South East London Coalition for Better Health and Equity

The South East London Coalition for Better Health and Equity is a joint programme between King’s Health Partners and the South East London Integrated Care Service (ICS).

Our aim is to work in partnership reduce health inequalities and health inequities in the local population, put in place the necessary structures and mechanisms to ensure long-term improvements in health outcomes, and to make population health integral to how the health and care system operates.

The programme is overseen by a Population Health and Equity Executive which meets monthly to oversee delivery of the programme – which is comprised of an overall approach and three focused and intersecting workstreams.

Overarching approach

Across our work, the Coalition will look to link up ongoing initiatives and projects working on population health but also identify and fill gaps where we believe that further activities can and should be done to achieve our objectives.

By working from inside existing functions and services, we hope to ensure that population health is fully embedded into the south east London health and care system. Through this process, all health professionals should also become more aware of the key role which population health plays in their everyday work.

We know that improving population health, equity, and equality cannot be achieved by leaving it to other people. It needs to be everyone’s responsibility and priority, and embedded as part of the way we all operate.

We seek to platform and support the work of the people who have the greatest knowledge and understanding of these areas, building on existing expertise and experience rather than starting afresh. We will also look to connect existing initiatives and organisations working in this area in order to ensure that we are all working together towards the same goals in a transparent and collaborative environment. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DznzEjv7U1M 

1: Population health management and data

Population Health Management improves population health by data driven planning and delivery of care to achieve maximum impact. As an approach, it uses data to design new models of proactive care and deliver improvements in health and wellbeing which make best use of collective resources.

We want to ensure that all health and care staff in south east London have access to the information they need to make the best possible decisions for the people they care for and to support people to get more involved in their own care. The Coalition will do this by: 

  • Raising awareness of population health management as a new way of working across south east London and its successes to date, including lessons learnt from the Wave 2 NHS England and Improvement (NHS E & I) Population Health Management Development Programme;
  • Highlighting the benefits of population health management and why population health management should be adopted as a way to work;
  • Producing content that tells the story of establishing population health management as core way of working for the south east London operating model;
  • Promote services and tools being developed to enable population health management as a way of working.

 2: Prevention and inequalities

There are a small number of things which will make a big difference to our population’s health and reduce inequalities by preventing the onset of ill-health.

We are fortunate in south east London that a considerable body of work has already been carried out around ‘The Vital 5’ (blood pressure, mental health, obesity, smoking and alcohol intake), which have strong evidence of having the biggest impact on health and health inequalities. 

The Coalition will build on this work and develop an implementation plan to support healthy behaviours within the population, starting with a focus on hypertension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trl0splfqsc

3: Making the most of our assets (health in all policies)

In order to improve health we need the support of our population to understand the issues which they are facing. 

The Coalition will therefore aim to bring together local people and communities with the health and care system to understand and address the wider determinants of health. By galvanising a wide variety of organisations and groups in south east London around a shared purpose we can improve health and reduce health inequalities. The metaphor for this process is a ‘social contract’: this recognises that the system and the population need better ways of collaborating and that we can only achieve this purpose if the intelligence of the population is embedded alongside clinical and public health expertise. 

We also see anchor institutes – large employers with strong local roots – as a way in which to deliver change and lasting impact across communities. These have great potential for bolstering local economies, addressing issues of health inequality and embedding practices within the local area. We will seek to establish a South East London Anchors Network that can provide mutual support and leadership where helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-vf4Q7h0aE

Read the latest updates from South East Coalition for Better Health and Equity through our ‘Inside Population Health’ series.

If your organisation or group would like to get involved with South East London Coalition for Better Health and Equity please contact us for more details.