Dear Colleagues
Attached below info and press release from the English Department of Health today to accompany publication of the new Health and Neighbourhood Renewal Guidance.
The guidance can be accessed on line at
http://www.doh.gov.uk/healthinequalities/ccsrsummaryreport.htm
Best wishes
David McDaid
LSE Health and Social Care
Info on guidance
"Health and Neighbourhood Renewal: Guidance from the Department of Health was published on 31st October 2002. This resource is an update of New Deal for Communities: Guidance from the Department of Health published in October 2002 and has been prepared by the Department of Health with the support of the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit.
The National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal identified tackling poor health as a priority area for action in narrowing the gap between deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of the country. This guide is an important contribution supporting and encouraging this by providing an introduction to heath issues for all partnerships and individuals working in neighbourhood renewal and wider regeneration programmes."
Press release: reference 2002/0448 also at
http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/intpress.nsf/page/2002-0448?OpenDocument
Thursday 31st October
Building Healthy Cities - What works in regeneration
The Department of Health and the Government's Neighbourhood Renewal Unit took a bold step forward today in their campaign to tackle poor health and inequalities in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
In a keynote speech at the Urban Summit in Birmingham, Public Health Minister Hazel Blears set out the Government's vision for empowering local communities to tackle the widening inequalities in health found in neighbourhoods all over the country.
Ms Blears launched the Government's new Health and Neighbourhood Renewal Guidance, saying, "For me, it is completely unacceptable that your chance for a long, healthy life in modern Britain is still linked to where you live, what job you do and how much your parents earned. Men from my home city of Salford have a life expectancy on average 7 years shorter than those from Westminster where I go to work. Narrowing the health gap is an awesome challenge - problems are deeply entrenched, and have been decades in the making - we have made a positive start but we won't be able to change it over night."
The document is a practical guide for people who are working to tackle poor health, but are not health specialists. The guidance:
· Draws out the connections between health and the wider factors influencing health, such as housing, transport and employment;
· Provides a step-by-step practical guide to help any local neighbourhood renewal or regeneration partnership to address health issues as part of their planning process;
· Maps the organisations responsible for providing and managing a range of health services, and includes a jargon buster for people whose area of expertise is not health; and
· Provides an easy to understand guide to health initiatives to promote healthier schools and workplaces.
Hazel Blears said:
"This document sets out how local partners and government can work together, building on the progress already made to accomplish shared goals on health and neighbourhood renewal. The secret to success is communities, front-line workers in the NHS, local government and public services working together in partnership to deliver better health and stronger services for those who need them most."
Barbara Roche, Minister for Neighbourhood Renewal and Social Exclusion, added: "From helping people stop smoking to tackling teenage pregnancy, this guide is designed to help practitioners draw on 'what works' to improve the health of people living in deprived neighbourhoods. It's part of the Government's wider strategy to reverse the spiral of decline in these areas, also tackling housing and education and cutting crime and worklessness to end "postcode poverty". This guidance will help us all achieve our ambitious goals for better health wherever you live."
The two-day Urban Summit, hosted by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, has brought over 1,600 delegates together to share their ambitions for towns and cities, and to discuss their vision for urban living as a positive, prosperous experience for all.
Notes to Editors
1. Health inequalities were identified as a key priority for the Government in 1997 with the commissioning of Sir Donald Acheson's Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health.
2. The Inquiry highlighted the cross-cutting nature of the health inequalities problem - with inequalities caused by a range of factors including lifestyle, poor services, low incomes and wider socio-economic / environmental factors.
3. Acheson underlined the importance of all of Government and its services in tackling health inequalities - rather than just the NHS and the Department of Health.
4. The Government responded with clear policy commitments to tackle inequalities in the Saving Lives White Paper and the NHS Plan, followed up with a national health inequalities PSA target for reducing infant mortality and increasing life expectancy in deprived areas and for disadvantaged groups by 2010. Government completed a cross- cutting review of health inequalities as part of Spending Review 2002 - its cross-government strategy will be published shortly.
5. The Cities for Health session of the Urban Summit powerfully illustrates how health inequalities are core issue for urban areas. It fully supports the analysis and strategy set out in the Government's National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (2001), which set out the Government's 10-20 year approach to tackling neighbourhood deprivation.
6. The new Health and Regeneration Guidance is the second edition of a handbook for local delivery agencies involved in neighbourhood renewal and tackling health inequalities. It is a reference tool to enable those working at the frontline to achieve the maximum health improvement through regeneration programmes. It has been jointly produced by the Department of Health and the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, and can be found at:
www.doh.gov.uk/healthinequalities
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