Liverpool City Council’s public health team has secured £5 million of national funding to deliver a data-led approach to tackling inequalities.
The money, from the Department of Health and Social Care, through the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research), will be used to create a Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC).
Liverpool is one of eleven new areas to benefit from the scheme, which will fund research to better understand and introduce interventions to help tackle health inequalities and wider deprivation, looking at issues such as such as neighbourhood working, housing, and leisure.
The Council will be supported by fellow Sciontec shareholders, the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, along with Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services, Healthwatch Liverpool and the business sector, using their capacity and research expertise.
Deputy Council Leader, Cllr Ruth Bennett, said:
“The programme will help us carry out work to understand the specific challenges our communities face and then use this knowledge to come up with ways to tackle the issues and improve lives.
“This aligns with our move to a neighbourhood model of delivering services, tailoring the work we do to the specific needs of our communities.”
Professor Matthew Ashton, Liverpool’s Director of Public Health, said:
“Liverpool faces huge challenges in relation to health inequalities and I am pleased that we have been able to secure funding to create a Health Determinants Research Collaboration.
“We have a huge amount of research expertise thanks to our excellent universities and strong partnerships across the health and community sectors, which puts us in a strong position to make a real difference.”
