CTP JOINS MAJOR NEW £8m RESEARCH PROGRAMME

We are delighted to announce that CTP is to play a key role in a new major research programme, led by the University of Bath, to better understand and influence the impact of big business on all of our lives. 

For many years health professionals have worked to mitigate the social and environmental determinants of health – how things like poverty, ethnicity, climate and air quality affect our bodies and minds. But there is also growing interest in tackling the ways that large scale commercial activity – from tobacco, alcohol and processed food, to oil, gas and transport – influence the quality and length of the lives we lead.

This exciting new four year £8m programme is targeted at filling a gap in knowledge and evidence on effective local policymaking and intervention, as well as to support and equip more places to take action through locally relevant data, resources and support to tackle the many negative impacts and to grow and spread positive action.

CTP is delighted to be working with a partnership bringing together researchers at a number of leading academic centres (Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Sheffield and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), NGOs (Action on Smoking and Health, the Obesity Health Alliance, Alcohol Health Alliance), public health professionals including the Association of Directors of Public Health, local people and local government to understand how to tackle this complex issue in a holistic, place-based and systems-focused way. 

POWER IMBALANCES AND THE BURDEN OF IMPACT 

While many commercial organisations play an important role in the wellbeing of places through supporting local economies and jobs and providing vital goods and services, some are also contributing significantly through their products and practices to escalating rates of avoidable ill health, environmental damage and social and health inequity. These same industries – such as tobacco, processed food, alcohol, fossil fuels – often use their political and economic power to oppose local government action seeking to address the negative impacts. 

‘We witness first hand the amount of work local authorities, the NHS and others are doing to tackle the systemic and root causes of health and inequality’

At the same time, local actors including local and regional authorities, public health bodies, the voluntary and community sector are left struggling to cope with the accumulation of these impacts on people’s lives and on declining local budgets and increasingly stretched resources. 

At CTP we see this pressure play out in the work we do week in, week out to support cities and regions to deliver the conditions for us all to thrive. We witness first hand the huge amount of work local authorities, the NHS and others are doing to tackle the systemic and root causes of health and inequality. It’s clear that addressing commercial determinants is a vital part of that challenge – and also a powerful opportunity to bring together different parts of the system to work together to use their collective power.

This is where CTP comes in. We work with many places to ‘join-the-dots’ between different policy areas, sectors and organisations, helping to shine a light on how areas as diverse as economics, net zero, planning, transport and so on all have the ability to influence health and equity. Across the UK, many places are looking at this range of levers and learning how to work together to achieve shared outcomes. We will use this experience to support the new research programme – helping to understand who needs to be involved where, the interventions that work, what objectives and outcomes should be considered and how to measure progress towards them.

A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO DESIGN, IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND APPLICATION

Drawing on our wide-ranging experience working with places including local authorities, combined authorities and health organisations, CTP will bring insight and applied knowledge to help address complex interconnected issues at a local level. This includes practical knowhow on how to develop interventions that span policy areas and teams, to measure and understand the impact on wellbeing. 

We will also be drawing on our highly respected tools and approaches to measure and inform action on wellbeing in places. This includes the Thriving Places approach, which combines the overarching Thriving Places Framework, the publicly available Thriving Places Index and a wider range of indicators and valuable data that can be tailored to the specific needs of places. 

Finally our experienced consultancy team will support the partnership to understand the local systems in each place and develop tools, approaches and knowledge exchange for a wider range of local authorities and other actors to implement and expand the impact beyond the four years.

We are excited to be working with this exceptional partnership to deliver a programme that reflects the diversity of local places across the country. As the work develops, we look forward to sharing more with our network on how places UK wide and beyond can challenge the negative impacts of commercial entities and drive greater health and equity. 

Read the press announcement for further information. 

Lisa Groves, Head of Research, Data and Insight 

Photo by Engin Akyurt

Are you working in a local or combined authority and would like to work with CTP and its partners? Or would you like practical support to help shift your organisation, community or region to a Wellbeing Economy approach? CTP is here to help. Get in touch at hello@centreforthrivingplaces.org