Our plans to make health everyone's business

This year marks 5 years since the Health Foundation first dipped its toe into the wider determinants of health with the launch of our infographics series – What makes us healthy? Having spent the previous decade focusing on improving health and care, the series was a deliberate step to frame health as an asset both for the individual and wider society. One that needs conscious policy action to protect and improve.

Roll forward and this narrative permeates not just the work of the Foundation as set out in our new strategy but, increasingly, the wider conversation. Whether through the commitment of the Confederation of British Industry to play a part in reducing health inequalities in its Seize the moment strategy, or the recent concerns voiced by the Chancellor, among others, regarding the impact that poor health is having on economic activity. And the pandemic has clearly woken people up to the fact that without health there is no wealth.

There couldn’t be a more important time to be leading this agenda. The continual improvements in health we had started to take for granted are beginning to slow, yet despite this the long-awaited health disparities white paper now seems to have been permanently shelved. Worse still, our recent review of health inequalities in Scotland showed that, against a range of measures, the outcomes for people in the most deprived 20% of areas are going backwards. Infant mortality rates; child obesity, avoidable mortality among women and drug related deaths are all increasing in these areas. Similar challenges are explored in our recent podcast exploring health trends in the North East of England..

Creating a nation that values and protects people’s health, enabling longer healthier lives, will not come about through any single policy (as explored in our recent prevention webinar). It needs a radical shift in focus, effort and accountability across all parts of society. And we can feel confident that such a shift is possible. We have witnessed a similar shift over the past two decades in attitudes and approaches to the climate agenda. As we outlined in our long read in January there are both lessons to learn from the climate movement and co-benefits by aligning goals.

A first step on this journey is building wider public support. Those in the health sector are well versed on the evidence about health inequalities and the wider determinants of health. But our public polling and engagement consistently shows that this is not the case outside the expert community. Which is why we have launched Health Equals – a campaigning initiative aimed at engaging the public in the wider issues that shape our health. Although its members and their primary interests are diverse – including Crisis, the TUC, the Wildlife Trust and Legal & General – Health Equals will provide a collective voice to advocate for policies that can provide everyone with the opportunities needed to be healthy. The first public facing campaign will launch next month aimed at raising public awareness of the difference that where you live can make to how long you live.

Next month will also see the launch of the next phase of our work with Combined Authorities. Building on our Cities Health Inequalities project, this 3 year initiative will support metro mayors to consider how they can put health at the heart of their decisions on employment, transport, housing and other infrastructure. Connecting people to good jobs, investing in their skills and attracting inward investment are all critical building blocks for good health.

For those with any doubts, the urgency with which all sectors need to act will become apparent with the publication this spring of the next Insight report from the Health Foundation’s REAL Centre. The report uses innovative modelling techniques to project trends in ill health over the next two decades. Forecasting financial trends is commonplace but forecasting health – not so much. Yet given what future health trends mean for service demand, public spending and economic participation, these findings will build momentum to the debate on how we create the conditions for people to stay healthier, for longer.

One thing we can be sure of is that leaders at place level will need to seize all the opportunities they have to create healthier environments. Our Evidence Hub will be launching new analysis on the extent to which our surroundings are good for our health, including analysis of measures of density of fast food outlets and inequalities in access to green space. Building on our analysis of past policies in these areas, we will also be examining the powers that councils have to curb the proliferation of unhealthy environments and create a framework for action.

In July, we are pleased to be returning to the LGA annual conference. And this year we will be contributing to a panel session exploring whether the mismatch between levels of need and actual funding levels hinders action to tackle place-based inequality. It will showcase a second phase of work by the Institute for Fiscal Studies analysing funding flows from central to local government.

This year is the first of our new 3 year strategy and there are many more ideas at planning stage: work with the Runnymede Trust to understand the experience of migrants in accessing services and care; designing a new programme to embed policy posts in organisations working on the determinants of health; and a new inquiry into issues surrounding work, health and economic participation. We will also start to share insights from some of our current work: our council led Economies for Healthy Lives and Shaping Places for Healthy Lives programmes; as well as the progress of the Long term investors in people’s health programme that is using investor action to influence business.

This is just a flavour of some of the activity we have planned at the Foundation this year to promote healthy lives and to ensure that improving health is everyone’s business. Looking back at where we started, the breadth of our partners on this journey and reach into new audiences is striking. We have always known that health is everyone’s business but finally it looks like this is becoming a reality.

Jo Bibby (@JoBibbyTHF) is Director of Health at the Health Foundation.

This content originally featured in our email newsletter, which explores perspectives and expert opinion on a different health or health care topic each month.