Agenda item

Report of Richard Stanton, West Midlands Fire Service and Co-Chair of the Marmot Steering Group

The Board considered a report of Richard Stanton, West Midlands Fire Service and Co-Chair of the of the Marmot Steering Group which provided an update on progress against one of the  priorities of the Coventry Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2016-2019 ‘Working together as a Marmot City to reduce health and wellbeing inequalities’ and set out how the Marmot Steering Group would lead and co-ordinate work to deliver the ‘Wider Determinants’ element of the population health model contained within the new Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2019-23. Ryan Forrester, West Midlands Fire Service presented the report in the absence of Richard Stanton.

The report referred to the Poverty Summit held in November 2018 which looked at how Coventry could tackle the impact of poverty and the Marmot Steering Group committed to taking forward the priorities from the Summit. In October 2019 a broad range of partners attended a ‘Now What’ workshop with Professor Sir Michael Marmot to review future priorities. The new priorities had now been themed and further prioritised by the Steering Group. In addition to the new priorities the workshop agreed to continue to focus on the existing two key priorities:

i) Tackling inequalities disproportionately affecting young people

ii) Ensuring that all Coventry people, including vulnerable residents, could benefit from ‘good growth’ which would bring jobs, housing and other benefits to the city.

Examples of new and existing work under these priorities included:

·  Business Rate Reduction Scheme which aimed to give 20 small businesses access to a grant of £2,500 each if they took on a long-term unemployed person

·  Family Health and Lifestyles’ service development plans to drive the provision of increasing support to families across the social gradient (proportionate universalism).

·  The Raising Aspirations Programme (Positive Youth Foundation) providing support for young people either excluded or on the verge of exclusion from education settings

·  Partnership work was on-going with the Chamber of Commerce to support employers to provide and promote good quality jobs in Coventry.

·  The Poverty Summit held in November 2018 which led to the development of new sub groups.

Further information was provided on the outcomes relating to the monitoring of the two priorities.

The report referred to the refresh of the Marmot Action Plan which would take place to reflect the revised Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the findings of the Marmot Evaluation, the new priorities identified in the ‘Now What?’ workshop and the recommendations of the Director of Public Health’s Annual Public Health Report on Health Inequalities, Bridging the Health Gap. This revised Strategy took a population health approach which allowed for a holistic view of everything that impacted on people’s health and wellbeing across the whole population, with an emphasis on reducing inequalities in health as well as improving health overall.

A key element of the population health model was ‘Wider Determinants’, and a key role for the Marmot Steering Group was to embed the Marmot City approach through working in partnership, with the aim of reducing health inequalities by addressing the social determinants of health.  Public Health had been working with the UCL Institute of Health Equity and Public Health England to evaluate the Marmot work and consider the next steps for Coventry and the implications for other organisations seeking to work within the Marmot framework. The report detailed the interim key findings of the evaluation.

Following the Marmot ‘Now What?’ workshop, the key priorities identified for the next three years (1920 -1922) would be:

·  Tackling inequalities disproportionately affecting young people

·  Ensuring that all Coventry people, including vulnerable residents, could benefit from ‘good growth’ which would bring jobs, housing and other benefits to the city

·  0-5 years olds (focus area to be determined)

·  Income inequality

The relevant broader recommendations from the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report on Health Inequalities and the Marmot Evaluation would be incorporated through discussion at the next Steering Group meeting.

The Board acknowledged the significant achievement which had resulted in between 2015 and 2019, Coventry seeing a reduction in the number of neighbourhoods among the 10% most deprived in England from 18.8% to 14.4%.  The Board were informed that this improvement was unique amongst cities in the West Midlands.

Members discussed why Coventry was the only City which continued to commit to being a Marmot City in England and adopting the Marmot principles to tackling health inequalities. Reference was also made to the ongoing discussions about the anchor institutions in the city.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The progress made against the Marmot Action Plan 2016-2019 be endorsed.

(2) The proposed future priorities and approach of the Marmot Steering Group in the development of a new three-year action plan be approved.