Press Releases

The latest Marmot Report “10 years on” makes dismal reading.

It shows that government has not prioritised health despite the concerning trends during the austerity years. Increases in life expectancy and years in good health have stalled for many. These trends show sharp inequalities: the more deprived the area the bigger the drop in life expectancy and years in good health.

Healthcare provided by the NHS only accounts for approximately 10% of a population’s health: https://www.health.org.uk/blogs/health-care-only-accounts-for-10-of-a-population’s-health. The other 90% of health is created through a social process that happens in people’s homes, neighbourhoods, workplaces and wider networks. The solutions lie outside the NHS even more than they do within it and it’s time public policy and fiscal management recognised this.

Health Creation Alliance agrees with all of Sir Marmot and his team’s recommendations, but we would go further.

The Review emphasises that, to tackle inequality, our society needs to enable all children, young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives. At the same time, we must create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities.
Now is the time to develop of a properly funded, cross-sector ‘Social Model of Health’ to improve health and reduce health inequalities in the community. This needs to be everyone’s job – all sectors and communities themselves – and it needs to have Health Creation at its core.

About Health Creation and the 3Cs
• To be well, people need sufficient Control over the circumstances of their lives, meaningful and constructive Contact with other people, Confidence to take action with others to make improvements. People who fall below the required threshold will struggle in life and experience worse health outcomes. Enabling people to increase our levels of control and confidence, through meaningful and constructive contact with others, keeps us as healthy and productive as possible.

It also helps tackle health inequalities. Control, Contact and Confidence are the 3Cs of Health Creation.

• See our Manifesto for Health Creation here: https://www.thehealthcreationalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/A-Manifesto-For-Health-Creation.pdf

• This ‘Manifesto for a Health Creating Society’ to which Health Creation Alliance is a signatory takes a broader approach that also makes a case for a ‘social model of health’: See https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31801-3.pdf and

Other recent Health Creation Alliance documents setting out our position

• Manifesto for a New Government: https://www.thehealthcreationalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Get-Health-Creation-Done-a-New-NHS-Alliance-Manifesto.pdf

• Submission to the Prevention Green Paper which provides many examples of Health Creation in action: https://www.thehealthcreationalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NNHSA-submission-Prevention-GP-FINAL-for-website.pdf

 

Today the Health Creation Alliance calls on NHS England to reconsider their latest decision to give ‘provider collaboratives’, including private companies, responsibilities for decision-marking in mental health. Instead, the Alliance wants to see local people with lived experience of mental health problems to be given a formal role in financial decision-making.  

Commenting on the NHS England announcement, Merron Simpson, CEO, said, “While it’s great to see that stigma relating to mental health problems appears to be decreasing, we’re unfortunately seeing little progress on changing the way that spending decisions are made. Many people with mental health problems know what will make them well – but they continue to be outside the ring when it comes to decisions about what is available in their local areas to help them.”

Brian Fisher, GP and Chair, adds, “In the new arrangements, organisations whose income depends on treating NHS patients will have a role in planning those services from which they profit. The ramifications are deeply concerning. A CQC report on mental health in March 2018 found that placements in the private sector were almost twice as long as similar placements in the NHS, more than three times as far away and twice as expensive. Instead of switching decision-making to providers, people who use the services should be given a much bigger say in what is commissioned”.

Alex McCraw, a Community Director of Health Creation Alliance with lived experience of mental health problems, said: “The best help comes directly from other people who have themselves experienced mental turmoil. The NHS needs to take this resource seriously and seek advice from people with valuable lived experience of recovery from mental health problems. Making local commissioning accountable to them should be the government’s first priority”.      

Health Creation Alliance is a movement of professionals and local people working as equal partners to address and reduce health inequalities.  Health Creation including asset-based approaches promoted by Health Creation Alliance and others, is a route to wellness. It comes about when local people and professionals work together as equal partners and focus on what matters to people and their communities.  

By introducing provider commissioning in this way, NHS England is favouring those who profit from mental health services over those who receive them, making Health Creation harder to achieve.

