The Healthy Croydon Partnership was set up in 1999 to provide strategic leadership for health and social care services in Croydon. Healthy Croydon is now one of the family of partnerships that comprise the Croydon Strategic Partnership.
Healthy Croydon aims to protect and improve the health, safety and well being of local residents, visitors and people who work in Croydon. Its vision is that people in Croydon:
- are able to make informed choices about their health
- can maximise their health and well being
- are supported by high quality services which are responsive to their needs
- do not experience inequalities in health
With over 330,000 people living in Croydon it is crucial that organisations work together to ensure a true multi-agency approach to improving health in Croydon. The Healthy Croydon Partnership is ambitious for improving the health of local people and for improving services. It has been responsible for developing a shared understanding of priorities for health and well being in the borough, selecting key priorities to be jointly worked on, and providing the context and commitment for successfully implementing improvements. Healthy Croydon oversees the development and monitoring of the health and well being elements of Croydon's Sustainable Community Strategy.
The Healthy Croydon Partnership comprises the most senior local representatives of health agencies, the council, voluntary sector, police, probation and business. This includes the Chairs of the NHS agencies, Council Cabinet and shadow cabinet members, elected members of the voluntary/community sector and a business representative. Chief Officers from each agency also attend and participate in the meetings. Attendance at meetings is extremely high, with additional expertise being brought in to deal with particular topics.
Healthy Croydon does not have formal decision making powers but it is, nevertheless, a highly influential body in shaping both strategy and service provision. Formal decisions need to be referred to the constituent partnership agencies. The Partnership as a whole is not able to vote to compel any member agency to take a particular course of action.
Healthy Croydon has a small Executive Group made up of Chief Officers and Directors of member organisations. It oversees and steers the work of the Partnership and is chaired by the Chief Executive of the PCT. The main work of Healthy Croydon is taken foward by fourteen Partnership Groups. They are each responsible for leading an aspect of health and social care provision e.g. Older People, Children & Young People, Mental Health, or a cross-cutting theme or support function, e.g. Carers, Community Involvement.
The main outcomes of working together have been:
- attracting additional resources
- better deployment of resources through joint commissioning
- better integration of services
- better joint planning of services
- promoting health and well being for all
- a clear focus on health inequalities
Healthy Croydon has successfully contributed to a £20m SRB bid for NW Croydon; a £1m bid for a Healthy Living Centre network; a Sure Start Programme. It has also set up its own Think Tank and Health Inequalities funding programmes. Healthy Croydon is also part of the national Communities for Health programme. As a measure of its desire to innovate and work jointly, the Partnership set up a series of Partnership in Action projects to use the flexibilities provided by the 1999 Health Act to jointly provide health and social care services. Croydon was the first authority in London to register an integrated service under the Act. These were services for people with learning disabilities. Subsequently, community services for people with mental health problems have similarly been integrated between Social Services and health services, operating under a single joint manager. The Healthy Croydon Partnership is also involved in the development of a number of joint strategies addressing issues such as Smoking Reduction, Teenage Pregancy, Obesity, Mental Health Promotion and Breastfeeding.
Croydon Council was awarded Beacon Status for its work on local health strategies in February 2001. Locally, the award was seen as recognition of the contributions of all partners to the success of the Healthy Croydon Partnership. The work of Healthy Croydon has been featured as a model of good practice in a number of publications and at regional and national conferences.
Contact details:
Steve Morton
Healthy Croydon Partnership Manager
Healthy Croydon Support Unit
4:01 Taberner House
Park Lane
Croydon CR9 2BA
Tel: 020 8760 5773 steve.morton@croydon.gov.uk
