Case studies

St Helens Borough Council, working in collaboration with its partners through an award-winning inequalities commission, is looking at how stigma can exacerbate the inequalities affecting many aspects of people’s lives. Together, they are exploring how stigma can affect people’s access to and experience of a range of services, and how system change can help to combat this.

Kirklees has a valuable resource in its network of community champions – local residents trained to share important health and wellbeing messages within their communities. The champions use their local knowledge and connections to have conversations which provide information, raise awareness, educate and signpost people to the right support.

Suffolk’s public health and communities team are using a data-driven approach to review local premises licence applications, focusing their influence on areas with the worst alcohol-related health harms and health inequalities. This work has been welcomed by local partners, including licensing officers and the police, for helping to reduce alcohol-related harm.

To address low breast cancer screening rates in Dudley and Netherton, a mobile screening unit was relocated to a central location, and a targeted awareness campaign was co-produced with local women.

Worcestershire’s smoking at time of delivery rate has historically been higher than the national average (12.2 per cent in 19/20). Worcestershire has had low rates of carbon monoxide screening in pregnancy, average quit rates that struggled to rise above 40 per cent and no service for women after they had given birth- meaning many would be likely to relapse and enter their next pregnancy as a smoker.

For Cheshire and Merseyside, as with many Marmot Places, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked collective action across the region’s nine local authorities to address and tackle existing and deepening health inequalities.

In 2019, the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, already conscious of the persisting health inequalities across its region, commissioned the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE) to help establish a Marmot City Region, focussing on reducing health inequalities in the social determinants of health.

Coventry became the first ‘Marmot City’ in 2013 after approaching the UCL Institute of Health Equity for support in reducing health inequalities in the city.

Every Marmot Place is different. Factors such as geography, demography or the economy impact on the social determinants of health and in turn the local population.

Luton, a town with a population of 225,300, is a diverse community where 55 per cent of residents come from ethnic minority backgrounds.