Bolton is committed to ensuring that prevention is at the heart of everything that we do.
From our Anchor Institutions, Private Sector, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Organisations, right through to our communities and residents, there are opportunities to create the conditions for good health and economic prosperity.
Overview
Seen through the lens of a place, opportunities for prevention are broad and not limited to a narrow set of services or sectors. Across local areas there are a whole range of services and approaches – often strengths or asset based, relational or community-focused – working to address the root causes of problems, harness the power of our assets, improve outcomes for people, and potentially reduce the need for further support from statutory and other services.
Of course, a shift to prevention brings with it challenges: directing funding further upstream whilst fighting the fires as they happen; integrated and cross system working to meet national and local priorities and outcomes frameworks and being realistic about the limitations and possibilities of local areas to address some of the place based and legislative challenges that require national drive and direction for population level impact.
What the framework provides
The potential of a shared framework for prevention, applied consistently across a locality is considerable. To meet these challenges we need a shared understanding of the range and scope of prevention that can be used to shape strategy, policy, services and places by all those who serve, live and work in Bolton.
We need a shared language that describes our prevention opportunities and gaps, and a simple framework within which we can apply other tools and guidance about interventions, place shaping and community development to reduce inequalities.
The Bolton All Age Prevention and Inequalities Framework is intentionally simple and based in the basics of prevention evidence. This framework draws upon the Public Health evidence base of what works for prevention and as a result, makes reference to health in a number of sections. However, it will add value to any prevention topic or challenge in order to improve the places, experiences and outcomes for Bolton people.
We hope that this guidebook becomes a useful tool to embed and develop prevention across the whole of Bolton. If you need any further support, resources or advice about its use, please do get in touch with Bolton Public Health Directorate PublicHealthAdmin@bolton.gov.uk
Resources