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An exciting opportunity to nationally showcase your work on tackling health inequalities

Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) is working with The Health Foundation and NHS England and NHS Improvement to produce a national best practice guide for tackling health inequalities. The guide will capture learning from high impact actions, build the evidence and provide high quality practical guidance for health and care systems and partners developing their own actions on tackling health inequalities

In producing the guide, we are seeking examples from across England, giving you the opportunity to showcase your work nationally on tackling health inequalities and influence how health and care systems and organisations approach this important priority across the country.

Building on the learning from the pandemic, we know there are many examples of fresh approaches to tackling health inequalities that are having significant impact. We are looking for examples of work in the most deprived communities and working with targeted population groups with a focus on work in five key clinical areas of health inequalities:

• Cancer i.e. Early Cancer diagnosis (screening and early referral)
• Cardiovascular disease i.e. Hypertension or Cholesterol case finding
• Respiratory i.e. Chronic Respiratory disease (driving Covid and Flu vaccination uptake)
• Mental Health i.e. Annual health checks for people with serious mental illness
• Maternity i.e. continuity of maternity carer plans.

The focus will be on aspects of service management, design and delivery that enable equitable access, better experience, and outcomes in particular in deprived areas and target population groups rather than clinical interventions.

Context

The role of people and communities in creating health and wellbeing has increasingly been the dominant rhetoric in health and care. Yet, never has this been realised more profoundly than during the COVID19 pandemic. The pandemic has truly demonstrated the power and strengths of people, communities, and voluntary and community sector services. We must never forget or lose this.

From neighbours looking after each other to the incredible efforts of charities, community and faith organisations, communities have demonstrated true resilience. Communities have rallied behind their health and care services in support, solidarity, and sense of ‘in it together’. This solidarity was felt across health and care services. It has accelerated a new relationship that was harnessed and further demonstrated through the Covid vaccination programme.

Community influencers and connectors engaged as equal partners on a common concern and drove fresh conversations and actions based on lived experience and real-life cultural insights. From vaccination clinics in mosques and other faith settings to pop-up clinics and Covid outreach buses, there are many examples of how things can be done differently and better.

Just as the pandemic shone a light on the stark health inequalities, it demonstrated what can be achieved by working in partnership ‘with’ communities rather than ‘doing to’ and focusing on community strengths and assets. This is essential for tackling health inequalities and we must continue to capitalise on this approach.

How to get involved

If you have suitable case studies/examples, contacts to share, or would like further detail, please contact Ash Alom, programme lead for population health on ash.alom@yhahsn.com

We are also assembling a group of experts nationally. Please get in touch with Ash Alom if you would like to be involved in this.