Health and Wellbeing Board	21 January 2026
Report of the Chair of the York Health and Wellbeing Board

Chair’s report and updates

Summary

1. This paper is designed to summarise key issues and progress which has happened in between meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB), giving Board members a concise update on a broad range of relevant topics which would otherwise entail separate papers.

Key Updates for the Board

Partnership Updates

2. Ageing Well Partnership: The new chair has been confirmed as Anne Howgate (Assistant Director – Access, Prevention and Improvement in Adult Social Care) which means that Adult Social Care will now be the lead directorate for the Ageing Well Partnership. The Partnership intend to review their Terms of Reference, including frequency of meeting and will also seek to gain updates on social frailty, the screening tool project, Dementia Strategy, Age Friendly York - Getting Out and About progress.

Healthwatch York Updates

3. After their women's health report, Healthwatch York have put together another survey for women with experience of living with long term conditions. They would appreciate any support in sharing this across York: 

If you are a woman and have experience of one or more long term health conditions, we want to hear from you. Please fill in our short, anonymous survey to share what happened/is happening to you: www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/77KRR3/

4.  Healthwatch York’s trained volunteers continue to visit care homes across the city as part of our assessors’ programme. The aim is to get a snapshot of the care or nursing home based on their observations, conversations with residents and feedback from staff and residents’ family and friends.

5. Following each visit, Healthwatch York prepare a report summarising what they found and including people’s feedback. You can find these reports online here: Healthwatch York - Reports from our care home visits

6. Working in partnership with GeneraTe, York LGBT Forum, York Disability Rights Forum and others, Healthwatch York are finalising a report on the healthcare experiences of people who are trans, non-binary and intersex, which they hope to bring to the next Health and Wellbeing Board. 

7. Also, in partnership with Healthwatch North Yorkshire, they have gathered people's experiences following the national changes to non-emergency patient transport. This report will be published in early February, and Healthwatch York would welcome the opportunity to bring this to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Adult Social Care and Housing Updates

8. The Care Quality Commission have completed the assessment of City of York Council in relation to delivery of its responsibilities under the Care Act 2014. York has received an overall rating of ‘Requires Improvement’. The CQC have notified the DHSC that under four domains York is rated as ‘Inadequate’. An informal Improvement Advisor, Graeme Betts, has been appointed by the Minister for Care to support York in its improvement journey. An improvement plan is in place, and progress has been made over the last 12-18 months which was acknowledged by CQC – however there is still more work to do to ensure that people in York can benefit from effective, efficient and outcome focused services to meet eligible care and support needs under the Care Act. A letter from the Minister of State for Care is at Annex A to this report.

9. Homelessness & Roughsleeper Strategy: Since November work has continued at pace on the Strategy, with key outputs including:

· Development of multi-disciplinary project group with representation from organisations and departments spanning the breadth of homelessness and rough sleeping work

· Safeguarding Adults Board held a workshop with representatives of a range of different teams across housing, health and care who work with homeless people, exploring new assurances required by Safeguarding Adults Board in this field and strengthening cross-sector working to support Housing First as a focus for the future, with a second workshop planned for early Feb to look at practical improvements such data sharing requirements and review and improvement/integration  of system touchpoints.

Dedicated funding from MCHLG is in the process of being distributed to the VCSE, bolstering of existing floating support and focussing on prevention and recovery, as well as establishing some co-located roles with Probation and our resettlement agency to ensure onward provision of accommodation in high risk often complex situations.

· Creation of 16/17 year old resettlement pathway project group to move forward work in this area, looking at opportunities to expand and improve provision for this cohort of young people who are homes/at risk of homelessness.

· Work with the Combined Authority on their changing role in this area, supporting with the specification for a piece of research which will drive best practice in the area and beyond around undiagnosed learning disabilities and prevalence of personality disorder in the homeless community

· The Government released the National Plan to End Homelessness in December, so now work has begun to assess the main opportunities and implications for CYC in the area, cross referencing with our own Homelessness and Roughsleeper Strategy.

· Joint work is ongoing supported by our Transformation Programme to deliver a Supported Housing Strategy – much work has been done to understand our current base line provision, our challenges and future provision need.  Work is ongoing to identify future options and opportunities (including market shaping) and consultation will take place this spring/summer to inform the final strategy.

10.In terms of expansion of Social Housing (Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-29 Key Theme 3):

· Since April 2024 an additional 65 Social Rent homes have been delivered, both directly by the council and enabled through section 106 planning negotiations.

· Further high quality social rent homes are being developed and acquired, levering central government funding to support the strategy programme. Social rent homes are being provided at the Duncombe Square and Burnholme Green developments, alongside an acquisition programme of flats offered with specialist support including for Housing First.

· It is intended to further supplement this with a bid for additional homes through the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund Round 4 which is currently open for expressions of interest.

11. Improving joint working between Adult Social Care and Housing: Senior officers have developed a plan to secure improved understanding across services and multi-disciplinary approaches with regard to people with multiple and complex needs

Including:

· Delivery of training to each other’s teams in relation to the Mental Health Capacity Act and Housing Registration and Allocations by March

· Resource Guides Following the training sessions, these will be created as part of developing the training content and rolled out to colleagues after the training.

· A complex case review panel has been proposed with key members of the Housing and ASC teams identified to form this panel. A first meeting will take place in January to discuss and agree the process for reviewing complex cases. It has been proven that in-depth discussion and understanding of individual complex cases by ASC and Housing can deliver the appropriate housing solutions for people.

· Reviewing opportunities to use Housing and Independent Living stock to support independence at home with care as an option

HWBB Statutory Functions

12. The York Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) is available at https://www.healthyork.org/ . The website is continually being reviewed and updated, as and when requests and comments come in and when CYC Public Health capacity allows. The review of the JSNA website was identified through the CYC Public Health Peer Review and it is a priority in the Public Health Team Improvement Plan for 2026/27.

13. The following updates highlight recent activity:

· Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) - Following the announcement of a community pharmacy closure and change in ownership and hours, after the PNA 2025-28 had been published in October, a Supplementary Statement was added (Annex B refers). It concluded that these changes constitute an unmet need for pharmacy services in the Acomb area. It recommended that the ICB consider positively any application for the provision of additional pharmacy hours in the west of the city.

· No Health Needs Assessments have been added to the website since September 2025.

· Population Health Hub webpage - Two key documents have been added to the page since October:

o Neighbourhood-level data, including preliminary population health intelligence data in York Central neighbourhood. The pack also contains a wealth of data for all four Neighbourhoods such as long-term conditions.

o Population Projections data, an updated version that forecasts the York resident population, taking housing growth into consideration, as well as registered patient population and associated health and care demand.

· The Population Health Hub section will undergo a review next year due to the ICB restructure and the likely loss of capacity at York Place level for Population Health.

· Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2019 data have been replaced with the IMD 2025 data that were released in October.

National and Local Updates

14.Developing a ‘Best Start in Life’ Plan for York: Annex C provides details on a developing and ambitious opportunity to significantly enhance how partners in the city give children the Best Start in Life.

Author:	Responsible for the report:
Compiled by Tracy Wallis Health and Wellbeing Partnerships Co-ordinator	Cllr Lucy Steels-Walshaw Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care
	Report Approved	√	Date	07.01.2026

Wards Affected:	All	√
For further information please contact the author of the report