Recommendation 25

HM Government Acknowledged

The Government remains committed to levelling up outcomes across the UK and has published a landmark Levelling Up White Paper (LUWP), setting out bold new policy interventions to improve livelihoods and opportunity in all parts of the UK. The aim of levelling up is to reduce the disparities between different parts of the UK – to be more successful economically by addressing regional disparities. To Level Up effectively we need to improve health outcomes across the country. DHSC will continue to emphasise the importance of tackling the stark disparities in health, including between the richest and poorest areas, and being clear that this requires action from all parts of national government, local government, the NHS, industry and beyond. We have already committed to several actions to improve the nation’s health and tackle disparities in the LUWP, through action on prevention and improving health service provision. This includes commitments on smoking, obesity, substance misuse, early years and Community Diagnostic Centres. To effect a longer term programme of change, the LUWP sets out 12 missions to 2030. Our mission for health is to narrow the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest by 2030, and to increase HLE overall by reaffirming the government’s existing commitment for 5 extra years of healthy life by 2035. We aim to take forward bold action in a Health Disparities White Paper (HDWP) which will set out a series of impactful measures to address health disparities at each stage at which they arise, building on the health mission and actions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. We want to break the link between people’s backgrounds and their prospects for a healthy life ahead of them by taking a broad look at the factors that influence people’s health, and focus on the people and places who face the worst health outcomes. This will mean looking at the biggest preventable killers, such as tobacco and obesity as well as the wider causes of ill health and access to the services needed to diagnose and treat ill health in a timely and accessible way. We will consider the range of actors who have a role in reducing ill health, including across the system and how we can empower local partners with the tools that they need to respond to the problems in their areas. disproportionately affected – in particular looking at health disparities by ethnicity, socio- economic deprivation and by geography, building on to the health chapter and mission set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. We are planning on publishing the HDWP later this year.