IHE published A Fairer and Healthier Waltham Forest: Equity and the Social Determinants of Health in Waltham Forest for Waltham Forest  in December 2022. The report exposed the scale of health inequalities across our borough, and how some residents experience unfair and avoidable differences in their health because of their ethnicity, postcode, age, household income, and other wider factors. The Public Health team in Waltham Forest state the report showed them “that maintaining good health and wellbeing is about more than accessing good health services, and how by making changes to how our residents live, learn, work and age, we can have a significant impact on the likelihood of them living a healthy life.”

Building a fairer and healthier Waltham Forest: our response to the Marmot recommendations sets out Waltham Forest’s response to the IHE report. This approach focussed around the eight Marmot Principles, and three accelerator areas:

1.     Good work, better health

2.     Healthier homes

3.     Greener and healthier places.

The IHE learning is driving Waltham Forest’s work to deliver new, ambitious, cross cutting strategies and work programmes that are designed and delivered with the health and wellbeing of our residents at the fore.

 Waltham Forest state:

“We know that for everyone to have an equal chance to be healthy we must strengthen our partnerships with health and care providers, voluntary and community organisations, local businesses and other organisations, and our report describes how we are working across partners to drive a more integrated approach to improving health outcomes for our residents, particularly those who experience the deepest inequalities.”

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This report is the latest in the Institute of Health Equity’s work with local authorities across the country on how local areas can implement actions to reduce health inequalities. The public health team in the London Borough of Waltham Forest commissioned the IHE to support theirs, and other local partners’ work to act on health inequalities through addressing the social determinants of health. And through this work enable Waltham Forest to join numerous “Marmot Places” across England and become a “Marmot London Borough”.

The report, A Fairer and Healthier Waltham Forest: Equity and the Social Determinants in Waltham Forest, is based on an assessment of data and local evidence and meetings with stakeholders from across the borough. It was also informed by engagement with the local community, to ensure the voices of the residents fed into the recommendations for their borough. It presents system-wide recommendations to reduce local health inequalities and create a fairer future for residents of Waltham Forest.