About Brent Health Matters

The goal of the Brent Health Matters Programme is to reduce health inequalities in Brent.

Inequality means that the resources required to create better health outcomes are not evenly distributed. Because of this the areas with poorer health outcomes or higher rates of long-term health conditions will have more focus than other parts of the borough.

It is only by working with the local people, groups and organisations around Brent and listening to what they have to say that we can improve the overall health of our borough.

Our shared programme engages with the community on a number of wide-ranging issues to reduce the health inequalities experienced in Brent.

In 2024 the work of the Brent Health Matters team will concentrate on the following priorities:

• Diabetes: We will work with GPs to identify patients with newly diagnosed diabetes, who have not been referred or accessed diabetes education sessions.
• Bowel cancer screening: we will raise awareness, focusing on deprived areas, Pakistani, Black African, Black other ethnicities, and people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) to improve the uptake of bowel cancer screening.
• Hypertension: we will (a) Identify undiagnosed people with hypertension in the community through community events in our most deprived areas; and (b) support 2,060 diagnosed hypertensive patients from a Black ethnic background, who have not had any blood pressure recorded in their GP notes in the last 12 months.
• Severe Mental Illness (SMI) physical health checks: we will follow-up with the 10 to 20 per cent of patients who haven't had a SMI physical health check in the last year and do home visits to understand barriers and complete the checks.

The long term impacts we want the programme to make are:

• Reduce variation in life expectancy and long-term health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, mental health, and cardiovascular disease).
• System-wide understanding of the cultural and local reasons why patients do not engage in NHS services, which will inform future planning.
• Actions delivered to address the wider determinants of health, from housing to employment and environment.

You can get involved in Brent Health Matters by becoming a Community Champion or joining us at our next Community Forum Meeting.

The Brent Health Matters Children and Young People’s Health Inequalities team was formed in 2024 to reduce health inequalities for babies, children and young people in Brent. This multi-disciplinary team addresses physical health and mental health and emotional wellbeing issues.

The team will focus on three key priority areas identified from reviewing local and national data related to the needs and key health inequalities for children and young people, alongside discussions with relevant partners, stakeholders and organisations working within Brent.

The key priorities identified were:

• Asthma: We will engage with the community through events and visiting settings and community spaces, to increase their understanding of asthma and the use of inhalers and spacers to manage it. We will also work with GPs to increase attendance at annual asthma reviews and 48-hour reviews following an A+E attendance.
• Immunisations: We will work with the Kilburn locality and the Somali community in Harlesden to increase awareness about the importance, risks and benefits of the MMR vaccination and increase uptake of MMR within these groups.
• Mental Health: We will conduct community engagement work and analyse data to understand CYP needs, service provision and identify gaps to inform future development in this area. We will also improve coordination, awareness and promotion of mental health services available for children and young people and their families.

Co-producing events in the community 

An event to progress the immunisations workstream took place in Wembley just before Christmas 2024.

At an event for the Somali Community, held at Chalkhill Community Centre, the team met Zaitun Said, 60, from Kilburn.

“I learned a lot from different organisations about how families can get help in Brent and the most important things to look after children’s health and development,” she said.

Improving the percentage of children in the community who have had their MMR vaccinations is a key aim of the new Brent Health Matters Children’s and Young People Team. It is important to engage with communities where the rate of immunisation could be better and to explain the virtues of ensuring children are vaccinated.

The visit also allowed the team to take the opportunity to help everyone in the community think about their health needs. As Zaitun explained, “I also had a blood pressure check, and it was up and down, so now I need to see my GP for a check-up.

“Today was a great opportunity to learn about health. More knowledge is more power. I am proud to be Somali, and I am happy that the council and NHS are thinking about our community.”

The event was co-produced with Willesden-based Somali organisation SAAFI and Zaitun heard about the event through a friend who had been notified by SAAFI.

Brent Health Matters has always been rooted in the partnership with the community and producing events with local organisations to ensure it reaches those most in need of support and information.

Brent Health Matters is working with neighbourhoods right across Brent. Our programme is focused around the five Brent Connects areas that cover the borough as follows:

Betania Tzegai is the Brent Health Matters Co-ordinator for Partnerships

Brent Health Matters is a programme jointly managed by Brent Council, local NHS services and the community.

Brent Council is responsible for the delivery of social care services, as well as other services that impact on health inequalities such as housing and neighbourhood services.

The Brent Integrated Care Partnership (Brent ICP) sits within the North West London Integrated Care System (NWL ICS) and works closely alongside a range of health partners to address health inequalities.

Find out about the Brent Health Matters partner organisations:

• Brent ICP
• North West London ICS
• Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
• Healthwatch Brent
• Kilburn PCN
• Harness North PCN & Harness South PCN
• West K&W PCN, North K&W PCN & South K&W PCN

Brent Health Matters Community Forums are local community meetings to raise awareness on health inequality problems affecting communities across Brent.

Forums help by connecting residents, community groups, the local council and health services together on certain issues which are disproportionately affecting some groups more than others.

Forums promote collaboration and networking between different groups on specific health issues to raise awareness, better understand local concerns and identify opportunities for local people and services to take action on.

Each Forum is based on a health issue or ‘theme’ that is disproportionately affecting the residents and communities across Brent.