Strategy for Brent, which was commitment 1.1 of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Board Strategy. The report and presentation provided an update on the development of the Food Strategy and its related Food Action Plan and highlighted core themes, with a proposed plan for implementation. In presenting the strategy, they highlighted the following key points:

• The Food Strategy presented a long-term plan bringing together statutory organisations, voluntary and community sector partners, the private sector and residents to improve the way food was produced, accessed, consumed and disposed of, setting out key priorities and actions around health, sustainability and equity.
• The Strategy was based on shared values around food such as equity, dignity, partnership and community. 
• In terms of why Brent needed a food strategy, it was highlighted that Brent faced significant challenges with rising food insecurity, diet-related ill-health and environmental pressures. Poor diet contributed to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease which placed strain on services and reduced residents’ quality of life. Additionally, the cost-of-living crisis and unequal access to healthy food deepened health inequalities. As such, it was seen that a co-ordinated approach was essential to address these issues and create a food system that worked for all.
• Figures were provided to demonstrate those points; the prevalence of type 2 diabetes amongst Brent residents was at 8.1% for 2024-25 compared to the London average of 7.2%; the hypertension rate in Brent for 2026 was at 13.3% compared to the London average of 10.6% and; in 2024-25, 38.1% of year six pupils had been diagnosed as obese/overweight compared to a London average of 24.8%. This correlated to other measures of inequality, for example, 33% of people in Brent lived in poverty, with 1,855 visits to Brent Hubs for food related supported between 2025-2026, 21.8% of pupils receiving Free School Meals in 2025, 57% of eligible families receiving cash support through the Healthy Start scheme to support the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables in 2025, and around 17% of Brent residents in receipt of Universal Credit.
• Brent’s Food Strategy was built around six Food Missions seeking to address the most pressing food-related challenges and highlighted a deeply interconnected food system with shared values. Each of the six missions had three core objectives with three distinct solutions. Those missions were; to improve access to healthy and affordable food and tackle diet-related health inequalities; to help reduce insecurity and ensure everyone could access affordable and healthy food with dignity; to support the development of food literacy and skills in schools and communities; to promote good food jobs, skills, training and opportunities within the local food economy; to encourage growing food in the community and at home and support access to resources and; to empower residents and institutions to reduce food waste, cut carbon emissions and support more sustainable food choices.
• The strategy was developed through a long process working with residents. Starting in 2021, Brent launched the Right to Food Campaign. In 2023, a Food Visioning Workshop took place, engaging 55 people and 37 organisations, which led to the development of seven strategic themes which informed initial priority setting and established a Food Partnership Steering Group. In 2024 the Brent Food Partnership identified core priorities which later helped inform the development of key objectives and recommended areas for action. 2025 saw Brent Council appoint a Public Health Strategist to work on the strategy and undertake a further Food Strategy Workshop, engaging 67 people and 28 organisations, which used the initial seven strategic themes to develop the six Food Missions now identified in the Strategy. In 2026, Task and Finish Groups were undertaken in March to finalise a draft Food Action Plan, engaging 41 stakeholders.  It was added that there had already been grassroots work taking place around food, so the process had been sensitive and looked to facilitate what was already being done. There were several national initiatives and officers had been mindful of the political environment being operated in.
• In terms of governance, it was proposed that the Food Strategy was strategically overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board to ensure that the commitments remained anchored to Brent’s broader ambitions around health equity, climate action, community cohesion and economic resilience. The Steering Group would offer strategic direction for delivery and co-ordinate work across Food Missions, oversee performance, assess risks, and share learnings, with strong links into the Health and Wellbeing Board. Food Action Working Groups would lead operational delivery for each Food Mission, delivering mission-specific interventions and monitoring progress. The Food Partnership would act as the borough-wide convening body that worked to strengthen the local food system through collective actions.
• It was highlighted that Brent Public Health was committed to exploring resourcing options with relevant stakeholders to support the delivery of the proposed actions and an allocation from the Public Health Grant would be made, as appropriate, with other funding streams explored where available.
• For year one delivery of the Strategy, focus would be on high-impact actions that strengthened food security, improved diet-related illness, boosted food literacy and skills, expanded food-growing opportunities, enhanced good food jobs and accelerated Brent’s transition to a more sustainable, climate-friendly food system.
• Cross-cutting themes for year one prioritised actions the Council and partners could directly deliver or influence. The themes aimed to embed poverty alleviation principles by recognising financial insecurity as a major barrier to healthy food access, strengthened cross-sector collaboration, build education and workforce capacity, advance climate and sustainability goals by promoting plant-rich diets and reduced food waste, and ensure cultural relevance and dignity through adopting inclusive, community-led approaches that reflected Brent’s diverse cultures.
• The Brent Food Partnership was contributing to other food movements locally and nationally, including the Brent Sustainable Food Places Network and Sustain. Based on the Good Food Local London Report, which tracked Council action on food in London, Brent had received an overall score of 82% in the 2026 publication, an improvement from the score of 79% received in 2025.
• Next steps would be to finalise the Food Action Plan, including the KPIs, roles and resourcing considerations, to continue to seek meaningful engagement with residents, organisations and stakeholders, to identify strategic partners to support in realising the vision, to establish Food Action Working Groups (FAWGs) to support the governance of the strategy, to establish a borough-wide Food Partnership, to work with the Steering Group to allocate resources appropriately, and to work towards achieving Bronze Status in the Sustainable Food Places Award.

