Neighbourhood health

• Locating “welfare advice hubs” in primary care settings could help patients and general practitioners
• ‘Age-friendly environments’ can support older people to live independently and in good health for longer, but also optimise health and wellbeing for the wider community
• Cuts to Sure Start spending linked to increased childhood obesity
• It can be a challenge to eat healthily because if we’re living in less healthy neighbourhood food environments
• The school environment can be associated with negative mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ young people

Addressing health inequalities in the night-time economy – Co-produced (with stakeholders) a conceptual framework that can help local councils decisions on whether, and how, to regulate businesses in their area. It is also being used to explore the potential impact of any decisions on health and health inequalities.

Communities in Control Study – Investigated the impact when residents of 150 disadvantaged areas in England were given £1 million over ten years to make their area “an even better place to live”.

Supporting community engagement to increase the control that communities have over decisions that affect them – Co-produced an online hub of learning materials and resources to support communities.

Evaluation of a Welfare Advice Hubs pilot scheme in primary care settings – Found co-located welfare advice improves short-term mental health and well-being, reduces financial strains and supports people to receive financial support they are entitled to.

Mental health and addiction services in Newcastle and Gateshead – Increased understanding of access to community-based mental health and addiction services from the perspective of both severe and multiple disadvantage service users and providers.

How do men experience social prescribing interventions in the UK? – Analysed of how men experience social prescribing.

Understanding place-centred public health strategies implemented in a context of financial constraint – Examined how, why and in what circumstances place-centred approaches are most likely to lead to improvement in health and inequalities.

Places & communities – What is known? Stakeholder views and research synthesis – Informed local level decision-making on delivering place-based strategies to improve health and reduce inequalities during times of economic insecurity.

The development and implementation of School Superzones in Local Authorities across the London Region – Looked at the effects of ‘place-based’ initiatives that aimed to improve the health and wellbeing of local residents, particularly for children and young people.

Developing age-friendly Towns and Cities: phase 1 – Developed a useful tool for assessing how well a city is progressing in its age-friendly ‘journey’.

Developing age-friendly Towns and Cities: phase 2 – Tested and refined the ‘age-friendly’ tool developed in phase 1.

Improving methodology for place and community-based public health natural experiments and interventions – Developed guidance targeted at local and national public health practitioners on when (and when not) to conduct natural experiments, how they could be designed, what different methods are available and how results should be interpreted.