Health and Wellbeing Boards

What are Health and Wellbeing Boards?

A key plank of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 was the creation of statutory health and wellbeing boards in every upper tier local authority.

Health and Wellbeing Boards bring together key leaders from the local health and care system to improve the health and wellbeing of their population and reduce health inequalities through:

• developing a shared understanding of the health and wellbeing needs of their communities
• providing system leadership to secure collaboration to meet these needs more effectively
• having a strategic influence over commissioning decisions across health, public health and social care
• involving councillors and patient representatives in commissioning decisions.

London's Health and Wellbeing Boards 

All 32 London boroughs and the City of London have their own Health and Wellbeing Board. 

In March 2015, we published research on how London's health and wellbeing boards are doing nearly two years after they took on their statutory functions.   

Strengthening Health and Wellbeing Boards

We believe that health and wellbeing boards are the cornerstone for planning for and securing effective transformation of health and care services to improve outcomes and drive efficiency in a time of increasing financial pressures on both the NHS and local government.

We are therefore working with boroughs and other partners to strengthen health and wellbeing boards through making them truly effective system leaders and giving them greater powers.

We will help London's Boards to realise this aspiration through:

• helping them access appropriately tailored support;
• running a London Health and Wellbeing Board Chairs' Network and also a Lead Officers' Network; and
• developing policy and lobbying work to strengthen the roles and functions of the Boards.