Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

Executive summary
Introduction and context
1 Healthy Futures is the East of England’s first Regional Health Strategy. It is intended to improve the
overall health of people in the East of England, and to reduce inequalities in health within the Region.
Its focus is strongly on the underlying issues which determine people’s health. Hence this Strategy is
not concerned directly with the National Health Service (NHS), with health service delivery, or with
the health and social care sector; these important issues need to be addressed within the Region
but through other strategic processes.
2 Against this backdrop, Healthy Futures itself has three main purposes:
• To raise awareness of the issues surrounding the health of people in the East of England,
and the extent of health inequalities
• To demonstrate that responsibility for the health of people in the East of England is,
genuinely, a shared one
• To provide a basis for a meaningful dialogue – in both directions – between health care
policy makers and professionals, and other public agencies and organisations operating
in the East of England, in order to improve health within the East of England and to
reduce health inequalities.
3 The policy context for Healthy Futures is defined along two principal dimensions. Choosing Health
– the White Paper published by the Government in November 2004 – provides the national policy
backdrop; this emphasises the need to make it easier for individuals to make healthier choices. A
second key dimension is concerned with the regional context and, specifically, the priorities and
aspirations set out in key regional strategies. During 2004/05, these were distilled into Sustainable
Futures, the East of England’s first Integrated Regional Strategy. This included a Vision of a better quality
of life for everyone who lives or works in the East of England, and to this end it identified high level
outcomes and a set of priorities for the Region. Healthy Futures has been developed in this context.
The health of people in the East of England
4 On most measures, people in the East of England are somewhat healthier than the national average:
overall life expectancy is higher and the incidence of both cancer and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)
is lower. But within the Region, health inequalities are large and growing. The health of people in
the East of England is also less good than in other European regions.
5 There is substantial evidence to suggest a strong – although complicated – relationship between
people’s health and levels of deprivation. For example, in 2002-03, 7% of people in social class I
in the East of England were smokers compared to 33% in social class V, and cigarette smoking
has been identified as one important reason for the observed gap in life expectancy between rich
and poor. Within the East of England, these differences have a clear geography: areas such as Great
Yarmouth, Luton, Tendring and Peterborough are characterised by a high incidence of deprivation,
poor self-reported health and relatively low levels of life expectancy. However – as the Regional Social
Strategy makes clear – there are people living in poverty throughout the Region: groups which are
especially vulnerable include black and minority ethnic groups, disabled people, lone parents, older
people, carers, asylum seekers, refugees and ex-offenders.
A Regional Health Strategy for the East of England 09