Public Health England has released new guidance outlining how residents, charities and local authorities can approach place-based working as a means to address health inequalities.
It recognises “that there is a wealth of knowledge about health inequalities within the voluntary and community sector”, that “local areas have a critical role to play in reducing health inequalities” and reiterates that health inequalities are a matter of social injustice that is unfair and avoidable. The guidance aims to support further co-ordinated action between local government, the NHS and the voluntary and community sector.
It has been put together jointly by Public Health England, the Association of Directors of Public Health and the Local Government Association.
The approach aims to
- reinforce a common understanding of the complex causes and costs of health inequalities
- provide a practical framework and tools for places to reduce health inequalities
The ‘Population Intervention Triangle’ model brings together seven components of place-based working and acts as a practical framework for acting on health inequalities, organising actions around key assets by place. The components are split into three groups of interventions: civic-level, community-centred and service-based interventions.
The model can be used at a variety of levels including by the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector as a framework to see how their contributions fit on a place basis.
The guidance consists of a summary, full report, guidance document on using data on health inequalities, and documents on each of the tools to support local areas to apply the principles of the Triangle model. There is a lot of detail, but the idea is that readers can pick and choose the parts most helpful to them at different points of time, and they recommend groups start with Tool A.
The tools have been developed to use either as a self-guided process, a peer support process or through facilitated workshops.
Read the guidance here.
See the accompanying slides here.
Find out more about health inequalities.
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