Date: 19 August 2025
A new five-year strategy has been published which is the county’s overarching plan to improve the health and wellbeing of residents and communities across West Sussex and reduce health inequalities.
Developed by the West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board and wider partners, the plan also includes feedback following a public consultation on the draft strategy held earlier this year.
The Board are working closely with partners and key stakeholders across the county’s health and care system to implement and deliver the strategy, with a firm focus on achieving their ambitions and goals over the next five years.
The strategy uses the latest evidence to identify the challenges and needs of the population and presents the Board’s vision of ‘Improving Lives Together in West Sussex.’ It focuses on five priority areas, which reflect some of the wider influencing factors and causes of ill health, for example, our homes, the food we eat, and their importance to individual and community health and wellbeing.
The five priority areas are:
- Food and nutrition
- School readiness
- Transitioning to adulthood – children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing
- Tobacco control
- Health and wellbeing in temporary accommodation
Alongside the priority areas, three principles are central to the delivery of the strategy.
The Health and Wellbeing Board will:
- Reduce health inequalities, including tackling the wider determinants of health.
- Build resilient and connected communities, including addressing loneliness and social isolation across the life-course.
- Work in partnership to deliver the strategy.
Five delivery groups (one per priority area) will be led by Board members and senior health and care leaders, which will focus on delivering the priority areas. These groups will be responsible for developing detailed action plans describing how they will achieve their ambition and goals. They will be reviewed annually and adapted, if required, enabling flexibility over the strategy’s five-year period.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Chairman of the West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board and West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: “I want to share my thanks to all those who contributed to developing this strategy, including our residents, who provided helpful feedback, Board members, our workforce, and wider partners. There is a strong commitment and enthusiasm to deliver the strategy together, to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents and reduce health inequalities across the county. We are excited to start work on these plans and will be keeping our residents and communities updated as we make progress.”
For more information, including a brief animation and an easy-read version of the strategy, visit: westsussex.gov.uk/HealthWellbeingStrategy