Background to the programme

The Healthy Communities Programme is a national service area set up in April 2006 for local government and identified for development by the Department of Health (DH). Originally a two-year initiative funded by the DH, the programme has now been extended until 2011.

The programme responds to the government’s current agenda of NHS reform, the wider remit of the modernisation of public services, and the seamless integration and joining up of services throughout the public, private and voluntary sectors.

The government’s aim is to devolve power to neighbourhoods and create a more patient-focused NHS. In line with this, the Public Health White Paper 'Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier' was published in November 2004. It reinforced the principles of patient choice, of resources following patient choice and of greater autonomy for local professionals. The Health White Paper 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say', published in January 2006, developed this strategy further. It highlights the move towards "fitting services round people, not people round services”.

In achieving this new agenda, an enhanced role for local authorities was identified. This includes shifting resources into prevention and the seamless integration of health and social care provision to meet local community needs. Better and more innovative ways of joining up services at a local level are envisaged.

“The key to success will be effective local partnerships led by local government and the NHS working to a common purpose and reflecting local needs.”

The Healthy Communities programme aims to build the capacity of local authorities working with their communities to:

• tackle local health inequalities
• provide leadership to promote well being
• foster a joined-up approach to health improvement across local government, through local strategic partnerships (LSPs) and local area agreements (LAA).

This is a challenging area of work for the IDeA. The agency will be able to draw on its established areas of expertise, and the existing teams focusing on:

• Children’s services 
• Adults' social care
• The voluntary and community sector (VCS) 
• Sustainable communities.
  

The programme is building on the success of the Shared Priorities programme, the Beacon scheme, and capitalises on the IDeA’s successful, established approaches and products.

Susan Biddle
healthy.communities@idea.gov.uk

Mariam Mannneh
Mariam.Manneh@idea.gov.uk

 
Page published October 2009.