Health Equity Commission

Residents of Lancashire and South Cumbria will benefit from a newly formed Health Equity Commission. The commission is chaired by an international expert in health equity, Professor Sir Michael Marmot. This follows an agreement by Health and Community Leaders to form a regional Lancashire & South Cumbria Health Equity Commission (HEC) to improve health inequalities and help transform the health and wellbeing of people living in the region. 

The Health Equity Commission will consist of a panel comprising leaders/influencers and independent experts from across Lancashire and South Cumbria. It aims to provide local organisations, partners and place-based partnerships the support to make health inequalities and the ‘prevention agenda’ our shared priority and provide them with a clear voice in the region and across the Integrated Care System. 

This year the aims of the commission are: 

• Influence all Lancashire and South Cumbria partners in mobilising care to reduce health inequalities and its role in the economy 
• Focus on the social determinants for health, regarding poverty/deprivation, building on the work of the health focus in the Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Greater Lancashire Plan and equivalent Cumbria plan 
• Creating healthy and sustainable places and communities with a focus on empowerment of people in decision-making that shapes policy at neighbourhood, place and system 
• Creating a good/healthy workforce and a focus on technology and innovation that supports prevention to aid economic recovery 
• Important times of life, in particular giving children and young people a good start in life with a focus on the first 1,000 days.

Lancashire and South Cumbria is home to a growing population of 1.8 million people. More of us are getting older and experiencing long-term health problems. Some of these diseases could be avoided or the ill effects slowed down if we took positive action to prevent them.