Have your say on the vision for Gloucestershire’s health and wellbeing

The board – made up of partners from the county council, NHS, district councils, and others – has developed a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy to make Gloucestershire a place where everyone can live well, be healthy and thrive.

Evidence suggests that as little as 10% of someone’s health and wellbeing is linked to health care – it’s our environment, jobs, food, transport, houses, education, and our friends, families and local communities that affect our health and wellbeing most.

Gloucestershire is generally a healthy place to live but there is a lot of variation across the county, for example, life expectancy is up to 8.1 years lower for men in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas.

The strategy has prioritised seven areas to focus on:

• Physical activity: to make being physically active the social norm, and get 30,000 inactive people in Gloucestershire active.
• Adverse childhood experiences: to build resilient communities and organisations that take action to prevent the potential lifelong impacts of adverse childhood experiences.
• Mental wellbeing: for every Gloucestershire resident to enjoy the best possible mental health and wellbeing throughout their life.
• Social isolation and loneliness: to enable local people to build and nurture strong social networks and vibrant communities.
• Healthy lifestyles: to halve the level of childhood obesity and reduce the gap in obesity rates between the most and least deprived parts of the county.
• Early years: to make sure every child has the best start in life.
• Housing: to improve the quality, affordability, availability and suitability of housing.

The chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board, Cllr Roger Wilson, commented: “We’re committed to improving the health and wellbeing of people in Gloucestershire. We listened to local groups and partners about what mattered to them most, and these priorities reflect their concerns and the areas where we can make the biggest impact. We now want to hear from as many people as possible to make sure this vision works for everyone in the county.”

To read the strategy and to give your feedback on the vision for health and wellbeing in Gloucestershire, visit www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/health-and-wellbeing