Coventry Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-2026

The three strategic ambitions for the health and wellbeing of the residents of Coventry are:

• People are healthier and independent for longer
• Children and young people fulfil their potential
• People live in connected, safe and sustainable communities

In our previous strategy, the following short-term priorities were agreed following insights from the JSNA and engagement with communities and key partners:

• Loneliness and social isolation
• Young people’s mental health and wellbeing
• Working differently with communities

These priorities align with and support the delivery of key national & local policies & programmes. These include the NHS Plan, The One Coventry plan, the ICS strategy. All of these prioritise integration, prevention, collective action & stronger communities (see figure 4).

Figure 4: Mapping of key strategies

In Autumn 2021, a review was undertaken to understand progress against the short-term priorities of the strategy and to ensure that the priorities were still relevant given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and on-going economic pressures on our city and residents The review of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy priorities was informed by evidence from a range of sources, including needs assessments that had been conducted as well as survey data, workshops with stakeholders, a senior partner workshop, learning from the current Strategy priorities and feedback from public consultation. The following is a summary of the progress against each of the short-term priorities:

Loneliness and social isolation

Loneliness and social isolation were chosen as a priority due to growing awareness of the negative impact they can have on the quality of life and well-being of those who experience them, with demonstrable negative health and social effects. To take forward this priority, a multi-agency working group has been established. As part of this programme of work, a mapping exercise was conducted to understand current resources and assets in the city which included initiatives such as:

• Connecting for Good
• Chatty Cafes
• Work by Moat House Community Trust to identify and support vulnerable individuals
• Work by Operation Shield to provide personalised support for clinically and extremely vulnerable individuals.
• Social prescribing services have worked in partnership with primary care networks and wider referral partners to provide 1:1 link worker support connecting people to community services, groups and activities
• Social Isolation Summit: This summit was hosted by Grapevine in July 2020 and focused on reflecting on the impact of the pandemic from a community perspective and how to develop community connectedness going forward.[1]

Young people’s mental health and wellbeing

Delivering a mental health system that is underpinned by prevention, building resilience, early intervention, recovery and self-care for children and young people was selected as a key priority for Coventry’s Health and Well-being Board in 2019. Since the publication of the strategy, the following is a summary of the progress of activities:

• Kooth, a new online virtual support offer for emotional wellbeing and mental health commissioned
• Establishment of mental health surge working group to monitor and review referral data into mental health services
• Developed and implemented two mental health support teams in schools
• Coventry and Warwickshire Mind adapted their offer during the Covid-19 pandemic. This has seen a move to a digital platform for delivering services and support.
• Wellbeing for Education Return training programme launched locally

Working differently with communities

Adopting a place-based approach to addressing needs has allowed for different approaches to be used in a way that works for the diverse communities that Coventry serves. The following is a summary of progress since the last strategy:

• Community Messengers network established
• Healthy Communities Together Programme
• 14 new Social Supermarkets/ Food Hubs supported and set up in response to the pandemic
• Migrant Health Champions established