Living and ageing well - what we want to deliver

Enabling people to live healthy, happy and fulfilling lives

We will improve how we offer information, advice and guidance to help people stay healthy and independent, and to access the care and support they need. This includes developing online information services while also providing alternative options to best meet the diverse and changing health and wellbeing needs of people in the city. We will continue to make our information more accessible for people with a learning disability. We will ensure cancer health promotion materials are appropriate and accessible for people with learning disabilities and LGBTQ+ communities.

We will support people to age well and continue our work to make Brighton & Hove a dementia friendly city.

We will strengthen partnership working with local communities, primary care and secondary mental health services in the recommissioning of community mental health support services for adults. We will also continue work to deliver our Suicide Prevention Action Plan to reduce the risk of suicide and improve support for people affected by suicide and for people who self-harm.

We will extend our stop smoking offer by recruiting more people to deliver stop smoking support, making sure everyone who wants to stop smoking can access free support quickly and easily, utilising newly available government funding. And we will continue to embed targeted interventions to improve air quality in the city.

We will also publish a new Sexual Health Strategy setting out our plans to improve sexual health and wellbeing in the city.

The Health Counts 2024 report highlights how people living in the city’s most deprived areas report poorer health than those in the least deprived areas. We will use data, including the latest Health Counts report, to inform decisions about what services and support are needed to meet people's needs and to help us target interventions to tackle health inequalities.

We will work with our NHS and community partners to provide a joined-up approach to protecting the public's health, including our response to infectious diseases and vaccination coordination.

Providing services to ensure everyone has access to the information, advice and services they need

Our adult social care services were inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and we await the outcome of their assessment. We are committed to learning from this process and will use the findings to strengthen our services. This inspection is an important step in our journey of continuous improvement, and we remain focused on delivering high-quality, person-centred care for all our residents.

Providing joined up services for unpaid carers to ensure they have access to the information, advice and services they need

We will launch a new Carers Strategy with plans to improve information and support for unpaid carers and encourage health, social care, education and employers to strengthen and publicise their commitment to carers.

We will also work to ensure that the Carers Hub is central to reaching all carers and has dedicated pathways with key service areas, from the Social Care Assessment Services, through to the development of Integrated Community Teams, to ensure as many unpaid carers as possible become registered with the service. We will develop the Carers Card to enable easier access and extend the offers available to carers. We will also enhance the support available for carers of residents in our seniors housing schemes.

Ensuring there is safe, effective, sustainable and high-quality health and care provision in the city

We will work closely with our NHS partners to improve health and care outcomes for our local population. This includes a commitment to jointly commission services where this can deliver better outcomes and better value for money.

We will work with our NHS and voluntary sector partners and with local communities through our established health forums to develop integrated community services tailored to support health and care needs in the city as set out in the Integrated Care Strategy. This includes work with partners to co-design and implement the new Integrated Community Teams across our local neighbourhoods and city wide for people who are homeless with multiple and complex needs. This programme of work is informed by recommendations from an external evaluation of our pilot scheme. We will increase opportunities for people with lived experience to help shape services.

With our NHS partners, we will implement three new neighbourhood mental health teams across the city to better integrate assessment, treatment and emotional wellbeing support and services delivered across primary care, secondary care, community care and through the voluntary sector.

We will review our support for residents in our seniors housing schemes to increase the benefits of our service and help residents live and age well. We plan to meet future demand

for extra care housing and care and support services for older people, maintaining their independence in self-contained accommodation wherever possible.

We will work with existing and new providers to increase the options for community support and supported living for adults in the city.

We will move forward with the delivery plan of our Transitions Strategy to ensure services are in place to support young people with additional needs as they prepare for adulthood, alongside their parents and carers.