Friday, 14th March 2008

The Fabian Society held a major series of seminars on narrowing health inequalities between November 2007 and March 2008, including sessions led by health ministers Dawn Primarolo MP, Ben Bradshaw MP and Ivan Lewis MP, and eminent academics Julian Le Grand and Sir Michael Marmot. Continuing the work of the Fabian Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty, the Fabian Health Inequalities Forum explored the major barriers to narrowing inequalities across a range of key health policy areas, and sought to suggest directions for the future strategy on health inequality that we need.

The objective of the Forum was to engage with and inform a 'next decade' strategy for health inequalities, by involving leading decision-makers and opinion formers in an in-depth analysis of key current and emerging social, political and policy trends.

The Fabian Health Inequalities Forum is kindly supported by:

'Narrowing Health Inequalities in the UK: Next Decade Challenges'

Thursday 29th November 2007, 09.30-11.00

Speakers: Julian Le Grand, LSE and former health policy advisor to Tony Blair; Anna Coote, Healthcare Commission; and Sunder Katwala, Fabian Society. Chair: John Carvel, The Guardian.

The discussion framed and set the context for the series as a whole, exploring the factors driving health inequalities in the UK and the barriers faced by health practitioners in narrowing this gap. Some suggestions about how these barriers might be overcome were raised and discussed.

Event Report

'Tackling Inequalities in Mental Health'

Tuesday 5th February 2008, 10.00-11.30

Speakers: Ivan Lewis MP, Minister of State for Mental Health Services; Anne Campbell, Chair Cambridgeshire Mental Health NHS Trust; Linda Seymour, Head of Policy, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. Chair: Tim Horton, Fabian Society.

This seminar responded to the growing debates on the importance for life chances of good mental health. While the need to raise the priority given to mental health provision has been a consistent theme of expert health policy analysis, the session discussed the significant barriers to achieving a significant shift in this area and how they might be overcome. Improving access to mental health services for BME communities, and the role of employers in tackling mental health problems in the workplace were all discussed.

Event Report

'NHS Reform, Devolving Power and Health Inequalties'

Wednesday 20th February 2008, 08.30 - 10.00

Speakers: Ben Bradshaw MP, Minister of State for Health Services; Dr Mark Exworthy, Reader in Public Management and Policy, University of Royal Holloway. Chair: Sunder Katwala, Fabian Society.

This seminar engaged with the renewed focus in policy and political debates around devolving power within the NHS, discussing the appropriate balance between national standards and local autonomy. The seminar addressed how improved frameworks of local accountability could ensure that public legitimacy for ongoing reforms could be maintained.

Event Report

'How can public health strategies narrow the gap?'

Thursday 6th March, 10.00 - 11.30

Speakers: Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Public Health; Dr Helen Walters, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Portsmouth City Primary Care Trust. Chair: Hannah Jameson, Fabian Society.

This seminar examined how public health strategies can reach those who are relatively disadvantaged. It asked how the body of evidence on what can drive successful behaviour change can be reflected in future public health strategies at national and local level, and which actors and approaches are proving most effective with the hardest to reach individuals and groups.

Event Report

'The Future Strategy for Health Inequalities We Need'

Friday 14th March 2008, 08.30 - 10.00

Speakers: Sir Michael Marmot, UCL and Chair of Commission on Social Determinants of Health; Peter Kellner, President of YouGov; Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society.

The final Forum seminar drew on some of the key themes of the earlier discussions, identifying and exploring key signposts and priorities for future policy towards health inequalities.

Sir Michael Marmot suggested three key priorities for the future government strategy should be: investment in the early years agenda; reducing inequalities in educational outcomes; and a focus on the world of work.

Professor Marmot was scathing of the performance of the British education system.

"We know how important education is. We know how as a country we're doing miserably on education… At the very top our educational performance is not bad, but it's a gradient: the lower your socio-economic background, the worse you will do. So we're failing the country miserably and it's contributing to health inequalities," he said.

He remained optimistic, however, about the capacity of government to tackle the problem of health inequalities. "We can actually do this, we can figure out what we need to lead a healthy life. We know that that is unequally distributed throughout society and we can make the policy choices to change that," he said.

"It's not a lever that the secretary of state for health has in his hands, but it is a lever that government had in its hands," he said.

A full report of this final session will be made available shortly.

To discuss further Fabian work in this area, please contact Tim Gore.

Learn more about Fabian work on Life Chances and Equality.