New Live Well Service to Make Health and Wellbeing Support Easier to Access Across Reading and West Berkshire

Residents across Reading and West Berkshire will be able to access a wide range of health and wellbeing support through Live Well Reading and West Berkshire, a new integrated healthy lifestyle service launching today (1 Oct 2026).

Commissioned by Reading Borough Council and West Berkshire Council, and delivered by ICE Creates, the service brings together fully-funded support for stopping smoking, weight management, physical activity and wider wellbeing needs through a single, joined-up offer.

Live Well replaces a number of existing healthy lifestyle services which were previously delivered separately, giving residents a single point of access to a wide range of support. Each person using the service will have a dedicated wellbeing coach who will provide personalised support, removing the need to repeat their story to multiple services.

The service will be available to people aged 16 and over who live, work or study in Reading or West Berkshire, as well as those registered with a local GP.

From 1 October, residents will be able to access:

• Stop smoking and stop vaping support
• Adult weight management
• Physical activity programmes
• Emotional wellbeing support
• Health and wellbeing coaching
• Behaviour change and healthy lifestyle support.

Within the first six months of opening, the Live Well service will also introduce:

• Accessible weight management support for people with learning disabilities
• A strength and balance programme for adults aged over 60
• Stop Vaping support for children and young people

Support will be available in the community in-person, via phone, video, text and app services.

The new approach supports both councils’ commitment to improving health outcomes and preventing ill health across local communities. It is also in line with aims to tackle the unfair, avoidable differences in people’s health and life expectancy across different groups and communities.

Councillor Rachel Eden, Lead Councillor for Education and Public Health at Reading Borough Council, said:

“Good health support should start with the person, not the service. Live Well will bring services together to support individual residents, with one clear route to personalised help and a dedicated wellbeing coach who will listen, understand what matters to them and support them to make changes that work in their own lives. By making support easier to access in our community, by phone or online, we can help people earlier, give them more choice and control, and reduce unfair differences in health experienced in Reading.”

Dr Matthew Pearce, Director of Public Health for Reading and West Berkshire, said:

“By preventing ill-health, particularly for those most at risk, we can improve people’s lives and help address unfair differences in health. The creation of Live Well will make it easier for community organisations and clinicians to refer local people to the right support services at the right time, as well as enabling them to self-refer. People will be better able to access behaviour change support, so they can take action earlier, improve their health and wellbeing, and prevent any needs from escalating.”

The service will work closely with health, community and voluntary sector partners to help residents access the right support at the right time and stay connected with services and activities in their local communities.

More information about Live Well Reading and West Berkshire, including how residents can access support, can be found here: livewellrwb.org

For more information and to request an interview please contact alenka@bluelozenge.co.uk