About Us
The Healthy Sandwell Team
The Healthy Sandwell team is made up of trained health advisors offering friendly, non-judgemental support to help you stay fit and well.
Whether it’s quitting smoking, losing weight, or finding the right local service, the team is here to guide you every step of the way. They’ll help you understand your options and connect you to the support that suits you—quickly and confidentially.
Got a health goal in mind? Get in touch!
Public Health Development Officers
Each of the six towns in Sandwell has its own dedicated officer, ready to support local communities to ensure residents can access the right support and services to lead healthier and happier lives.
Our work is about more than just providing support, we help bring people together, strengthen existing community networks and develop lasting solutions. The team work closely with schools, health providers, local businesses and residents so if we can’t help you, we’ll know someone who can!
Each of the towns in Sandwell is so unique and we work really hard to understand our residents to make health services more accessible and inclusive, ensuring no one is left behind. The ultimate goal is to empower communities, helping residents take control of their health and well-being in a way that suits them.
Do you or a group you know need some support, funding advice or have an idea on how to make your community take more interest in their wellbeing? Get in touch!
Sandwell Healthy Pregnancy Team
The Sandwell Healthy Pregnancy Service is here to support you and your family on your pregnancy journey—before, during, and after the arrival of your little one.
We The team provide free and confidential support to new parents and their families, including advice on advice on eating well, staying active, and acessing Healthy Start vitamins. healthy eating, nutrition and exercise, as well as access to healthy start vitamins and much more.
We can also support you with help to stop smoking, easy access to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), behavioural support and one to one care. Need help quitting smoking? We offer non-judgemental support, including nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), one-on-one care, and help with changing habits.
The service works alongside community midwives within antenatal clinics, at local Family Hubs and other community settings across Sandwell.
To find out how the service can help you, go to: www.sandwellfamilyhubs.com
Choices
The Choices Team helps families have fun and make happy memories together.
Families with children aged 5 to 12 can join in free activities that support healthy eating, feeling good, and staying active.
There’s lots to try—like arts and crafts, gardening, games, horse riding, rock climbing and more.
All activities are free and take place throughout the year. There’s something for everyone to enjoy!
Take a look what’s on and get booked in! https://bookwhen.com/choices
If you need more information, please contact the team at choices_sandwell@sandwell.gov.uk
About Us
Introduction
Welcome to the Healthy Sandwell website.
Awards
Liann Brookes- Smith
Interim Director of Public Health
Healthy Sandwell
Welcome to Healthy Sandwell! We are part of Sandwell Council’s Public Health team. Our goal is to help everyone in Sandwell live healthier and happier lives.
We want to motivate you to make good choices for your health and offer help early on. We work with doctors and other groups to support you. Our approach is all about you and what you need to keep you fit and healthy. Our team is dedicated and passionate about improving health and wellbeing. We have the expertise to provide a package just for you. You can get in touch with our team by filling out the contact us form.
Public Health Development Officers
Meet our Public Health Development Officers. They play a big role in keeping everyone in Sandwell fit and well.
Each of Sandwell’s six towns has its own Public Health Development Officer. They play a big role in keeping everyone in Sandwell healthy and well. They work hard to improve health in their area and enable people to get the support they need.
They host regular town Public Health network meetings. These meetings bring together representatives from various sectors, including voluntary, statutory, community groups and organisations. The primary goal is to coordinate and align activities, avoid duplication, share resources and knowledge, and increase investment into each town. This collaborative approach aims to make it easier for residents to access the services and activities they need for a healthy and happy life.
The entire approach is rooted in the principles of asset-based community development, as outlined in the below Stronger Sandwell principles:
The focus is on identifying and leveraging the existing strengths and assets within the community to promote health and wellbeing.
Prioritising the specific needs and characteristics of each town and investing resources locally to address these needs.
Ensuring that all residents have access to the necessary services and support, with an emphasis on inclusivity and equity.
Public Health Development Officers work across the following settings:
Addressing health and wellbeing needs in educational settings, which may include schools, colleges, and community education programmes.
Collaborating with healthcare providers to ensure residents have access to local health services.
Supporting and developing health and wellbeing initiatives with local partners in each town.
Promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace.
Health and Wellbeing Board
Sandwell Health and Wellbeing Board are working hard to make our community healthier. We bring together people from across Sandwell to work together to achieve this goal and reduce health inequalities.
Our goal is to move away from the treatment of the illness to the prevention of its causes. If you are interested in making your community better, you’ll find information and updates here about how we are helping people stay healthy and happy in Sandwell.
The Sandwell Health and Wellbeing Board is a group of people who want to help everyone in Sandwell be healthy and happy. The board is made up of councillors, local GPs, council officers and members from the faith and voluntary community sector.
We have meetings where we listen to the stories and ideas of people in the town. Hearing the real voices of local people brought the meetings to life and inspired board members to take action. We know that real people will benefit from this work.
We want everyone in Sandwell to have an equal opportunity to live a healthy, happy and fulfilling life. The meetings are held in public and you can view the agenda and accompanying papers before the meeting using our Modern.Gov System.
What are we doing?
To make improvements we need to have an accurate picture of the health and care needs of people in Sandwell now, and what is needed for the future. We must:
- Agree on what is most important
- Plan out what we need to do to make the biggest impact
- Be clear about how this will happen, who will do it and when
- Set measurable aims and objectives, so we can report on the progress we are making.
Finding out what local people need
The Board is working on a refresh of its Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. This is the detail that board members collect and share that shows us what the current and future health and social care needs of people in Sandwell are. We are refreshing the needs assessment to reflect the borough Vision for 2030 and its ambitions; focusing on what’s strong not what’s wrong.
Whilst we are working on this, there are still a number of legacy JSNAs which you may want to take a closer look at on our Sandwell Trends website.
Planning to make an impact
The Health and Wellbeing Board wants to work with local people to improve health and wellbeing and make sure that everyone who lives and
works in Sandwell is treated fairly, with the same chances in life as everyone else.
What do you think of our plans?
Do you think the board is focusing on the right things? What are your experiences in your local area?
What are you doing and how can you help to improve health and wellbeing in Sandwell?
Contact Us
You can contact the Health and Wellbeing Board by emailing a member of the board directly, or by email to HWB_Board@sandwell.gov.uk
What’s “Stronger Sandwell”?
‘Stronger Sandwell’ is a new approach to improving health in our local area. The Council, SCVO and other organisations will be shifting more resources towards local community projects. That is, projects run BY local people FOR local people.
The film below explains a bit more about Stronger Sandwell. You can also check out our Stronger Sandwell partners SCVO. Then, take the plunge and contact us with your BIG idea!
That way we’ll better harness Sandwell’s ‘strengths’, including our community’s ideas and skills!
Just tell us your ideas! Whether you’re an established voluntary sector organisation, a local club, a group of friends or an individual. We want to work with you to make your ideas happen.
