People, places and health agencies: lessons from Big Local residents

This research addresses two questions:

1. Do Big Local areas and health agencies have common goals?
2. How can they develop workable relationships?

By ‘health’ we mean health and wellbeing. By ‘health agencies’ we mean Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Healthwatch, GPs, NHS provider organisations, voluntary organisations and social enterprises as well as private provider organisations, and Public Health.

Key findings:

• Examples from Big Local areas show how community collaboration is helping health agencies improve health and wellbeing locally.
• Health agencies can gain from working with Big Local areas because of the structure and support provided by Local Trust, and the tangible offer they bring to the table in terms of resources and time.
• The approach of health agencies makes all the difference: Health agencies need to empower their staff to become ‘door openers’ and build relationships with local residents.

The researchers also produced a resource pack for Big Local areas during the course of their research. This includes:

• A template to present health inequality data in a striking, easy to understand format.
• A template for collecting and presenting residents’ stories about health and wellbeing.
• A visual resource to describe and explain the role your Big Local partnership can play.