National Priority Consortium - Health and Care Inequalities
The aim of this National Priority Consortium in Health and Care Inequalities is to work across all Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs), the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) and with national stakeholders to support the health and care system nationally and across our regions, to reduce health care inequalities.
We will do this by identifying and prioritising interventions for implementing change, and facilitating and delivering collaborative multi-site evaluations.
The programme is led by the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria and the NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber, and involves all 15 ARCs from across the country as well as the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA).
The increasing health inequalities in England, with life expectancy gaps of up to nine years between the most and least deprived neighbourhoods, are having a major impact on the wellbeing of communities, health and care services, and the economy. Our research and evaluation will support the health and care system nationally and regionally to reduce these inequalities.
This research consortium is led by Professor Clare Bambra, Professor of Public Health at Newcastle University and Professor Kate Pickett, Professor of Social Epidemiology at the University of York.
Our consortium objectives are to:
- Develop and sustain a nationally and supra-regionally engaged and responsive consortium of policy, practice, public and researchers
- Enable policy, practice and public partners to shape evidence generation and implementation
- Conduct high-quality, multi-site applied research and implementation for priority health inequalities issues
- Mobilise and disseminate evidence to shape implementation to reduce health inequalities
Our six shared priority areas are:
- Childhood disadvantage
- Reducing inequalities in the health and care system across the life course
- Action on the social determinants of health
- Improving data and methods to better monitor and reduce health and care inequalities
- Links between health and economic outcomes
- Covid-19 and inequality
The following five research projects will be delivered as part of the programme:
- Evaluation of the mental health navigator scheme. (Involving ARC Yorkshire and Humber, ARC North East and North Cumbria, and ARC Greater Manchester).
- How can the NHS maximise its role as an anchor institution to boost local economies and reduce socioeconomic and health inequalities? (Involving ARC Greater Manchester, ARC North East and North Cumbria, ARC Yorkshire and Humber, ARC North West Coast, ARC East of England, ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex and ARC North Thames).
- A national evaluation of Project Cautioning and Relationship Abuse (CARA) awareness raising workshops for first time offenders of domestic violence and abuse. (Involving ARC Wessex, ARC North East and North Cumbria, ARC West, ARC West Midlands and ARC Yorkshire and Humber).
- The cross-sector implementation of NICE-recommended CBT-based interventions for young people in care: Framework development and pilot of trauma-focused CBT. (Involving ARC West, ARC East of England, ARC North East and North Cumbria, ARC Wessex, ARC Yorkshire and Humber, and co-funded with the Child Health and Maternity Consortium)
- Implementing effective primary care responses to poverty-related mental distress. (Involving ARC South West Peninsula, ARC North Thames, ARC North West Coast and ARC West).
This page will continue to be updated as projects progress.
If you have any questions about this work, please contact Ruth Wilson, Consortia Manager – ruth.wilson@newcastle.ac.uk
Visit our ARC NENC Inequalities and Marginalised Communities homepage to find out more about our leadership and wider work across this theme.