Reducing health inequalities

1

Informing the Mayors Health Inequalities Strategy

• Reducing health inequalities
• issues for London and priorities for action

2
The Mayors new health powers

• The GLA Bill currently before parliament includes
  proposed new duties for the Mayor to
• promote a reduction in health inequalities, in
  addition to maintaining the Mayors current
  responsibility to promote improvements in the
  health of Londoners
• develop and lead a statutory pan-London health
  inequalities strategy, working with the DH Health
  Adviser, London SHA and other partners

3
The Mayors headline commitments in relation to
health inequalities

• Improving the well-being of all Londoners as well
  as narrowing the health gap
• Focusing on the social model and upstream
  determinants
• Visibly and assertively influencing others
• Reducing future health inequalities through
  long-term strategic action and addressing the
  needs of those currently experiencing health
  disadvantage
• Address inequalities between different areas of
  London and those that appear between different
  groups and communities.

4
Health Inequalities Strategy preparatory work

• Collation of published evidence
• Call- for- evidence
• Outreach initiative
• Policy mapping
• leading to the report Reducing health
  inequalities issues for London and priorities
  for action

5
Priority areas for HIS

• Life chances for Health
• Healthy Places
• Responding to Existing Health Inequalities
• Individual and Community Participation for Health
• Learning for Health

6
Life chances for health the Mayors vision

• All Londoners should be able to reach their full
  potential. Income inequalities must be tackled
  by increasing skill levels and reducing
  worklessness among deprived groups. This must be
  coupled with improvements in the quality and
  sustainability of work and placing increased
  value on volunteering, caring and other forms of
  unpaid work.

7
Life chances for health Examples of options for
future action

• Developing specific interventions to positively
  affect current and future health at points of
  individual transition
• Supporting new migrants to London through the
  development of a London Induction toolkit
• Promoting the further development and
  implementation of initiatives to reduce income
  inequalities including the London Living Wage
• Promoting work-place health and well-being
• Promoting volunteering, building on Olympic
  volunteering programmes

8
Healthy places the Mayors vision

• All Londoners should be able to benefit from
  physical environments that are conducive to good
  health. This includes good housing, safe
  neighbourhoods, high quality public places,
  accessible transport and services, clean air and
  green space. In addition, Londoners should feel
  an increased sense of involvement and investment
  London as their place from local to the city
  as a whole.

9
Healthy places Examples of options for future
action

• Supporting local action to engage communities in
  the design, use and management of neighbourhoods
• Designating safe play zones
• Reward provision of affordable healthy food
  options
• Emphasising health benefits of initiatives to
  mitigate future climate change
• Working with the voluntary sector, boroughs and
  NHS partners to capture learning from initiatives
  to promote physical activity and access to green
  space (i.e. green gyms) and develop future
  programmes based on that learning

10
Responding to existing health inequalities the
Mayors vision

• Londoners who are ill or at high risk of becoming
  ill must have access to the information, advice
  and care that they need. Those working to
  provide services must be supported to improve
  access for Londons most vulnerable and
  disadvantaged communities. Future work must also
  focus on reducing disadvantage and exclusion
  related to illness and impairment.

11
Responding to Existing Health Inequalities
Examples of options for future action

• Promoting a London-level health care registration
  scheme
• Increasing access to advice on welfare and debt
  issues eg new NHS Polyclinics providing free
  advice on financial issues
• Promoting provision of early interventions for
  mental health in collaboration with community and
  voluntary sector
• Supporting the LHCs work to increase investment
  in community-led language support, and developing
  innovative sustainable funding models
• Influencing decisions about national funding to
  enable boroughs and NHS to provide services for
  all London communities

12
Individual and Community Participation for Health
the Mayors vision

• Londoners should be able to participate in the
  decision-making that affects their mental and
  physical well-being. Communities and the public
  sector must work together to achieve better
  engagement of groups that are currently excluded
  from decision-making processes and to ensure that
  community groups deliver the public services that
  they are best placed to provide.

13
Individual and community participation Examples
of options for future action

• Supporting communities engagement in local and
  regional structures for public and patient
  involvement
• Increasing community involvement in preparing for
  the Olympic and Paralympic Games and inspiring
  new thinking about sport and physical activity
• Developing and encouraging use of exemplar models
  of commissioning that address issues of power and
  risk sharing
• Developing high-profile health campaigns with
  communities involved in design and dissemination
• Encouraging the development of Time Banks and
  Local Exchange Trading Systems, drawing in
  excluded and isolated groups and promoting more
  cohesive communities

14
Learning for Health the Mayors vision

• London should become a world leader in research
  into and development of effective approaches to
  address health inequalities. By setting up
  innovative mechanisms for knowledge creation and
  sharing we will ensure that organisations can
  continually learn and increase their capacity to
  achieve results.

15
Learning for Health Examples of options for
future action

• Promoting greater consideration of equalities
  issues in data capture
• Identifying and showcasing examples of effective
  approaches to a range of health inequalities
  issues
• Engaging people at risk of health inequalities to
  provide training to public sector staff
• Establishing an Information Bank on effective
  interventions to tackle health inequalities

16
Process and timetable

• August 07 Launch of Reducing
  health inequalities issues for London and
  priorities for action
• August - October 07 Stakeholder engagement
  events
• November 07 Assembly draft published
• Spring 07 Draft strategy published
• May 08 Public consultation
• Autumn 08 Final strategy published

17
Questions

• We would like you to look at the priorities and
  options for future action and consider
• Do they broadly reflect your concerns and
  priorities?
• Who is best placed to lead or contribute to
  actions identified?
• What needs to take place to make these happen?
• How feasible are these actions?

18
The Determinants of Health