New health and wellbeing boards are to get £1m for training, online tools and support for councillors, health secretary Andrew Lansley announced today (weds).
Speaking at the Local Government (LG) Group’s annual conference in Birmingham, he said: “Local authorities have an in-depth understanding of the public health and care needs of their populations, but too often they haven’t had the right systems in place to work with the local NHS to get the best health and wellbeing for their people.
“That is why we are making £1m available to support the development of health and wellbeing boards as part of local authorities. I want to ensure they are able to effectively support communities in getting access to the services that they need.”
Shadow boards have already been set up in around 97% of areas, and will provide local democratic accountability for health plans and services in the area.
Mr Lansley, a former vice-president of the LGA, talked to delegates about public health, social care – including the forthcoming Dilnott review – as well as more generally about the NHS reforms and the role of local government.
“We regard the health and social care bill as a co-production and especially a co-production with local government,” he said.
Cllr David Rogers, chairman of the LG Group’s community wellbeing board, told delegates the Group would continue to lobby for health and wellbeing boards to have the power to sign off local health commissioning plans.
