Luton Borough Council

Health equity town event: one year on

Over 80 people from Luton organisations, partners and stakeholders came together in Luton on the 14 December 2023 at Venue 360. At the event we celebrated and shared our learning about our journey over the last year about reducing health inequalities, since launching Luton as the first Marmot Town

Speakers and topics

Sally Cartwright, Director of Public Health, Population Wellbeing at Luton Council convened the day, and opened and closed the event.

The agenda covered a variety of interesting topics and speakers. With closing remarks from Sally Cartwright and Councillor Khtija Malik, Luton Council Portfolio Holder for Population Wellbeing. See below for selection of good practice learning.

Summary of presentations and agenda items

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The Power of Partnerships, by Felicity Cox - Chief Executive Officer, Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board

Felicity spoke about Collaborative working as an absolute must. ICB is working hard to tackle health inequalities in Luton, and ICB are working with the Luton team on our pledge to include:

procuring locally, and employing locally
putting the rights of children as central to our strategies and supporting Luton to become a UNICEF child friendly town
continuing our focus on reducing health inequalities, including through our response to the Denny Review
supporting as many children as possible to have the best start in life (following our recent Board Seminar on this topic), and our commitment to Net Zero and what this means in Luton

Making Marmot Happen – Implementation, keeping going and social movements, by Alan Higgins - Health Equity Network Lead, UCL Institute of Health Equity

Alan spoke about:

the social, economic and environmental conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age
shifting to a social determinants of health approach means acting on the drivers of ill health as well as treating ill health when it is presented in healthcare settings recognising that it is almost impossible to live healthily when in poverty

Marmot Principles and Community Health Services, by Harriet Snowdon and Fiona Scarlett from Cambridge Community Services NHS Trust

Harriet and Fiona spoke about: How the Marmot report has influenced Community Health Carei

it has opened health equity and inequality discussions
the importance of data
sharing further learning – Denny Report
development of the Learning Disability and Learning Difficulty Strategy
significant development of online resources and translated workshops for early support
changing a culture of thinking around service design and delivery

Digging Deeper, Going Further; the quest for sustainable change, by Merron Simpson – from The Health Creation Alliance (THCA)

Merron spoke about: The process of Health creation through which individuals and communities gain a sense of purpose, hope, mastery and control over their lives and environments: When this happens their health and wellbeing is enhanced. There are four types of relationships, between:

community members
NHS and communities
other local partners and communities
NHS and other local partners

If you want to receive any of the presentations, please contact [email protected].

Questions and answers panel

Good practice was shared by members of the panel. The panel consisted of:

Alan Higgins and Felicity Cox: see above
Lee Watson, Public Health Registrar in the East of England
Ramya Ravindrane, Public Health Registrar in the East of England
Lee and Ramya spoke about evaluation: How do we know we are making a difference? They have undertaken qualitative research and have created a set of measures to describe inequality in our town, aligned to the Marmot key principles, and also aligned to our 2040 indicators, so we can clearly see how our Marmot Town approach is embedded in our 2040 vision. Luton workstreams are:
- children and young people
- housing
- business employment and skills
- net zero
Karen Hibbert: a compassionate communities lead from Keech Hospice care, who provide free, specialist care for adults and children with life-limiting illnesses and vital support for their loved ones too.
Paul Prosser, Head of Welfare from Noah Enterprise a charity which seeks to help the most disadvantaged in the local community particularly people who are homeless and rough sleepers. Please see Noah enterprise and see Ola case study
Sandra Carroll from Luton Council Sustainable Development talked about period poverty, and the scheme we are launching to supply free reusable products to Luton residents. It will be a home delivery scheme, to reduce any embarrassment or stigma around accessing free products. Please see Period Poverty Project for more informaton

There were posters on display about a variety of Health Equity Town projects. These are available on request, please contact [email protected].

Main messages to take away from the event

There are lots of projects in Luton, we are doing really well
There is an ongoing need to engage with our communities
We need to step up communication on the wider determinants of health
There is a strong commitment within the system to create a strong movement

What you told us

This is what you told us when we asked: Name two things you consider important in order to deliver a health equity town movement.

Words listed in the wordcloud image above

Good quality homes
Relationships
Investment
Partnerships
Focus on children/SfL
Collaboration
Housing
Empowering community
Joined up partnership work
SafeHomes
Whole system approach
Conversations
Reaching the most vulnerable
Population wellbeing
Funding
Clear communication
Inclusion
Resilience
Datasets
Opportunities
Leadership at all levels
Resources
Measurement
Partnership
Partnerships

Next steps following the conference

To hold a Frameworks Masterclass
To have a workshop on built environment
To keep developing more communication tools
To continue working with health equity town prize winners