Oxfordshire

In June 2024, Oxfordshire County Council committed to two years of work with the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE) to conduct a review to highlight inequalities across Oxfordshire and their underlying causes. By bringing together health and individual partner organisations, IHE will work to further advance the Oxfordshire system in tackling inequalities by combining existing plans and actions, identifying gaps, and recommending ways to achieve positive change.

 Oxfordshire as a Marmot place launched at Rose Hill Community Centre in Oxford on 25 November 2024. The programme aims to improve the lives of residents across the county and reduce health inequalities, with IHE and the Marmot approach catalysing joint-up action and sustained change driven by local communities and organisations.

 In year one, work will be focussed on Marmot principles:

• Give every child the best start in life
• Create fair employment and good work for all
• Ensure a healthy standard of living for all

Other areas of work will include:

• Understanding rural inequalities in Oxfordshire beyond the ten most deprived wards.
• Support Primary Care Networks by developing dedicated resources to improve the conditions affecting their patients' health.
• Developing projects focusing on policy research through the Local Policy Lab, a new alliance between the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and Oxfordshire County Council. This research will directly link back to the Marmot Place principles.

‘It's not about stopping what we're already doing, but evaluating and building on existing work, measuring and tackling rural inequality, and utilising research to find innovative solutions’.

The programme will involve a high-quality, evidence-based external review of Oxfordshire's activities to tackle health inequality, inform potential gaps, and form recommendations to go further as a system.  The Marmot programme will serve as a unifying force, connecting system-wide initiatives, supporting the development of an evaluation framework, and strengthening efforts to tackle social and health inequalities.

This first report as part of the Marmot Place project, overviews inequalities in health among babies, children, and young people and inequalities in key social determinants of health including development in the early years, through education and skills building, and into employment and further education. There is also focus on rurality, housing, green space and transport all areas which impact on the health and lives of children and young people.

Building on the evidence and the views of the many stakeholders we consulted, the report sets out high-level recommendations for action for the many sectors and organisations which shape health across the County. The next stage will be to develop practical actions underneath each of the high-level recommendations, informed by further consultation and discussion, currently taking place across Oxfordshire. There is a great deal that can be achieved to ensure greater health equity for all the residents of Oxfordshire.

Read more about the Marmot work taking place in Oxfordshire on the Oxfordshire County Coucnil website: Oxfordshire as a Marmot Place | Oxfordshire County Council

Read Oxfordshire County Councils newsletter, reflecting on their first year as a Marmot Place: Read the newsletter here