A new strategy to support healthier lives in Surrey

In Surrey we face a distinct challenge when it comes to supporting the health and wellbeing of local people. In a county which is often seen as wealthy and green, with better than average health outcomes (which is true in part), we also have areas of significant deprivation where life expectancy can differ by up to 11 years depending on where you live.

This makes our job as a health and care partnership – the Surrey Heartlands ICS – particularly challenging.  Working collectively – across public sector partners including health, social care and local government, the third sector, with our communities and others – our overall aim is to improve the health and wellbeing of local residents and reduce the gaps in access to care and health outcomes we know exist for many communities. 

Our new strategy – recently launched at our Surrey Heartlands Expo event at Surrey University in February – sets a clear framework for how we will improve health and wellbeing for residents and reflects what local people have told us is important.

This joint strategy, which builds on what we’ve already been doing, has three distinct ambitions; prevention and early intervention; how we can deliver services differently and more effectively – so it’s easier for people to access the care they need, when they need it; and those areas that will support us in achieving our vision, such as taking advantage of the best digital technology, having the right workforce and culture, working proactively with our communities and so on.

We know that if the NHS were to carry on working on their own, we could only improve people’s health outcomes by about 20%.  We can further influence another 30% through public health and changing people’s behaviours – what you eat and drink, whether you exercise and so on – but the largest impact, around 50%, comes from what we call the wider determinants of health - those broader socio-economic factors such as housing, poverty, cleaner air, employment and so on.  Which is why working together as an integrated care system – including local government colleagues and the wider third sector - is so important.  Quite simply, unless we all work together, we will never be able to improve people’s overall health outcomes effectively in the way we want to.

Importantly, this strategy also describes how we are starting to work more collaboratively and creatively with those communities with the greatest needs.  This commitment is based on strong evidence that to achieve lasting change for people, families and communities, it’s essential that communities themselves participate and take the lead.  Above all, it’s about nurturing new and different relationships between residents and the NHS, social care, local government and the third sector to truly understand and address those wider determinants of health.

Join us and get involved in helping to make Surrey a healthier place to live and work. 

Download a copy of the strategy and/or get in touch with us at syheartlandsicb.comms@nhs.net.

We’d love to hear from you.