Alex Kennedy

A prevention revolution – or another missed opportunity? The UK’s health is in trouble, and it’s holding us back, write the chief executives of the Health Foundation and The King's Fund.

With the government's health mission missing in action, @jenniferthf.bsky.social​ & @thekingsfund.bsky.social​ Sarah Woolnough reflect on diluted ambitions & call for a prevention revolution

Read our full response⬇️

New @healthfoundation.bsky.social blog from Nicholas Kofi Adjei (@liverpooluni.bsky.social).

...showing how family circumstances influence young people’s mental health AND the protective effects of good emotional support.

www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Young people's mental health is under serious strain.

Although emotional support from parents etc is crucial, it's often missing from media and policy debate.

NEW paper with evidence on the value of emotional support

& how factors like poverty and employment affect it

& what govt should do.

Public health: inequalities and prevention How can we address growing public health challenges? How can we mitigate health inequalities and ensure fair and timely access to healthcare?

Also, published today, a shorter horizon scanning piece on public health, inequalities and prevention post.parliament.uk/public-healt...

Geographical differences in healthy life expectancy Healthy life expectancy varies widely across England. It is linked to the conditions in which people are born, live and work. How can prevention and policy interventions reduce inequalities?

For anyone interested in health inequalities, this POSTnote briefing is well worth a read.

It's on regional differences in Healthy Life Expectancy - but takes a broad perspective - looking at what causes disparities and options to tackle them.

post.parliament.uk/research-bri...

In its 10 Year Health Plan, the government recommitted to halving the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the poorest and richest regions. But how? Our new analysis with the ONS points to the underlying factors which any plan will need to take account of. 🧵

An HLE ambition without a target date or a clear plan to get there is...lacking something

Hi Steve, I'd seen your piece on indices previously and very much agree. I don't think its that we need new measures - esp complex composite ones.

As you say, my focus more on govt need to say what success looks like + the actions needed to get there + who responsible etc.

Health inequalities are cutting lives short by up to 16 years in parts of the UK. 🔴

We don’t think this is fair – and neither do the 7️⃣7️⃣ Health Equals Parliamentary Champions.

Tomorrow, we're heading to Parliament to reflect on how to #MakeHealthEqual a reality.

Stay tuned for more. 👀

Is it new news that the government plans to "restore the value of Healthy Start from financial year 2026 to 2027" - as set out in the 10 Year Plan?

I'd not spotted that before, but could have missed it

NHS 10-year plan announces a "moonshot to end the obesity epidemic". So what's in it?

RISK: But vital to communicate in a way that gives people a sense of agency, rather than playing into feelings of fatalism - or blaming minoritised groups - that could make positive change more difficult.

OPPORTUNITY: All this could mean new opportunities to make the case about the impact of health inequalities – thanks to the greater understanding of poverty, the cost of living and how systems shape health and the economy.

It finds more awareness of (and less scepticism about) poverty, and more support for action to tackle it.

But also that many feel that the “system is rigged” and that decisions are made by politicians seen as “not like us”.

The report out this week is broader, also looking at attitudes to wealth/poverty and to government. Those shifting mindsets really matter - to those of us seeking to improve health, and more widely too.

So that, increasingly,

- Health is seen as a national – and collective – resource
- More of us recognise that society shapes health
- There’s broad support for a whole-government approach to health

Moving Mindsets: How British people think about health has changed - FrameWorks UK

It follows paper last year on mindsets about health frameworksuk.org/resources/mo..., which found that people are using less individualistic / more collective ways of thinking about health (though individualism still v powerful)

Moving Mindsets: Emerging opportunities to shift culture on health, wealth and government - FrameWorks UK This report contains six key findings about the state of British culture – and what this could mean for those of us working to change culture nationwide.

Great to see the new report (supported by @healthfoundation.bsky.social)‬ from FrameWorksUK on how mindsets that underpin public attitudes are shifting

frameworksuk.org/resources/mo...

Lots more interesting insights in the paper, but some key points below...
🧵

Reforming local government funding in England: the issues and options | Institute for Fiscal Studies A new, up-to-date system for allocating funding between councils is vital, and reforms must align with the broader vision for local government.

He also made a wider case for rebalancing funding towards more deprived areas that have lost out – he called it a “reverse Tunbridge Wells strategy”.

We funded IFS work looking into options for local gov funding: ifs.org.uk/publications...

He was strong on principle of NHS free at the point of use, saying alternative is a “poor service for poor people” and that advances in genomics now challenge insurance-based models.

We've said policymakers should recognise strengths of our system www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

He reiterated that 10 Year Plan will be a “plan for health” not just for the NHS and mentioned policies in different depts that help health.

All well and good …but will it be full X-govt health inequalities plan? If not, is there an aim to publish one? (the question I didn’t get a chance to ask!)

Wes Streeting speaking in Blackpool

A horse and cart on Blackpool seafront

Three observations from Wes Streeting’s health inequalities speech in Blackpool that I went to this morning 🧵

'Creating a cross-government plan for health may not all be plain sailing: it will require difficult decisions. But to duck those decisions is a choice too – and one that is unlikely to end well.' Alex Kennedy, Policy and Engagement Manager in Healthy Lives at the Health Foundation

What happened to the government’s health mission? Good health isn't just built in hospitals but shaped by living conditions - from adequate income to secure housing.

Alex Kennedy outlines the need for a cross-government plan to improve health and reduce health inequalities⬇️

https://bit.ly/3TorQHg

So we've had the Spending Review and the 10 Year Plan is due soon. But what about a *cross government* plan for health?

My blog hoping that the govt rediscovers some of the ambition and breadth of the original health mission.

www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Useful graph to get a snapshot of departmental (non capital) spending and priorities.

UK mortality trends and international comparisons New research reveals an increasingly concerning picture of health in the UK.

NEW: Our analysis with @lshtm.bsky.social highlights how the UK’s health compares increasingly poorly with other high-income countries.

The findings show that improvement is both possible and urgently needed ⬇

Health Inequalities: Impatient For Change From A Government Committed To Tackling Them | The King's Fund Dave Buck reflects on The King’s Fund’s health inequalities conference and stresses that the government must do more to set out its approach if it is truly committed to addressing its mission to halve...

Reflections from our #healthinequalities conference, so much positivity, challenge and the raw materials for change - currently missing a clear #plan, #framework or #strategy to reach the govt's welcome goal of halving the healthy life expectancy gap www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Limited ambition? • Resolution Foundation Abolishing the two-child limit would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty; if it is not scrapped, we project that 4.8 million children (34 per cent) will be in poverty by 2029-30, in...

Today we’ve published research on rumoured options for easing the 2-child limit without fully scrapping it. In short, none of the options rumoured to be on the table is an acceptable solution and most would bring cliff edges or distortions into the system www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Announcement today that Govt consulting on strengthening the Soft Drink Industry Levy - closing 21 July:

www.gov.uk/government/c...

Ministerial statement here: questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die.

Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.