Attenti Consulting’s Post

Yesterday with Louise Marshall and Jo Bibby at The Health Foundation, we published a new briefing outlining how prevention can help build a thriving society. Life expectancy gains have stalled and inequalities are widening. More people than ever before are out of work due to ill health and increasing pressures on public services. In this new briefing, we set out a policy roadmap bringing together a range of Health Foundation work over recent years that together can put health and prevention at the heart of government. This includes: - setting an ambitious goal to improve health and narrow inequalities which is independently monitored and where funding mechanisms incentivise long term policy making. - implement a cross-gov strategy to improve the building blocks of health, including reform of welfare and housing policy. - take population level action on the leading risk factors for health, include bold use of tax and regulation on alcohol, unhealthy food and tobacco. - enable and support approaches led by local government and combined authorities, including providing sufficient and sustainable funding that’s allocated fairly based on local needs. - Reorient health services to prevention, both in terms of services provided and their role as anchor organisations. All the detail, including specific policy asks and links to a wide range of related work, can be found here. Really hope you enjoy it. 👇👇👇 https://lnkd.in/eM5SEff7

📢 Investing in prevention isn’t just a funding strategy – it’s a vital shift towards healthier, more sustainable communities. The Health Foundation’s recent call to the Chancellor highlights a compelling need for increased preventive spending.  If this was extended to Scotland, this approach would be a powerful lever for Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs): 🌍 Reduced Pressure on Acute Services: By investing in prevention, we can decrease the demand on hospitals, address delayed discharges, and prioritise keeping people well and at home. 🤝 Supporting Health Equity: Prevention funding helps us address inequalities head-on, creating fairer health outcomes across Scotland. 💡 Community-Based Care: Preventive initiatives empower communities and reduce dependence on institutional care, supporting one of HSCPs’ core goals. 📈 Long-Term Financial Stability: Ultimately, prevention saves costs, allowing HSCPs to allocate resources effectively and focus on proactive care. Let’s back the call for categorising preventive health spending – it’s an investment in our collective future. Read more from the Health Foundation here: https://lnkd.in/ekZX99Yc # #PublicHealth #Prevention #HSCP #Scotland #HealthEquity #SustainableHealthCare”

A comprehensive blueprint from the Health Foundation on how a new Government can pivot to prevention. Reducing the burden of disease has gone from a fringe concern to the central debate about the future of healthcare reform. It's therefore great to see our leading think tanks focus on the issues. Addressing social and health inequalities would be a start. And it would be nonsensical for a new Government to put all their eggs in one basket focusing just on treatment to reduce the the NHS waiting list without a preventative strategy. They would be well advised to look at the success stories of employers who have embraced a holistic approach, moving the pendulum from reactive to proactive spend. Changing that dynamic will require a collective effort involving all major players. #healthcare #wellness #workplacewellbeing https://lnkd.in/e3MxJwy4

Ahead of the #GeneralElection, we have identified five key priorities that the next UK government should focus on to build a healthier UK. The adult social care system in England is in desperate need of reform. State-funded care is a threadbare safety-net and only available to people with the highest needs and lowest means, while many face potentially catastrophic costs. Services are under extreme pressure, with high levels of unmet need, patchy quality of care and an unstable provider market. Fixing the broken social care system will require investment and reform to improve services and tackle one of the biggest public policy failures of our generation. Learn more about this and the other priorities that make up our top five, including our rundown of the key actions the next government should consider in its policymaking 👇 https://lnkd.in/erYW5zFx

NEW: Today we launch the first of our #GeneralElection briefings calling for the next government to take urgent action to improve and invest in the nation’s health and reduce health inequalities. We set out the steps needed to improve health. The new government must: 👉 put health at the heart of its work – through a shift to a prevention-led approach to public spending backed by changes to Treasury rules 👉 address the gaps in the building blocks of health, particularly in more deprived parts of the UK including urgent action to tackle poverty 👉 take population-level action on the leading risk factors for ill health 👉 increase local government funding and restore the public health grant, ensuring fair allocation to meet local needs 👉 orient health and care services towards prevention, with a greater share of the funding on primary, community and preventative services. Read the briefing ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eknExbPu [Alt text: How can the next government take prevention from rhetoric to reality?]

🔬💰"Investing in public health isn't just a cost but an investment in a more productive future." This powerful statement came from a recent BMJ article and it highlights the urgent need to revitalise public health in the UK. 🔑 Key Action Points: 1️⃣ Advocate for the establishment of an independent body to assess government policies' impact on public health. 2️⃣ Push for a cross-government approach to address social determinants of health. 3️⃣ Rally for the restoration of funding to local government and public health. Check out the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eawchH4V Let's join forces and make a difference in public health! 💪🏥 #PublicHealth #HealthPolicy #HealthEquity #HealthcareLeadership #PatientCenteredCare #PolicyChange #HealthcareReform

If the evidence base is used, and a public health model is used, it seems that we should worry less about using a term that the public and others do not understand, and that may have negative connotations because of the lack of understanding of what it involves. Would we rather put our energy and efforts into initiatives that are good public health practice, or put our energy and efforts into fighting misunderstandings or misgivings about the term “public health”?

Paediatrics is disproportionately affected by social determinants of health! Children’s healthcare deserves better. We can’t just leave the NHS to pick up the pieces, when the root causes lie in wider issues such as poverty, stress, poor-quality work, housing and education. Coordinated cross-government action is needed to support the building blocks of our health. #socialdeterminants #advocacy #pediatrics #Paediatrics #poverty #inflation #costofliving Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) #health #healthcare #children #education #housing #stress #families

I too at first had mixed feelings about- yes we want to preserve the importance of the term “public health” in and for our field but at the same time, I am much more interested in achieving results. If this wording or lack thereof works for one side of the political aisle but gets results we are all trying to see, then I’m scratching my head, and asking ~ why we wouldn’t pursue it? Over time, I’ve used various nomenclature including population health, community health, health, health ecosystem, etc. depending on the audience. Our words must be intentional and with an eye toward bringing people together and not tearing them apart. Mind you, my experience has involved successfully traversing red, blue, and purple landscapes. So if this gets results, maybe on the back end, we remind people that it was public health that helped achieve the results. But indeed let’s focus on getting measurable results first and foremost. That (I hope) we can all agree on.