Agenda item

Chris Thomas and Anna Round from the Institute of Public Policy Research will be in attendance to provide an overview of their publication “Levelling up Health for Prosperity”.

Chris Thomas from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) provided the panel with an overview of their publication Levelling-up health for Prosperity and made the following points:

·         The IPPR were an independent registered charity and Britain’s leading progressive think tank.

·         Generally the research wanted to explore how health played a role in economics.

·         The IPPR were interested in three area of government commitment: Levelling-up and desire to distribute resources evenly; Health Improvement and the desire to increase life expectancy by five years by 2035 and build back better in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic.

·         Broadly speaking the UK had life expectancy that was comparable with other high-income nations.

·         However, this masked severe inequalities within the UK with the North East performing worst from all English regions in terms of under 75 mortality rate per 100,000 (394.74).

·         There was intersect between mortality rates and people classed as obese. It was also found that regions with higher mortality rates were more exposed to factors that negatively affected health including lower rates of income and employment.

·         People with long-term conditions were less likely to be in work in the North of England, for example the percentage of people of working age with a health condition lasting more than 12 months was 44% compared to 52% in London.

·         There was also associations between mortality and productivity at the Local Authority level.

·         If health inequalities were closed it was estimated that gain to Gross Value Added (GVA) of approximately £20 billion.

·         The research found there were several important recommendations that central government could employ including using a composite measure of prosperity rather than GDP.

·         There was also a need to make any new measures action driven as well as increasing weighting for deprivation in the NHS funding formula from 10 to 15%.

·         Coupled with the above, there should be a need for community health building as well as the restoration of the public health grant.

·         There were also recommendations for local government from the research including creating healthier spaces through planning and regeneration initiatives.

·         There was heavy reliance on the creation of strong and effective relationships rather than rules to help improve health at the local level.

·         Where possible work should be carried out with employers to encourage them to break down barriers to work for people with long term conditions.

·         Ultimately, local leaders did not need to wait for national government to make health a core component of decision making.

The Chair queried what the determinant of low mortality rates were and was clarified that while life expectancy had risen health life expectancy had not increased at the same rate. Ultimately, by simply building health related services this led to increased inequalities. Instead, structures that seemed to work better were those where formal structures helped to coordinate services, and where services went beyond health services. An example of the Improving cancer journey pilot in Glasgow. Under that scheme those individuals with a cancer diagnosis were provided with a named advocate that helped coordinate available services. This service was available within the community rather than centralized medial services. The main themes that could be taken from that pilot were that taking a holistic view of the needs of someone with long term health issues was crucial with services being placed in the community.

There was also evidence to suggest that this approach may also be beneficial in reducing stigma that is felt by those with certain illnesses, such as lung cancer.

A Member sought clarity on the financial aspects of the research, notably the productivity gap. It was clarified that in 2017 a Northern Sciences Alliance report found there was a productivity gap, due to health inequalities, between the North of England and the rest of the UK which nationally was worth approximately £13 billion. This gap had since risen to just over £20 billion, however this did not cover the full health inequalities cost.

The Chair sought views on improving services such as well-man clinics into the community to try and encourage more people into and improve access to health care. It was clarified that such initiatives showed a great deal of promise and should be considered going forward.

AGREED: That the information presented be noted.