Latest on Inclusion Health

Well since writing my blog on ‘Whatever Happened to Inclusion Health’ I have come across some more information. Hopefully some of this material will be available officially soon – but in the interim…..

The Lead Minister is Ann Milton and the board members are as follows:

Professor Steve Field  – Chair of National Inclusion Health Board

Sir David Nicholson – Chief Executive NHS Commissioning Board Authority

Professor Sir Michael Marmot – Director, International Institute for Society and Health and MRC Research Professor in Epidemiology at University College London

Cllr David Rogers – Chairman of the Local Government Group’s community wellbeing board and Vice chairman of East Sussex’s health overview and scrutiny committee.

Charles Fraser – CEO St Mungos

Professor Lindsey Davies – President of the Faculty of Public Health

Sandie Keene – Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) National Lead on Public Health and Director of Adult Social Services in Leeds – and from 2013 President of the ADASS

So – we have a board made up of a tremendously powerful group of players  – this should mean that we can expect significant leadership on this agenda from at least four key organisations/federations which have a national reach:

• National Health Service Commissioning Board
• Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
• Local Government Group
• Faculty of Public Health

I think it is really important that the existence and aims of this board are brought to the attention of  elected members, paid officers, professionals and community leaders who are concerned about meeting the needs of excluded groups.

The priority groups that Inclusion Health is focussing on are:

• Sex Workers
• Vulnerable Migrants
• Gypsies and Travellers
• Homeless

Priorities

The board has established 4 main working groups and have appointed the following leads:

• Leadership and workforce: This working group will focus on getting Inclusion Health embedded within postgraduate training and developing leaders in the field that lead by example on Inclusion Health. This will be led by Rosemary Cook, Director of the Queens Nursing Institute.

• Data and research: This working group will focus on strengthening the collection of robust data and comprehensive research on the groups identified in the Inclusion Health programme. This will be chaired by Dr Bobbie Jacobson of the London Health Observatory. 

• Provision, prevention and promotion: This working group will focus on gathering models of good practice. This will be chaired by Dr Nigel Hewett member of the University College London Hospital Homeless Team.

• Assurance and accountability: This working group will focus on how the system can be held to account on the Inclusion Health programme. This will be chaired by Professor Helen Lester, Practitioner and Lecturer at University of Birmingham.

Action we can all take

There are many of us who have been trying to bring this agenda into the mainstream – after all its not just the four groups of people who are excluded – but by their nature the front line services who try to meet their needs – they also often lack profile and mainstream recognition.

So it is crucial that when opportunities arise we contact and talk with the members of the board identified above – with a view to supporting them and encouraging them to continue to keep focussed on this agenda.