The Health Foundation is launching a new funding programme to strengthen relationships between economic development and health.

Good health has social and economic value for individuals, society and the economy. It is an enabler of the prosperous and flourishing societies that governments strive to achieve. People’s health relies not only on health care, but also on their economic circumstances – income, wealth, whether they have a job, and the type of work they do.

Through this programme, the Foundation will support local and regional partnerships to implement some of the ideas in that report by integrating economic development activity with work to improve health and/or reduce health inequalities.

Objectives

The core objectives of the Economies for Healthier Lives programme are to:

• improve the capacity and capability of economic development and public health professionals to take joint action to use economic development to improve health – for example, through the development of joint posts or organisational development activities.
• develop a better understanding of the mechanisms through which economic development interventions affect health and wellbeing outcomes – for example, by studying how local investments in infrastructure might change the conditions people need to lead healthy lives
• support the development of metrics to monitor the health and wellbeing impacts of economic development interventions – for example, through the provision of resource to build health, wellbeing and inequality measures into economic development strategies
• build understanding of how to translate the evidence base into practical action – for example, to tailor evidence about active labour market interventions to reflect local needs and priorities
• capture learning from the programme to be used to inform and change practice across the UK through wider dissemination by the Foundation.

Funding Information

• The Foundation is inviting local and regional partnerships to apply for funding of between £300,000 and £500,000 over three years.

Eligibility Criteria

• The programme is open to partnerships that should include:
  • a local authority or combined authority (lead partner)
  • public health bodies and leaders (where this responsibility sits outside of the local authority)
  • an academic partner (most likely a university, but this does not have to be the case)
  • a specialist partner that can provide additional topic or community engagement expertise (this could be a national representative body,
  • a voluntary and community sector organisation or a business).
• The Foundation would expect partnership plans to include joint working across public health and economic development functions. The Foundation recognise that these functions are structured differently across the four nations of the UK. Where public health functions sit outside the local authority, Foundation would expect the relevant national and/or local public health organisations to be involved in the partnership. The Foundation would also strongly encourage the involvement of relevant regional bodies such as Local Enterprise Partnerships in England or Regional Economic Partnerships in Scotland.
• While Economies for Healthier Lives will support a range of organisations through its partnership approach, the lead partner must be a local authority or a statutory regional body such as a combined authority.
• Each application must be submitted by a lead applicant from the lead organisation representing the partnership. Grant funds will be paid to the lead organisation.
• Current and past grant holders from the Health Foundation are eligible to apply.

For more information, visit Health Foundation.