Devon Health and Wellbeing Sandbox

The 18 recommendations contained in this year’s report are:

R4.1	The NHS should commission for prevention, working closely with local authority public health.
R4.2	Public health, health and care interventions should explicitly recognise the importance of socio-economic deprivation as a marker for worse lifestyle, low uptake of preventive activity and later presentation with illness.
R4.3	The effectiveness of early intervention measures should be assessed for those conditions where Devon has a statistically significantly higher death rate than nationally.
R5.1	Support reductions in health inequality by efforts to increase the prosperity of Devon, and schemes which increase people’s financial independence.
R5.2	The NHS must do more to improve the health of the worst-off in Devon, to meet its statutory duty for reducing health inequality.
R5.3	Commission a targeted approach to oral health promotion so that those children and young people most at risk of dental decay are helped to improve and maintain their oral health.
R5.4	Target screening and disease detection programmes to increase uptake from people who are socio-economically deprived or who may be more susceptible for reasons of ethnicity, sexuality or disability.
R5.5	Develop a strategy to target preventive interventions at younger populations who have a greater chance of developing ill-health in later life.
R5.6	Enable personalised health and care interventions much earlier to prevent the consequences of multi-morbidity on quality of life and on the use of, and cost to, health and care services.
R5.7	Capitalise on the opportunities presented by a universal primary care service to identify and manage pre-frailty.
R5.8	Implement the recommendations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) needs assessment.
R5.9	Undertake a detailed needs assessment of children in care, to include their own perspective of health, wellbeing and support needs, including recognition of their vulnerability to sexual exploitation.
R5.10	Implement multi-agency approaches to preventing homelessness and supporting those homeless people who have the most complex needs.
R5.11	Ensure the prioritisation of public mental health and mental health as a health and wellbeing priority.
R5.12	Reduce the number of section 136 detentions by Devon and Cornwall Police by providing better access to emergency mental health services.
R6.1	The NHS must make explicit its strategies for reducing health inequality, and be able to provide evidence of achieving reductions.
R6.2	More insight is required into the reasons why there is a persistent pattern of later presentation of, and treatment for, cardiovascular, cancer and pulmonary disease in Ilfracombe.
R6.3	There should be an active targeting of preventive interventions for people living in the most socio-economically deprived areas of Devon, and the impact of these should be measured by improvements in life expectancy, and reductions in emergency admissions and premature death rates for preventable or treatable conditions.