– Experience working across sectors to improve the lives of those most affected by poverty will add significant value –

Health Creation Alliance today announced that Lord Adebowale has joined them as a Patron. His wealth of experience in cross-sector working to transform the lives of those most affected by poverty, coupled with his senior advisory and influencing roles, will add significant value to the work of Health Creation Alliance.

Commenting on his decision to support Health Creation Alliance, Lord Adebowale said,

“The future of health & social care is about how we promote wellness; tackle health inequalities both in terms of people’s experience of poor health and their access to services; and produce health through the integration of housing, public health and cross sector collaboration with patients and citizens. This is at the heart of the Health Creation Alliance mission along with its practical examples of how we might move the needle on this agenda. I’m pleased to play a small part in this mission by becoming a Patron.”

Commenting on Lord Adebowale’s patronage, Brain Fisher, Chair of Health Creation Alliance, said, “We are delighted that Lord Adebowale is supporting us as a Patron. His support will help us take our cross-sector work in tackling health inequalities to the next level”.

Health Creation Alliance is a movement of professionals and local people working as equal partners to address and reduce health inequalities.

Editor’s notes

Lord Adebowale is a champion for the cause of those affected by poverty, mental ill health, drugs, alcohol addictions, a learning disability and those with cross cutting and complex needs. He is a Visiting Professor and Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, holds numerous honorary doctorates as well as being a Fellow of the City & Guilds of London Institute, an associate member of the Health Service Management Centre at the University of Birmingham. He was a Non-Executive Director of NHS England between 2012 and 2018. In 2000, Victor was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours List for services to the New Deal, the unemployed, and homeless young people. In 2001, he was appointed a cross bench member of the House of Lords.

For more information, please contact Neil McGregor-Paterson, neil@realitasconsulting.co.uk  0777 136 1783

– Recognition at the highest level that some health problems can sometimes be addressed through non-medical solutions –

Birmingham, 29 January 2019. 

Health Creation Alliance today welcomed NHS England’s commitment to employ 1000 additional Social Prescribers as an important step for the NHS. It demonstrates a recognition at the highest level that some health problems can be addressed through non-medical solutions.

However, Health Creation Alliance calls on NHS England to go much further and recognise the health benefits that come when people and communities are helped to solve their own problems. Health Creation is a tried and tested approach to enabling this. It comes about when professionals and people work together as equal partners and focus on what matters to people and the community.

Commenting on the NHS England announcement, Merron Simpson, CEO, said, “While welcome, there’s a danger that social prescribing could become just another part of our current transactional health service, with referrals into existing services alone. Tailored care must go hand-in-hand with people and community-led and informed solutions, cross-sector working and asset-based approaches that increase the level of meaningful connections between people and lead to increased confidence and control over their lives”.

“Health Creation Alliance is ready to work with general practices to ensure that their approaches to social prescribing lead to lasting improvements in the health of people and communities, particularly those where the impact of health inequalities is greatest”.

For more information, please contact Neil McGregor-Paterson, neil@realitasconsulting.co.uk  0777 136 1783

– Failing to recognise the renewable energy of people and communities is a key issue –

Birmingham, 8 January 2019. Health Creation Alliance today announced that it broadly welcomes the NHS Long Term Plan with some significant reservations. A key issue is the Plan’s failure to recognise that harnessing the ‘renewable energy’ of people and communities is perhaps the most sustainable form of prevention there is.

Commenting on this failure, Brian Fisher, Chair, said, “We welcome any new NHS funding and there are worthy and important aspirations in the Plan. However, while the Plan nods occasionally to the real social roots of ill-health, it then ignores them or does little to tackle them.”

“There is a welcome focus on health inequalities, but, sadly, only tired, ineffective approaches rejected by Marmot decades ago.  Health and illnesses are social processes and the Plan fails to include harnessing the ‘renewable energy’ of people and communities as detailed in the Governments NHS Five Year Forward View.”

