Jack Wagstaff, Place Leader and Chief Officer for North West Surrey Health and Care Alliance shares how they are working together for better health, care and wellbeing for the benefit of the community

North West Surrey Health and Care Alliance recently held our first large-scale Community Day at the RHS Garden Wisley. The incredible setting intentionally set the tone for the type of environments we need around us to nurture our health and wellbeing.

More than 200 people living, working, running businesses, supporting vulnerable people and raising families in our communities joined us.

This was an opportunity to showcase everything from local recruitment opportunities to the progress we’re making joining up the delivery of health, care and wider wellbeing services. That included hearing about people like, Avis who has regained her confidence after a series of falls following support from our Urgent Community Response Team who helped her to remain independent in her own home. Watch Avis tell her story.

We also shared our work with borough councils, without whom it wouldn’t be possible to offer initiatives like our Step Down Service. This is supported accommodation for people who are medically fit but need additional help on discharge from hospital. For local residents Wendy and Darren this made all the difference. Hear more about Helen’s work.

As well sharing our progress, it was a chance for local people to tell us what it feels like to be on the receiving end of our work. The energy and positive feedback on the day was hugely motivating but what really struck me was just how active our residents want to be in improving their own health and wellbeing. Empowering people to take agency in this is the foundation of our work to develop neighbourhood teams. This follows recommendations from The Fuller Stocktake and our Critical 5 priorities, and means introducing multi-disciplinary teams to serve the needs of a defined footprint – with easy access to preventative support and tailored care when it’s needed.

Listening to the experiences of people from our communities and understanding their ideas for what a healthy and happy neighbourhood looks like opened up a different kind of dialogue about how we can influence the wider determinants of health. Considering transport and access, digital inequality, making it easier to navigate different services and liberating our community assets so they can take forward their own wellbeing initiatives, is all part of growing the neighbourhoods our residents want.

This is just the beginning of our work involve people in our communities, the voluntary and charity sector to build cohesive services and cultivate environments where our residents can thrive. Take a look at the highlights from the day in this short film. And if you’re interested in how we’ll be using the outputs of our discussions – keep an eye on our website or drop us a line.