Over the last 50 years, there have been impressive social economic and health improvements in this country. People from every class and region are healthier and living longer than ever before. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to share the benefits of these improvements. It is essential that everyone is empowered and encouraged to do so.
Health inequalities are unacceptable. They start early in life and persist not only into old age but subsequent generations. Tackling health inequalities is a top priority for this Government, and it is focused on narrowing the health gap between disadvantaged groups, communities and the rest of the country, and on improving health overall.
Concerted action to reduce the health gap permeates our programmes within the Department of Health and is supported across Government. The Secretary of State for health has announced a new comprehensive strategy for reducing health inequalities, confirmed in the Our NHS Our future: NHS next stage review - interim report. The new strategy will challenge the NHS, as a key player, to live up to its founding and enduring values of universality and fairness addressing unjustified gaps in health status, fair access to NHS services for all and good outcomes for all.
A new programme in thirty areas of the country will support the health service and local public sector organisations to work together to reduce inequalities by tackling local challenges.
Fair Society, Healthy Lives - the report of the Marmot review - was published on 11 February. It was described as a “landmark report” by Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Health at the Marmot Review conference. The review stressed that tackling health inequalities was a matter of social justice, with real economic benefits and savings. It required action on the social gradient of health – not just on the health of the most disadvantaged – across the social determinants of health.
Health Inequalities - Progress and Next Steps outlines the Government’s approach to hit the 2010 Health Inequalities PSA targets, assessing what has and hasn’t worked, and setting the direction of travel beyond 2010.
Published: 7 May 2009
This report reviews developments in health inequalities over the last 10 years across government - from the publication of the Acheson report on health inequalities in November 1998 to the announcement of the post-2010 strategic review of health inequalities in November 2008. It covers developments across government on the wider social determinants of health, and the role of the NHS. It provides an assessment of developments against the Acheson report, reviews a range of key data sets covering social, economic, health and environmental indicators, and considers lessons learned and challenges for the future.
This Command Paper sets out the Government's response to the conclusions and recommendations of the House of Commons Select Committee report on health inequalities which was published on 15 March 2009. The Government welcomes the Committee's support and commendation for taking specific action to tackle health inequalities, and for its support for the national health inequalities target
This document provides an update on progress to meet the health inequalities national target to reduce the gap as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy, by 10% by 2010. It includes an assessment of whether the 70 spearhead area local authorities, which map to 62 PCTs, are on track to meet the life expectancy target.
Developed by the Department of Health and the Association of Public Health Observatories to help local health services in Spearhead areas improve life expectancy and meet the PSA target to narrow the gaps in life expectancy and infant mortality.
A conference on Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equality through Action on the Social Determinants of Health 6-7 November, 2008