“Health Creation Alliance recommends public involvement in planning and evidence-based people and community-centred approaches to prevent illness and create health.  This is what this Plan should include – and there is no mention of them”.

Commenting on the solution to the omissions, Merron Simpson, CEO said, “Perhaps the biggest opportunity rests with ICSs and CCGs which have it within their gift to adopt and commission community-led, asset-based approaches across all sectors.  Health Creation Alliance Alliance is ready to work with local areas to help them find their own ways to tackle health inequalities through Health Creation, engaging directly with disadvantaged people and communities. This includes the development of a Wellness Workforce at the frontline of all the sectors. This will ensure that practitioners in difference parts of the system are equipped with skills in creating health with communities”.

Health Creation is a route to wellness. It comes about when professionals and local people work together as equal partners and focus on what matters to people and the community.

Health Creation Alliance is a movement of professionals and local people working as equal partners to address and reduce health inequalities. www.thehealthcreationalliance.org

– Ground breaking report demonstrates benefits to people, communities and organisations when adopting health creating practices –

Monday 17 September 2018. Two leading housing bodies – Place Shapers and the National Federation of ALMOS –  today called for the widespread adoption of the Health Creation Alliance’s Health Creation framework by frontline services across the health, care and housing sectors.
A report published today, Health Creating Practices – shining a spotlight on housing, shows how the approach improves health for tenants and communities.
Health Creation asks professionals to move away from telling people and communities what they need. Instead, professionals focus on providing the conditions for people to gain control, make meaningful contact with others and build confidence which together support health and wellbeing.  Health Creation is a route to wellness. It is also a route to a healthier local economy.
The report details the outputs of a partnership project with seven of their housing associations and ALMO members and the Health Creation Alliance. The place studies demonstrate how communities working equally with organisations in an area, rather than having things done to them, can improve health outcomes and move the focus to helping people to get and stay well; and highlights the tenant, community, and organisational benefits of adopting health creating practices.
Sinéad Butters, Chair of PlaceShapers, a national network of more than 100 community-based housing associations said, “PlaceShapers take seriously their contribution to improving the health of communities. This collaborative project showcases what is possible when people and organisations embrace Health Creation. We therefore call on all frontline service providers to audit their current activities and adopt health creating practices as part of their daily practice”.
Commenting on the outcomes, Hugh Broadbent, Chair of the National Federation of ALMOs, and a project partner said, “Working in partnership with the health sector to improve the health and well-being of local people is critical to tackling some of the wider issues they face. It is clear that housing organisations are leading the way in terms of the adoption of health creating practices and where we lead, we call on others to follow”.
Commenting on the project, Merron Simpson, Chief Executive, Health Creation Alliance, said, “We are delighted to have partnered with PlaceShapers, the National Federation of ALMOs and their members in delivering this ground-breaking project. This is another step in our ambition to develop a ‘wellness workforce’ at the frontline. Embedding health creating practices as standard practice is something all the sectors need to do if we are to make lasting improvements in population health and in people’s and communities’ lives”.
Health Creation requires ‘asset-based’ skills characterised by the five features of health creating practices: listening and responding, truth-telling, strengths-focus, self-organising and power-shifting. When these five features are working, it provides the conditions for people to gain Control, make meaningful Contact with others and build Confidence. People need enough of the 3Cs of Health Creation to be well.
-ends-
EDITORS NOTES
National Federation of ALMOS
The National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) is the trade body that represents council housing ALMOs across England.
The NFA represents all 33 ALMOs which manage just under 450,000 council homes across 36 Local Authorities.
The NFA was established in 2003 to represent the interests of ALMOs at the national level, lobbying and negotiating with central government on their behalf. ALMOs themselves were first established as not-for-profit companies in 2002 to manage council housing on behalf of their local authority and to help deliver the Government’s Decent Homes Programme, aimed at improving housing conditions in council housing.
For more information on National Federation of ALMOS, please visit http://www.almos.org.uk/
Health Creation Alliance