In Practice: Tackling health inequalities in Edmonton

About the project

North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) recognised that some communities face barriers to accessing health and care services which plays a significant factor in widening health inequalities. They wanted to listen to those communities, understand their barriers and explore collaborative action.

Who we worked with: North Central London ICB in collaboration with Edmonton Community Partnership and Healthwatch Enfield

“We had an incredibly positive experience working with New Local in NCL ICB. In particular, we valued their ability to translate national evidence into workable local solutions, and to facilitate conversations in a way that encouraged a diverse range of participants to speak up. They were very clear in all communications, whilst being open to challenge and comfortable with exploring new solutions to entrenched issues. We hope to work again with them soon!”

Ruth Donaldson, Director of Communities, NHS North Central London ICB

How we did it

Our partnership used a range of deliberative and creative methods to deliver this project, involving over 150 people during the course of the work:

• Three interactive workshops bringing together residents, VCSE groups, and public sector (NHS and local authority) focusing on: Living a healthy life in Edmonton; Talking and listening to improve health and wellbeing; Taking action to address health inequalities. We held a mixture of online and in-person sessions and daytime and evening sessions.
• Working with our partners, a showcase event led by Edmonton Community Partnership and involving Platinum Performing Arts, allowed young people and residents from Gypsy Roma Traveller Bulgarian communities to share their lived experience and stories through music, poetry, dance, film and panel discussions, captured by a graphic scribe.
• A series of focus groups and a survey led by Healthwatch Enfield captured the perspectives of specific communities, including mental health service users and Turkish women.

What was achieved

North Central London ICB forged stronger connections between communities, the VCSE and public sector organisations in Edmonton, deepened their insights into what matters to people’s health and wellbeing in Edmonton (particularly those facing the greatest inequalities), and modelled the importance of creating the space for ‘open conversations’ with communities. The project was assessed by Middlesex University as ‘displaying excellent levels of coproduction with your local community’ and within the top 11 initiatives out of 46 Inequalities Fund projects assessed.

Many of the recommended actions are now reflected in NCL ICB’s Working with People and Communities Strategy and the NCL Population Health Improvement Strategy which focuses on understanding and addressing the needs of North Central London’s underserved communities.

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