Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

• Food and Health Action Plan: the development of this Plan will be led by the East of England
Public Health Group during 2006. It will link to the Obesity Framework which has recently been
completed to support NHS delivery.
Other national strategies and policies
2.8 Alongside Choosing Health and its allied documents, Healthy Futures has been influenced and
informed by various other national strategies that are concerned with health and well-being more
generally. These include the National Strategy for Sustainable Development (published in 2005);
the National Service Frameworks for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, and for Older
People; the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (2001); and the Sustainable Communities Plan
(2003). Reference to these and other national strategies and policies is made throughout this document.
Broader regional policy context
2.9 Within the East of England, the strategic context for Healthy Futures is set out in a suite of regional
strategies. The most important – given the argument in Section A (which follows) – are the draft
Regional Spatial Strategy (East of England Plan) which sets out priorities for spatial development
Region-wide (including transport and housing provision) over the period to 2021; the Regional
Economic Strategy which sets out the Region’s ambitions for the future of its economy; and the
Regional Social Strategy, which is concerned with addressing social exclusion in the East of England. 13
2.10 During 2004/05, the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) led an exercise to review these – and
other – regional strategies, to draw out common themes (and identify potential tensions) and hence
to present a single Vision, a set of high level outcomes, and a composite set of priorities for the East
of England as it looks to the future. This process resulted in the production of Sustainable Futures:
the Integrated Regional Strategy for the East of England. This provides the main regional policy
context for Healthy Futures (see Figure 2.1, overleaf).
2.11 In preparing the Integrated Regional Strategy, the intention was that future regional strategies –
such as Healthy Futures – should be developed in the context provided by the Integrated Regional
Strategy, contributing to its overall Vision of a better quality of life for all who live or work in the
Region. Beyond this, Healthy Futures will need to reflect and respond to the changing realities of the
East of England as set out in the Integrated Regional Strategy. This identified eight Crucial Regional
Issues for the East of England and – in developing the Regional Health Strategy – proper account needs
to be taken of these. Hence there is a need to recognise fully the significance of the growth agenda,
the tensions in terms of travel and transport, the dilemmas relating to the growth of the knowledge
economy, the issues relating to the increasingly polarised labour market, continuing concerns around
deprivation and social exclusion, rural issues and pressures on resource use, as well as what the
Integrated Regional Strategy identified as Crucial Regional Issue 6 – health and well-being.
Conclusion
2.12 Drawing together the main themes set out in Choosing Health and the priorities identified through
strategic processes in the East of England, it is clear that Healthy Futures needs to embrace the
philosophy of Choosing Health – and equipping all people to do so effectively – but within the
fast-changing and complex context that is the East of England. As the backdrop to the Strategy,
these issues are examined in Section A.
13 Note that the Regional Social Strategy includes within it a specific commitment to develop a regional strategy to address issues relating to public health.
A Regional Health Strategy for the East of England 21