How can we join up action on poverty and health inequalities?

By Tom Pottrill, Policy Officer at Resolve Poverty

This March, the Resolve Poverty Annual Conference will bring together stakeholders from across the country to explore efforts to tackle poverty in their community in the context of the forthcoming national Child Poverty Strategy.

There are synergies between local anti-poverty work and the often health-led focus on health inequalities and wellbeing. But do these agendas talk to one another enough? Could the health system have a greater focus on poverty and take the lead in driving anti-poverty initiatives locally, regionally and nationally? Join us at our conference to explore how the role of health in addressing poverty could be strengthened and add value to your work.

Health inequalities are increasingly a priority at the local and regional level, particularly with the advent of NHS Integrated Care Systems. We are proud to work with NHS Greater Manchester to ensure tackling poverty, through practical, policy and strategic responses, is prioritised through action on health improvement and health inequalities. We recognise, however, that work remains to be done in fully aligning the health inequalities and anti-poverty agendas across England. Our conference in March will explore this question, among a whole host of others, in one of our breakout sessions: ‘A whole system approach to tackle poverty: where does the health system fit?’

We are delighted that Sarah Woolnough, CEO at The King’s Fund, will be joining us to deliver a headline speech concerning the role of health in tackling poverty. We are also delighted to announce that Sarah will be joined by two other leading experts in the field: Dr Claire Humphries, Delivery Manager for Mayoral Regions Programme, (a programme focused on the role regions play in tackling health inequalities), and Dr Natalija Atas, Senior Lecturer of Public Health and Social Care and co-founder of the Poverty Research and Action Network (PRAN).

Our panel will respond to Sarah’s speech and share insights on effective health-led policy and practical responses to poverty. The session will be chaired by Graham Whitham, CEO at Resolve Poverty, who will ask purposive questions on topics including: joining up the health inequalities and anti-poverty agendas; integrating responses across different levels of governance; and the role of NHS Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in tackling poverty.

We will also give you, our attendees, the opportunity to share your insights on this crucial agenda. Our panel will then respond to some of these comments. We hope you are as excited as we are to come together and look ahead to a healthier, fairer and better future for us all.

The Resolve Poverty Annual Conference will be held on Thursday 13 March 2025 at Manchester Hall. Click here to book a place and find out more information about the day, including our speaker line-up, details on all our breakout sessions and FAQs.

We really hope you can join us at this crucial moment in the fight against poverty.

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This article is featured in our 22 January newsletter.

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