The first draft of the Fylde Coast Integrated Care Partnership health and care five year strategy was finalised in early 2020.

The draft strategy was informed by people’s experiences of local health and care services, evidence around the health needs of the local population and the challenges local NHS and council organisations are facing. A comprehensive programme of engagement was scheduled for March 2020 in order to further develop the strategy with staff, clinicians, patients and members of the public and wider stakeholders. Unfortunately, much of the planned activity had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, six staff sessions (with a total of 54 members of staff) took place as well as two public sessions (in the form of existing panels).

Key themes

Staff sessions

What will the strategy require you to do differently? 

• Working more collaboratively

  • Staff identified they would need to have greater focus on integrated working and potentially work across organisational boundaries.
  • They saw a need for services and organisations to communicate better with each bother. 
  • They identified the need to break down barriers. 

• Focus on prevention and self-care agenda

  • Staff felt they would need to better understand what services exist in order to better support patients.
  • They identified the need to promote the self-care message.

• Have a greater understanding of the needs of the local population

  • Understand the needs of the population in order to plans services accordingly.
  • They felt they would need to think more holistically when treating people.

• Staff wellbeing/workforce culture

  • Support staff to develop and reach their full potential
  • Improve ways to attract and retain staff

Do these describe the types of behaviour you would and wouldn’t want to see across the ICP? Is there anything missing?

While all attendees generally agreed with the values and behaviours which had been proposed, a number of other points were raised as per below.

• They questioned how staff would be held to account if these behaviours weren’t displayed.
• They spoke about barriers – including cliques – to making some of the behaviours difficult to uphold – people are still afraid or ‘whistle blowing’.
• They suggested creativity/innovation should be captured.
• They felt the values and behaviour framework would be good to support PDRs/appraisals.

Influence Panel

While members of the panel were generally supportive of the strategy, they made the following three key recommendations following their engagement session:

1. Address problems with access to care homes and ensure social care has a place in the strategy.
2. Address the issues presented to people living in rural communities.
3. Share the more detailed (operational) plans early to allow the Influence Panel and wider public to comment before publication.

Youth Influence Panel

In terms of reaching out to younger people and promoting healthy lifestyles with school and college age children, the Youth Panel recommended:

• There should be better education about health in schools and colleges.
• They believe what is currently being taught could be better.
• When trying to reach young people – look to use different places for advertising/marketing/promotion.
• Utilise social media and ‘influencers’ to reach young people.