Agenda item

This report provides an overview of the West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board Seminar that took place on Monday, 20 February 2023. The Chief Executive of Crawley Borough Council will also provide a verbal update to the Board, including key points from the event.

59.1   The Director of Public Health introduced this report which provided an overview of the West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board Seminar that took place on Monday, 20 February 2023.  Health and Wellbeing Board Seminars were regularly held, informal meetings, focusing on key topic areas to support the delivery of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This seminar focused on the impact of Covid-19 on the homeless population, across West Sussex, and new cross-cutting issues such as cost of living pressures.

59.2   The Chief Executive of Crawley Borough Council had chaired the Seminar and outlined content and feedback as follows;

·       There was excellent work across West Sussex during the pandemic to ensure all 450 homeless individuals were supported into accommodation. These individuals were now being migrated, through pathways, to other suitable housing but some were returning to the streets.

·       The seminar had recognised that system pressures following Covid-19 were contributing to homelessness.  The Cost of Living had meant rent and mortgages had gone up and repossessions were happening. There was also a lack of available private rented sector  housing which also impacted on the availability of temporary accommodation.

·       It was noted as difficult to place people in areas where they wished to live due to the system pressures. It was also noted that people were often moved from one hotel to another within the temporary accommodation offer which did not provide a good quality of life.

·       Local authorities had seen their housing costs significantly increase with £12m spent across the district and boroughs in the past year.

·       It was recognised that people were presenting as homeless at crisis point and early intervention was seen as a key way of helping with homeless prevention.

·       The Seminar discussed how partners could get ahead and move from a reactionary position to prevention. Work that could be achieved collaboratively was identified such as looking at property assets, encouraging allocation of land for social housing as well as handling Hospital Discharge processes effectively. The Memorandum of Understanding produced just before the pandemic in November 2019 was being revisited to refocus priorities.

·       Predictive analytics was welcomed as a way of using data to target early intervention support.

·       Other key actions identified at the seminar including collaborative work between housing and adult social care, longer term planning using a range of data sources and exploration of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which could be used proactively to support residents to maintain independent living in their own homes.

59.3   In receiving this update board members;

·       stated that it would be helpful to revisit the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as part of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy review and update;

·       referred to the Creating Healthy and Sustainable Places: A Public Health and Sustainability Framework for West Sussex, presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board on 28 January 2021, and noted the good planning principles which would be encouraged to be adopted by all district and boroughs;

·       commented that more could be done collectively on extra care challenges in accommodation;

·       noted that there were various housing support strands across partners where strategies would need to be aligned and the MOU updated.

59.4   The Health and Wellbeing Board resolved that;

                   i.    housing and environments be continued as ongoing key priorities in the refreshed Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy from 2024; and

                  ii.    the West Sussex Housing Group be asked to take forward the key actions identified at the seminar, working collaboratively with stakeholders and partners across the county’s health and social care system, providing a progress update to the Health and Wellbeing Board during 2023/2024.