- Director of Public Health requested LGA to support efforts to re-develop the health and wellbeing board after it had ‘drifted to the margins’
- A three-week intensive round of one-to-one interviews with board members and a workshop helped to pave the way for an overhaul
- Plans now being put in place to take board meetings out into community settings, refresh the membership and set up key priority workstreams
Since the commencement of the integrated care board (ICB) and integrated care partnership (ICP) across Kent and Medway in 2022, the decision was taken to place the emphasis of system leadership for health and wellbeing in the ICP and for the scope of the Kent’s Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) to be limited solely to its statutory functions. The ICP, covering all of Kent and Medway, came to be seen as the key multiagency strategic forum in the area.
With many of the same people sitting on each body, anything with a specifically Kent focus tended to be pushed down the agenda, said Kent County Council (KCC) Director of Public Health Dr Anjan Ghosh. By 2025 the HWB itself was only meeting once or twice a year, with little sense of purpose or momentum. Its statutory role remained, but in practice it had drifted to the margins.
Anjan said: “To be honest, the board was in stasis. I’d started thinking about what we could actually do with it. We had very senior people attending, but for what purpose? It wasn’t really driving anything, apart from signing off the JSNA, PNA and Better Care Fund.
“Then everything shifted again. The NHS 10 year plan announced the abolition of ICPs and Reform UK became the ruling party locally. They rightly questioned the value of our current approach to the HWB. There was an urgent need to address how we were running the board.”
Quick, intensive process
The LGA was invited in to support KCC’s efforts to re-imagine the board. It was a quick, intensive process. LGA experts carried out around 20 one to one interviews during February 2026 with HWB partners in advance of a workshop.
“It was done in three weeks. It was really quick,” said Anjan. “The LGA was great in accommodating that. Kent public health had had a busy start to the year and I knew we had to turn it around quickly.”
The workshop itself was held as part of the March HWB meeting. A small amount of time was set aside for formal business, but the majority of the session was devoted to re-shaping the work of the HWB. The LGA experts presented their findings from the interviews, highlighting themes, gaps and opportunities and then facilitated a structured discussion with board members.
Anjan said: “It was the first time in years that the HWB had been given that level of collective focus. What’s great about the LGA is that they’re completely neutral and are held in real respect across the system. They bring experience of what’s happening elsewhere and because one of the peers was a Reform UK councillor, that really helped - it meant the political dimension was understood and taken seriously.
“Having someone neutral involved when you are doing this type of work is essential. People are far more likely to be honest with them and it’s much easier for them to deliver messages that others may not want to hear. That’s hugely valuable.
“LGA, through this process, can relay back the difficult things in a way that lands constructively. It creates a space where partners feel able to reflect, rather than defend. For us, that external perspective was exactly what we needed. It helped reset the tone and give everyone confidence that this wasn’t about blame or looking backwards - it was about moving forward. The extra capacity is vital too – it would be very hard to find the time within the team to do something like this.”
Looking to the future
Kent is now planning for the future and looking at how to reshape the board. One of the ideas is to take HWB meetings out into local settings rather than keeping them in county hall. Potential venues include libraries, leisure centres, community centres and NHS buildings - places that reflect the reality of people’s lives. The aim is to give the board a stronger sense of place and signal a shift towards a more outward facing approach.
Anjan said: “Traditionally, HWB meetings have been held in the council chamber – but that is formal and quite removed from the communities the board is meant to serve. Taking meetings out into local venues is something I already do with my senior management team - and it works. We also did it for the launch of the Marmot coastal cities work in Dover and it completely changed the feel of the discussion. Being in a real place gives people a sense of context and purpose. It inspires different thinking. The debate becomes more grounded.
“It may also make the meetings more accessible to the public. I’m not expecting large numbers of members of public to attend – and to be honest that’s not really the point – but it does open the door in a way the council chamber never has. For board members, it gives a different feel and helps shift the culture. It’s about changing how we run the board and creating an environment that supports better conversations.”
Other changes are taking place too. The membership of the HWB is going to be refreshed with more voluntary and community sector representation, while NHS trust leaders are also going to be invited to help shape the move towards neighbourhood health. The board is also going to start meeting four times a year with a variety of workstreams to be set up to push ahead with priority areas.
Anjan said: “Neighbourhood health will definitely be one of the workstreams, as will the Marmot work on coastal towns. There will be others. It’s going to take a few months to get all these changes fully in place, but once they are, we’ll be in a very strong position, among other things for the local government reorganisation as well.”