The North West London Health Equity Programme brings our health and care partners and local communities together to change how local services are provided, making it easier to get care and reducing health inequalities.
These pages tell you more about how we work and how we are making a difference. People working in health and care services in North West London can also find out more about training and development courses and available to them on the Health Equity Programme Academy pages.
About the North West London Health Equity Programme
We know that some people in North West London are dying earlier than they should, with a range of factors including poverty, poor-quality housing, low-paid or unstable jobs impacting people’s physical and mental health.
Different communities also have very different experiences of health and care services. By working together with our communities we can better understand different experiences and we can help to tackle these issues. Joint working has already improved care for many people in our communities.
Our Health Equity Programme focusses on putting people at the heart of what we do – reducing inequalities, improving people’s health outcomes and reducing the differences in healthy life expectancy. We work to tailor services to the level of need in our communities to achieve equity, not providing one-size-fits-all services.
The difference between equality and equity
Equality is about sameness. It promotes fairness and justice by giving everyone the same thing. But it can only work if everyone starts from the same place.
Equity is about fairness. It’s about making sure people get access to the same opportunities. Sometimes our differences and/or history can create barriers to participation, so we must first ensure equity before we can enjoy equality.
North West London is a richly diverse area, with more than 2.1 million people in Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow. Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.
The people who live and work in North West London come from a wide range of backgrounds, and more than 100 languages are spoken. The population of North West London is also younger than the average population in England.
In some of our communities people are dying earlier than they should, which is caused by a range of factors including: poverty, poor-quality housing and low-paid or unstable jobs impacting people’s physical and mental health. This is a long-standing issue and the inequalities gap in health and life expectancy has widened in recent years.
When our communities don’t have the things they need, such as warm homes and healthy food, and are in low-paid or unstable jobs, it can lead to chronic stress, poor physical and mental health and lives being cut short. To create a society where everybody can thrive, we need all of the building blocks in place: stable jobs, good pay, quality housing and good education
People from our different communities also have very different experiences of the health and care services that we provide, including different levels of access, leading to very different health outcomes.
Download the population health demographics of North West London report.
The North West London Health Equity Programme connects partners from across the NHS, local councils, care providers, community and voluntary services and local community groups.
We work with the people who live and work in North West London to make sure we understand the issues they face and what stops local people from getting the care they need. This includes regular listening events and engagement sessions. Find out more about how we work with our local communities and what we have learned in our community insight reports.
Our key workstreams
The North West London Health Equity Programme has eight key workstreams:
- Reducing health inequalities
- Addressing structural racism
- Population health management
- Healthy living and behaviours
- Volunteering and the voluntary sector
- Anchor institutions
- Digital inclusion
Pillar 1 - Identify and tackle inequalities
Identify and address inequalities in access to, experience of and outcomes achieved by each of our existing health and care services. Find out more about identifying and tackling inequalities.
Pillar 2 - Population health management building blocks
Put in place the building blocks of a population health management approach that will help us to reduce health inequalities across all of our work within the ICS. Find out more about population health management building blocks.
Pillar 3 - Partnership working on wider determinants
Work together with all of our partners within our ICS to improve social, environmental and healthy living factors that adversely affect health and wellbeing. Find out more about partnership working on wider determinants of health.
We have developed the Focus-on methodology, a new approach to help us make changes to services and help people to get the support and care they need. The Focus-on methodology was developed by health and care partners from across North West London.
The North West London Health Equity Programme Focus-on methodology
Find areas of inequalities using quantitative data. At a minimum, exploring disparities in constitutional standards based on deprivation, sex, age and ethnicity, If possible, expanding to other aspects.
Open conversations with those communities and cohorts who are experiencing those inequalities. This qualitative data enhances our knowledge about the problems and their causes.
Co-create ideas about potential solutions to specific problems identified. This idea generation should be done in collaboration with a mix of stakeholders, both citizens and professionals.
Unite your co-designed group around a small subset of ideas that we will prototype. We do not have unlimited resources and therefore we need to select one to three ides that we will robustly test.
Study the impact of your tested ideas. This requires both quantitative and qualitative methods. This should be proportionate to the test and should help decide whether to continue or not.
Ongoing measurement. As a leading healthcare system we need continuous monitoring of our interventions and inequalities metrics. This helps create accountability for us as a system, ensuring that our efforts are continuing to make an impact and that we can continue to identify new or exacerbating inequalities.
Our North West London Health Equity Programme has already made a big difference the health and wellbeing of people in in our eight boroughs - Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.
You can also read our monthly North West London Health Equity Programme updates, which includes all the latest news from each of our workstreams.
The North West London Health Equity Programme Academy is a training and development hub for health and care staff working in North West London.
There are courses and resources for staff from all services, and all skill and experience levels. Some course are suitable for all staff, and some are more designed for people who have already had lots of training.
We have courses in the following categories:
- Analytical functions and insights
- Engagement
- Leadership and facilitation
- Co-production
- Value-based care
- Reducing health inequalities
Find health equity courses and resources on the Health Equity Programme Academy pages.