Addressing inequity in health and care systems

About this research theme

The North East and North Cumbria region has some of the poorest health outcomes and the lowest life expectancy, in England.

Our research aims to understand why these unfair differences exist and develop evidence-based recommendations to make health and care more equal.

This will include looking closely at the wider factors that shape health – such as having a secure job, a suitable home, and access to support from the right services

We will work closely with policymakers, practitioners and members of the public to identify practical ways to make health and care systems fairer.

We will also link with other NIHR ARCs across the country to strengthen our work and increase its impact.

Meaningful public involvement and community engagement will be central to our work, and we will ensure that the voices and lived experiences of marginalised groups are included across all our activity.

Our key areas of work

Health inequity and regional productivity

We will explore how poor health, including mental health, affects people’s ability to work and how this impacts our region and the country as a whole.

This includes:

• Examining the links between poor health and work and evaluating public health policies that address these
• Evaluating the NHS Health and Growth Accelerator scheme across several sites
• Contributing to national work on new approaches to tackling economic inactivity

Integrating health, care and criminal justice systems

We aim to improve how health and social care services work together for people with complex lives.

This includes:

• Improving health and care for those involved in the criminal justice system, through cross-system partnership working.
• Expanding our work with women experiencing homelessness, domestic abuse, exploitation and care proceedings, with a strong focus on trauma-informed approaches
• Leading a cross‑ARC research programme to understand the long‑term impact of gender‑based violence on women, children and young people, working closely with the Supporting Children, Women and Family Health theme

Reducing long-standing disadvantage

We will work with health and care partners to understand whether policies designed to reduce inequalities in health and care are having the intended impact.

This includes:

• Continued close working with our region’s Deep End GP Network, which supports primary care in the most disadvantaged communities.
• Strengthening our research with groups who often face the greatest barriers, including LGBTQ+ communities, people who have experienced homelessness, justice‑involved women, the deaf community and neurodiverse people.
• Work with higher risk groups at a national and regional level and align with the Core20PLUS5 approach to reducing health inequalities by targeting populations most at-risk, for accelerated improvement.