“Life is not grim up North, but, on average, people here get less time to enjoy it. Because of poorer health, many people in the North have shorter lifetimes and longer periods of ill-health than in other parts of the country. ”
The words of Paul Johnson from Public Health England in the foreword of the report of the Inquiry Panel on Health Equity for the North of England
A baby girl in Manchester can expect to live 15 fewer years in good health than a baby girl in Richmond, a baby boy 17 fewer years.
This gap, finds the report, is not static but has continued to widen over recent decades.
The North of England has persistently had poorer health than the rest of England and the gap has continued to widen over four decades and under five governments.
Since 1965, this equates to 1.5 million excess premature deaths in the North compared with the rest of the country.
The reasons are many and varied. There are differences in poverty, power and resources needed for health
There are factors such as exposure to health damaging environments, such as poorer living and working conditions and unemployment and there is the chronic disease and disability left by the historical legacy of heavy industry and its decline.
While other factors such as good quality early years education; economic and food security, control over decisions that affect your life; social support and feeling part of the society in which you live also come into play.
The report also concluded that the burden of local authority cuts and welfare reforms has fallen more heavily on the North than the South, on disadvantaged than more affluent areas, and on the more vulnerable population groups in society, such as children.
These factors, it found, are leading to
reductions in the services that
support health and well-being in the very places and groups where need is the greatest.
The report calls for a strategy that not only ameliorates the impact of poverty but also seeks to prevent poverty in the future, not least by investing in people (improving skills and health and hence employment prospects), as well as investing in places.
The strategy links public service reform to economic development in the North, to refocus services on preventing poverty and promoting prosperity.
In particular it recommends promoting healthy development in early childhood as a way forward.
You can download the summary HERE and the full report HERE