The Chair thanked colleagues for their introduction and invited input from those present, with the following issues raised:

• The Board were encouraged by the presentation and the amount of work that had gone into creating a robust Food Strategy that truly reflected the residents in the borough and their priorities around food. They felt it important for the Health and Wellbeing Board to add value where possible and stay involved in the process.
• The Board emphasised the importance of the work being meaningful with funding and resources attached to it, and asked what resourcing had already been set out to carry this forward. They also asked for this to be incorporated into the document so that everyone who read the strategy were aware of what was being committed towards this. Ruth Du Plessis (Director of Public Health, Brent Council) advised that funding was likely going to be put towards the development of a Food Network to learn from other areas and models. She added that there were some things that could be done that did not cost money but created dignity by doing things slightly differently. Shadi Ambrosini agreed to be more explicit in the documents regarding funding.
• The importance of collecting good quality data in order to understand the impact of the strategy was highlighted. Shadi Ambrosini agreed that it was important the work was grounded in local insights, and work would be taken forward to conduct a food system analysis to collate local insights around food as well as understand the good practice happening in Brent. Over the next few months, that would be contextualised in documents that would sit alongside the Food Strategy.
• The Board hoped for buy-in from all partner organisations in a meaningful way to support the implementation of the strategy objectives and actions, including NHS provider partners.
• Councillor Knight asked for the co-location of services at the New Horizons Centre to be referenced in the document, highlighting the good relationship of the Centre with Sufra. She added more generally that additional tangible case studies would be useful to include in the strategy. Shadi Ambrosini agreed to incorporate that into the documents that related to the Food Strategy.
• The Board suggested further reference was made to working with parents and carers to encourage home cooking and provide education around that where necessary. Shadi Ambrosini took the comment on board, advising that conversations had started with Early Years colleagues to ensure food literacy, education and intervention that not only targeted children but brought their parents into the conversation as well.
• The Board highlighted that the Action Plan should be clearer about who was expected to implement those particular actions.

As no further issues were raised, the Chair drew the discussion to a close and asked members to note the Food Strategy and Food Action Plan whilst taking on board the comments made to further improve the documents related to the Food Strategy. He highlighted the desire to be explicit about investment and resource and where that would be put, identify firm metrics to demonstrate the impact of the Strategy, explicitly state who was expected to implement the actions outlined, and include tangible examples and case studies of what had already been achieved. He thanked colleagues for the work undertaken on the Food Strategy and expressed that the Health and Wellbeing Board placed value on this work. He hoped that by bringing these documents forward, the priorities would be incorporated moving forward with the new administration and Borough Plan.