A new partnership is seeking to improve health outcomes for social housing residents in Black Country, bringing together the health and housing sectors with the aim of “exploring ways to best serve the needs of some of the most disadvantaged in society”.
The Health and Housing Forum is led by landlord whg in partnership with Black Country ICB. Building upon the work of current health and housing partnership programmes in Walsall, the forum seeks to tackle health inequalities by ensuring that people who live in social housing are able to access health services.
Tapiwa Mtemachani, director of transformation and partnership at NHS Black Country ICB, called the forum “a great opportunity for partners to share learning and look at innovative ways of improving outcomes for our Black Country population. The ICB remains committed to supporting the continued development of this partnership as part of the overall development of our integrated care partnership.”
Fay Shanahan, corporate director of operations and IT at whg, shared that the organisation has been “working with our health partners for a number of years now and have created several programmes, funded by health, which are making a huge difference in tackling health inequalities in Walsall. These include our community champions, who use their lived experience and knowledge of the communities they live in to encourage and support local people into advice and local healthcare services.”
Other members of the forum include Green Square Accord; Bromford, CHADD; Nehemiah Housing; Black Country Housing; Wolverhampton Homes; Wolverhampton City Council; Sandwell Council; and Dudley Council.
In other news from Black Country ICS, the region has released its Green Plan in line with the NHS Net Zero ambitions which aims to create a greener, more sustainable healthcare system.
On inequality, The Health Foundation has announced that it is setting up a new Policy Research Unit in Scotland with a focus on improving health and reducing inequalities, following the publication of the “Leave no one behind” report, which brought together evidence of trends in health inequalities and wider determinants.
