Health and Wellbeing Boards (England)

This note provides information on Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs), which were introduced as statutory committees of all upper-tier local authorities under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. HWBs, which came fully into effect on 1 April 2013, are intended to; improve the health and wellbeing of the people in their area; reduce health inequalities; and, promote the integration of services.

The primary responsibility of HWBs is to produce Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) to identify the current and future health and social care needs of the local community, which will feed into a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS) setting out joint priorities for local commissioning. Local authority, CCG and NHS England commissioning plans are then informed by these documents.

The note also provides information on the role of Healthwatch England and the local Healthwatch organisations which have replaced Local Involvement Networks (LINks) and which aim to represent the views of the local population in the reformed health service.

HWBs do not themselves hold a budget and allocating funding for public health remains the responsibility of the local authority in line with its commissioning plan. The Library note, Local authorities’ public health responsibilities (England), contains information on the role of local authorities in public health since the 2012 Act.

The separate Library note, Local authorities’ public health responsibilities (England), (SN06844), sets out the main statutory duties for public health that were conferred on local authorities by the 2012 Act. The note includes information on public health funding; how local authorities have been spending their ring-fenced public health grants; and on accountability arrangements.