Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

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1.4 These same issues also have a substantial impact on the economy of the East of England. People in the
East of England are, for example, less physically active than the national average. The National Audit
Office (NAO) has estimated that the total cost of physical inactivity is £8.2bn per year (including 72,000
lost working days and 86,000 premature deaths) 4 . This excludes the contribution of inactivity to obesity
which costs the wider economy (due largely to days of sickness relating to obesity) a further £3.5bn
per annum. 5 It is estimated that alcohol misuse costs around £20bn a year in England, including
alcohol-related health disorders and disease, crime and anti-social behaviour, loss of productivity in
the workplace, and problems for those who misuse alcohol and their families, including domestic
violence. 6 The economic significance of people being unable to work due to mental illness is even
greater; across England, output to the value of £23.1bn is lost as a result. 7
The purposes of Healthy Futures: the Regional Health Strategy for the
East of England
1.5 This document sets out a strategy to improve the overall health of people in the East of England,
and to reduce inequalities in health outcomes within the Region. Within this overall context,
Healthy Futures – the Regional Health Strategy for the East of England – has a number of purposes.
1.6 Raising awareness of the health of people in the East of England – and inequalities in their health –
is a first key purpose. To fulfil this purpose, a comparative baseline providing key data and statistics
is presented in Chapter 3, both to inform and underpin the Strategy, and to provide a benchmark
against which progress might be monitored subsequently. 8
1.7 From this foundation, the Strategy seeks to examine – and then to respond to – the factors which
together determine the health of people in the East of England. These determinants are broad in
character. They include the houses in which people live, the jobs in which they work, the leisure
activities in which they engage, and the social and familial networks in which their everyday lives
are structured. In the main, these ‘determinants’ exist outside the policy/organisational domain
that is conventionally labelled ‘health’ or ‘health care’. Policy decisions and prioritisation processes
– led by organisations as diverse as Local Authorities, LSPs, Learning and Skills Councils, Jobcentre
Plus, East of England Development Agency (EEDA), Government Office for the East of England
(GO-East) and EERA – all combine together to impact on health outcomes. Hence a second
purpose of the Strategy is to demonstrate that responsibility for the health of people in the
East of England is – genuinely – a shared one; health is everyone’s business.
1.8 A third key purpose is closely related to the second. It concerns the need for a fruitful and meaningful
dialogue – in both directions – between health care policy makers and professionals, and other public
agencies and organisations operating in the East of England. The intention is that this Strategy should
be as relevant to economic development agencies and partnerships, LSPs and Local Authorities as it is
to Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and the Department of Health (DH).
If it is to succeed in effecting improvements in the health of people in the Region and reducing health
inequalities, it needs to be genuinely cross-disciplinary, galvanising a range of perspectives, resources
and decision-making powers behind a shared agenda for the Region. Facilitating such a dialogue as
the basis for a joint endeavour is then a third key purpose for the Strategy as a whole.
4 Physical Activity in the East of England Eastern Region Public Health Observatory (ERPHO) 2005.
5 Obesity in the East of England ERPHO 2004.
6 Alcohol Misuse Intervention: Guidance on Developing a Local Programme of Improvement, DH, 2005 (Crown copyright).
7 Economic and Social Costs of Mental Illness in England Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2003.
8 A Technical Health Supplement for the East of England has been published alongside this strategy document. This presents a more comprehensive
range of data of relevance to Healthy Futures.