Shropshire Council recognised that preventive health was central to its objective of helping people to live long, healthy and productive lives.

Since April 2013, the Council had assumed primary responsibility for public health commissioning in Shropshire, and now wished to integrate prevention services under the working title of Help2Change, building on the wealth of behaviour change expertise that exists within the County, and focusing on collaboration, innovation and research.

Help2Change would combine health intelligence, social marketing and behavioural change support to unlock opportunities for health improvement.  It would aim to prevent or delay the onset of long-term conditions, improve quality of life, narrow inequalities in health, and reduce health and social care costs.

The Council’s proposal was to establish Help2Change as a new, separate legal entity that was non-profit distributing (i.e. as a company limited by guarantee subsidiary to ip&e Limited) to enable income generated to be reinvested to enable further prevention and fulfilment of health and wellbeing outcomes for Shropshire.

ip&e had indicated, in principle, a willingness to develop Help2Change and deliver prevention services on behalf of Shropshire Council and also to develop the commercial aspects of the services in order to generate income that could be reinvested into the delivery of health and wellbeing outcomes within Shropshire.

The Council now wished to engage with ip&e Limited, with a view to developing a method of delivering the integrated Help to Change services.

(a)  That agreement be given to the principle of establishing Help2Change as an integrated preventive health service, for consideration for transfer to an ip&e Limited owned company.

(b) That delegated authority be given to the Director of Public Health, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Health and the Leader of the Council, to develop and agree a business plan with ip&e that establishes Help2Change as a non-profit distributing subsidiary of ip&e Limited to enable income generated to be invested in further prevention and fulfilment of health and wellbeing outcomes for Shropshire.

(c) That subject to a final decision to agree the transfer by Cabinet, delegated authority be given to the Council Leader, Portfolio Holder and Director of Public Health to agree a commissioning Service contract that realised Shropshire Council’s ambition to commission an integrated provider of prevention services that also reflects the Council’s ambition to help people to live long, healthy and productive lives.