Wrexham Integrated Wellbeing Hubs

Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC), Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) and Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW) are working with North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) to look at how health and social care hubs can be implemented in your local community.

Health and social care hubs are where health and social care teams work together to deliver support within your communities, giving you access to the right support at the right time when you need it. For the hubs we will be considering: existing or additional spaces/buildings providing local access to services; teams working together to deliver services in existing community spaces; and teams working together virtually.

Wellbeing will be at the heart of the hubs. According to the Wellbeing Wales Act 2014, wellbeing doesn't only mean being physically and mentally healthy; it means being well in your emotions, feeling safe where you live and being part of a good strong community. The hubs will also focus on improving well-being for carers and for people who need care and support.

As part of this consultation we sought to understand your experiences of how local services impact your wellbeing, and where there are opportunities for improvements. Your feedback will help to inform the development of wellbeing hubs in Wrexham.

Whilst we are looking at Wrexham as a whole, we recognise that there are differences in what local communities need and the opportunities for developing wellbeing hubs based on current services and local activity. Therefore, the results of the survey will be analysed across the different geographies in Wrexham.

Who are we?

This project is being jointly delivered by Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC), Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) and the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW).

The project activity is being run by the consultancy team at North of England Commissioning Support (NECS), in partnership with Yma, a Welsh not-for-profit project organisation based in Aberystwyth. . This resident survey is part of a wider programme of activity that will contriubute to the development of the wellbeing hubs, including:

• Engagement with local communities through Your Voice
• Workshops with Health and Social Care Professionals and Voluntary Sector leads.
• Analysis of local and national data.
• Review of national and international examples

Your voice and feedback is crucial to the development of these hubs to make sure we are understanding and responding to the needs and opportunities you value in your local community.

We wanted to know:

• Your experiences of health and social care support in Wrexham and any barriers you currently experience with accessing services that support your wellbeing. 
•  What you think are key priorities and needs in your local community.
• Any ways you think health and social services in your area can work better together for a more seamless approach/service.

The survey was open for 6 weeks between 18/08/2023 and 01/10/2023. During this time it was widely publicised including on the Council's website, via AVOW, news articles and through posters in key settings such as family centres and the Central Wellbeing Hub. The consultation received 231 responses, of which the majority were detailed and thoughtful responses. We have analysed the results across Wrexham as a whole and by primary care cluster: Central Wrexham, South Wrexham and North and West Wrexham.

We found that across Wrexham respondents felt that the following were most important areas that had a positive impact on wellbeing:

1. Physical health (157)
2. Mental health (149)
3. Feeling safe in their local community (103)
4. Mobility (86)
5. Being able to provide for their needs (71)

Across Wrexham the areas that had the most significant negative impact on wellbeing are:

1. Mental health (104)
2. Physical health (91)
3. Social Isolation (77)
4. Feeling unsafe in their community (76)
5. Poverty (69)

We found that the most significant factors preventing citizens from accessing local services were waiting times (50%) and lack of awareness of available support (48%). There were some differences in barriers to service access across the Clusters. Central Cluster respondents did not rate “lack of local services within the community” as one of their top five barriers to accessing services, whereas this was a key barrier in the South and North and West Cluster. Transport links were selected as a key barrier to service access in the South Cluster only.

We found that easy access to information and advice was seen as a highly important priority for the design of a health and wellbeing hub along with support being available for a wide range of people and ages, and offering key health and social care services.

A wide range of current local services helping to improve wellbeing were mentioned particularly across health, community groups, voluntary groups, libraries, and green spaces. However, there were some respondents who said that there were no local services helping to improve their wellbeing. 

A wide range of ideas and suggestions were made on supporting wellbeing in communities:

• In particular expanding access to services through adjusted opening times and outreach into rural communities.
• Access to healthcare was significantly noted as an area for improvement.

The findings from this consultation provide an insight into the priorities and needs of local people in Wrexham and how health and social care wellbeing hubs can support wellbeing.

We will use these findings to help inform the recommendations in the Feasibility study for integrated health and social wellbeing hubs, ensuring the citizen's voice remains at the heart of how the wellbeing hubs are shaped and developed.

The feasibility study is due to be published by December 2023. 

For more information or to ask any questions about the programme and/or survey please contact: necsu.wrexhamintegratedhubs@nhs.net