Health improvement and inclusion in North East London
The Health Improvement and Inclusion team within the NEL ICB oversees a ring-fenced fund which is largely devolved to place-based partnerships that have a borough footprint and work closely with their local communities and system partners to address health inequalities.
At a central North East London level its work has included establishing the North East London Health Equity Academy to build capacity and confidence in people working in health and care to improve health equity.
It has published a homeless health strategy and is about to start a health inclusion needs assessment for groups including refugee asylum seekers, sex workers, people recently released from prison and the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
To support personalisation of care, it is working to make sure services meet the needs of the local population using strategies such as personal health budgets and social prescribing.
The role of creative health in the team’s work
The team was always keen to use creative health and creative health approaches in its work. It received strong support from the ICB for its use too.
There is clear recognition that:
- creative health has an important role in facilitating the shift from treatment to prevention
- the North East London area has a very strong creative sector already doing creative health work
- partnering with the local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to deliver creative health work helps support the partnership remit of the ICS.
