Collaborating for Health Equity in North East London Event
The North East London (NEL) Health Equity Academy organised an event early last month at Tower Hamlets Town Hall showcasing some of the effective health equity work happening across NEL. There was a specific focus on partnership working and strengthening engagement with voluntary, community and faith sector organisations to reduce inequities amongst our diverse communities.
Members of the Newham public health and commissioning team attended the event and held two stalls as part of the marketplace sharing examples of good practice to reduce health inequalities, including
- Newham ART framework applying this to inform Stoptober outreach
- Well Newham website combined with the Well Newham hub
Adoption of ART framework informing Stoptober
The first market stall focused on the ART framework: Accessibility, Relevance and Trust which was designed during the COVID-19 pandemic to influence uptake and retention of commissioned services whilst better understanding the needs of service users adopting a holistic approach rather than ‘othering’ cohorts with complex needs. During the event, we were able to share the fantastic progress made to reduce smoking prevalence among routine and manual workers as well as the Eastern European community through adopting the ART framework. Quit Well Newham service improved accessibility by targeting outreach at construction sites and bringing specialist stop smoking support to their place of work. The information during Stoptober was relevant highlighting the benefits of quitting smoking to save money long-term with trustworthy information coming from health professionals emphasising the benefits of quitting smoking through promotional videos. Smoking prevalence among routine and manual workers has fallen in Newham from 22.5% in 2021 to 9.1% in 2023.
Well Newham Hub
The Well Newham Hub pilot project aimed to provide a community-based, central point of access to health and wellbeing support; to improve residents’ health and contribute to reducing health inequalities in the borough. The project was set up to address a lack of awareness of health and wellbeing services in Newham, as well as reduce attrition rates on healthy lives programmes commissioned by the London Borough of Newham.
The Hub provided in-person, 1:1 support to 550 residents from launch in June 2023 until the end of July 2024. Hub Advisors made 1,306 referrals and signposts to 210 different services.
The team built up strong relationships, and trust, with voluntary, community and faith groups; attending their locations and increasing access to health and wellbeing services for residents who were representative of Newham in terms of their ethnicity. This was strengthened by many of the Hub team members being Newham residents and speaking 10 languages between them.
Taking a resident-led approached, the project was relevant to many people in the borough, however the current demand, and gaps, in support for social determinants (such as housing and financial support) meant the Hub was less able to focus on supporting residents’ health needs directly. 61% of referrals related to social determinants of health, such as finances and housing, compared to 17% for healthy lives programmes, reflecting residents’ top key needs.
ONS4 survey scores showed the support provided by the Hub contributed to an increase in residents’ wellbeing, by an average of 65% and an increase in self-efficacy, by an average 44%. The team received very positive feedback from residents and the wider community, highlighting the extent to which the service was valued.
Well Newham Website & Directory of Service
The Well Newham Website is a centralised website where residents can find information on anything health and wellbeing. At the stall, we spoke about how the Well Newham website has a dedicated resident-focused events section that aims to promote a range of local events within Newham. The website also contains a range of information, such as:
- our Vaccination pages that provides information on the various vaccinations available, and the ways of which vaccinations can further enhance protection
- the Keeping Active page, that promotes ways in which residents can sustain a healthy weight and reduce health inequalities.
The Well Newham Website having launched in early 2023 had an active user base of 2900 active users. In 2024, the active user base has now grown to 9800 Active users across the Well Newham Website.
The Well Newham Website is also powered by the directory of service which is a platform called Joy. The purpose of Joy is to provide a list of all services available for Newham residents which will make it easier for residents but as well people working within Newham to be able to refer friends, family members, patients and self referrals.
GPs and Social prescribers have been trained to use Joy and make over 1500 referrals per month.
Currently on Joy, Newham residents have access to near 700 local services. It is important to note that Joy is also a nationwide platform and residents within Newham have access also to over 1800 National Services currently established on Joy ranging from in person to digital services over a range of categorise from advocacy and mental health to financial advice and support.
If you would like to know more about either project or ongoing work happening in this space, contact:
ART framework – [email protected]
Smoking Cessation – [email protected] and [email protected]
Well Newham – [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
