Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how health and wellbeing boards monitor levels of diabetes awareness.

Health and Wellbeing Boards are responsible for the development of Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNA) to identify the current and future health and wellbeing needs of the local population. This may include an analysis of the prevalence, impact and levels of awareness of diabetes among the local population.

Boards also have a duty to engage the public in their work, and an important role to involve local communities in decision making. Boards therefore have considerable flexibility to work with local community and voluntary groups, and with the public directly to gather views and assess awareness around specific issues such as diabetes.

However, the Department has not highlighted any particular issue over another for attention by Boards in their JSNA or wider engagement work, as this would risk undermining the importance of Boards being locally-owned and responding to the needs of their local populations.