UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services are marking Health Information Week 2022 by hosting an event about the activities and plans of the health equity team, describing how UKHSA plans to meet its health equity ambitions.
Online events
Health equity at UKHSA
Wednesday 6 July, 12:30-13:15
Click here to book on EventBrite
Speakers: Adam Briggs & Catherine Falconer
Health equity is the absence of unfair and avoidable differences in health among populations and communities. Supporting everyone to live healthier lives, with more equal outcomes is a key strategic objective of the UKHSA. This means supporting populations, communities and individuals based on their needs rather than delivering a one-size-fits-all approach. To do this will require focusing on populations at the greatest risk from external health threats, and people who suffer the greatest harms.
This session will describe the UKHSA’s activities and plans for meeting its health equity ambitions. We will discuss what the central UKHSA health equity team is aiming to do this year as well as our initial plans for the organisation’s three-year health equity strategy. The UKHSA is still very young and there remains some uncertainty in how different parts of the organisation will work with one another and with other government departments. But there is an important and exciting opportunity to embed health equity across groups and directorates, and for the UKHSA to make a difference for the country’s most vulnerable and deprived populations and communities.
This webinar is open to staff working at UKHSA, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, NHSE/I Public Health, and Local Authority Public Health Teams.
Speakers
Adam Briggs is Interim Deputy Director for Health Equity, Strategy and Partnerships, sharing the role with Catherine Falconer. He does this for half his week with the other half as Deputy Director of Public Health at Oxfordshire County Council. He is a medical doctor by background and has previously worked for The Health Foundation and as an academic. Through the pandemic he worked for half his week in local government with the other half based with PHE and NHS Test and Trace supporting on COVID public health strategy.
Catherine Falconer is Deputy Director for Children and Young People in the COVID-19 response and shares the Interim Deputy Director for Health Equity, Strategy and Partnerships role with Adam Briggs. Catherine has a background in academic public health and previously worked as the Consultant lead for children and young people in a Local Authority in the South West.
Using public health approaches in Yorkshire and the Humber to build financial resilience in communities
Thursday 7 July, 12:00-12:45
Click here to book on EventBrite
Speakers: Toni Williams & Kristin Bash
There is a strong relationship between money and resources and health outcomes. Financial wellbeing is a determinant of health. Financial wellbeing is good for people, for communities and the economy. Financial inclusion and financial wellbeing should be considered as mechanisms for protecting health and wellbeing.
As the cost of living rises, many people in the country will experience less money in their pockets. Recently published evidence shows that cost of living challenges are already affecting people’s health and wellbeing. In a survey commissioned by the Royal College of Physicians one in two people surveyed said that their health had been negatively affected by the rising cost of living. In this session we will explore how the public health system in Yorkshire and Humber is taking a public health approach to building financial resilience in communities, working with local places to take action.
Speakers
Toni Williams is a Consultant in Public Health working for the Office of Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) in Yorkshire and the Humber (previously Public Health England). Toni has been working in this regional role across the breadth of health and wellbeing since November 2019. Originally trained in microbiology, Toni worked for Health Protection Scotland focusing on the epidemiology of blood borne viruses before moving to London to take on a public health role in Westminster. In 2010 Toni moved to Yorkshire to undertake her training in public health, working with Bradford and Airedale Primary Care Trust, Wakefield Council, West Yorkshire Police and the University of Sheffield. Toni moved to Bradford Council in 2014, taking up her first consultant post, where she worked for five years, leading on the core offer to CCGs and the healthy places agenda. In Toni’s role at OHID, she works with partners across local government, academia and the NHS, providing leadership and supporting action to reduce inequalities. Toni is also the regional CPD advisor for the Faculty of Public Health.
Kristin Bash is a public health consultant with the Office of Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) in Yorkshire and the Humber, who has a particular expertise in the overlap of public health, food systems, health inequalities, and the environment. Kristin is also Chair of the Food Special Interest Group for the Faculty of Public Health (FPH), and an Honorary Lecturer and PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield’s School of Health and Related Research.
Useful resources
Resources produced by UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services relating to health inequalities:
Finding the Evidence: Health inequalities, equality and diversity
Health inequalities are systematic and avoidable differences in health and wellbeing
between groups of people or communities. This resource has been prepared by KLS to help people working in public health identify the best evidence for making decisions around health inequalities.
Practice Examples – Health inequalities: place-based approaches to reduce inequalities
The place-based approaches for reducing health inequalities 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
For more information, please visit: guidelines to support local action on health inequalities.
Practice Examples – Health inequalities for older populations in rural and coastal areas
To inform strategic planning, service design and commissioning, as well as the development of local community infrastructure, in August 2019 Public Health England produced a review of Health Inequalities for Older Populations in Rural and Coastal Areas. The publication provides evidence on the health inequalities experienced by older populations in coastal and rural areas, together with a summary of key considerations to reduce inequalities and promote healthy ageing in these areas. It comprises a literature review supplemented with case studies, and brings together a range of information in one place with links to published research to:
- build knowledge and an evidence base within the health and care system, including local authorities and other organisations, of the key health inequality issues for older populations in rural and coastal areas
- support and promote the implementation of considerations to address health inequalities experienced by older people in rural and coastal areas.
Further resources from other organisations:
The King’s Fund – What are health inequalities?
This explainer provides an overview of how health inequalities are experienced in England’s population. Updated 17 June 2022.
Local Government Association – Financial hardship and economic vulnerability in England
This report provides an overview of financial hardship and economic vulnerability in areas across England as a result of Covid-19. It is intended that this insight can be used to help: inform the design of support services; encourage greater partnership working; help make the case for resources and funding as well as aid the development of effective recovery approaches. It has been designed for viewing at local authority geographies.
Return to Health Information Week 2022 homepage.
