Health and wellbeing

Does it work?

Measuring impact for community wealth building

This blog originally appeared on the MJ.

Does it work? As the UK’s lead organisation for community wealth building, that’s the question we’re asked most frequently as the approach continues its advance into the mainstream of economic development.

Determining the effectiveness of real-world interventions like community wealth building is notoriously hard. Unlike testing new drugs, where randomised control trials can be used to attribute cause and effect, determining the impact of community wealth building on a local population has to be attempted in the context of the world around us – with all the messiness that entails.
“a positive impact on [the] health and wellbeing”
But, while this is challenging, it’s not impossible. A new paper published in the Lancet Public Health last week by the University of Liverpool, University of Central Lancashire, Lancaster University and us here at CLES, shows that community wealth building in the city of Preston is having a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of its residents.
“3% decline in antidepressant prescribing”
Our research found that during the period in which Preston’s community wealth building programme was introduced, there were fewer mental health problems than would have been expected compared to other similar areas, as life satisfaction and economic measures improved. The introduction of the programme was associated with a 3% decline in antidepressant prescribing, and a 2% decline in the prevalence of depression, along with a 9% improvement in life satisfaction, and an 11% increase in wages, compared to expected trends.

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Health institutions as “anchors”: unlocking the potential within the NHS

This article originally appeared in the Health Service Journal.

The NHS is not just a service that provides healthcare free at the point of need. It is a social contract with the British people to deliver well-being.

Across its wide range of services, the NHS’s mission extends beyond making us better when we are ill, it is also about making sure we do not fall ill in the first place – playing a key part in addressing the wider social, economic and environmental determinants of health.

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The Rich List reveals that we need wealth for all

The spectacle of this year’s Sunday Times Rich List has revealed, yet again, that Britain’s richest are getting richer still. Published yesterday, the list shows that Britain’s 1,000 richest individuals and families are sitting on record wealth of £771.3bn, up £47.8bn in a year. The UK’s billionaire count has climbed to 151, up six on last year. The threshold at which the super-rich make the list has risen £5m to £120m.[1]

In other news (from the same paper on the same day) we learn that an emergency food bank has been set up in the Whitehall offices of a government department, after cleaners and other support staff became the victims of a payroll blunder by one of Britain’s biggest outsourcing companies.[2] The human cost of this incident adds to the growing number of people in the UK who cannot afford basic needs such as food.[3]

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How can health care organisations maximise their resources to improve population health? 

The Five Year Forward View and evolution towards integrated care systems have placed greater expectations on the NHS to work across a geographical area and maximise its resources to improve the health of a local population. And while this focus on place-based systems of care has spurred developments in the way services are designed and delivered to help prevent ill health and promote wellbeing, limited attention has been given to how the NHS can influence the economic conditions that help create health in the first place.

The impact the NHS has on people’s health extends well beyond its role as a provider of treatment and care. As large employers, purchasers, and capital asset holders, health care organisations are well positioned to use their spending power and resources to address the adverse social, economic and environmental factors that widen inequalities and contribute to poor health.

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  • RESEARCH

    Salford Third Sector Fund Grants Programme Evaluation report

    17th November 2016
    670.4kB     .pdf
    ...

  • Third Sector Grants Programme in Salford found to have significant positive impact

    17 Nov. 2016
  • RESEARCH

    CLES Manifesto for local economies

    17th March 2015
    215.5kB     .pdf
    This CLES Manifesto is underpinned by our values and principles and is based on the experience of our work in local economies over...

    • NHS devolution: the route to tackling health inequality?

    The announcement that the £6bn NHS budget in Greater Manchester will be devolved to the city region has taken many by surprise. The government has already devolved £2bn of spending to the city region. This proposal (the details of which still need to be worked up) is worth three times that amount, devolving nationally controlled structures such as hospitals and GPs to merge with local support and community care services. Greater Manchester will create a new ‘health and wellbeing’ commission to control the flow of money across the system, and to create links between primary and community and residential care.

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  • Inquiry publishes Due North report on Health Equity

    15 Sep. 2014