New perspectives on health inequalities

Health inequalities have long been a focus of public policy, yet gaps in health between rich and poor show few signs of closing, despite significant public spending.

In this paper Macmillan Cancer Support and the Bevan Foundation examine health inequalities in Wales, revealing an appetite for more and better evidence and a desire for urgent and radical action. We found:

• There there is strong interest in a wider view of health inequalities and developing alternative measures of inequality that are more meaningful to people and easier to track.
• There are different views about the availability of evidence on causes of inequalities and effective interventions. Where there are gaps in evidence, there was a clear demand for gaps to be filled, for greater innovation in practice and for effective dissemination.
• Some concern that action does not always reach people in lower socio-economic groups or with certain protected characteristics, especially at a scale sufficient to make a difference.
• A call for a greater political commitment to reducing wider social and economic inequalities and for closer liaison between those concerned about public health and those responsible for other services like housing, the economy and environment.

Report format: PDF
Language: English
Pages: 7
Cost: Free

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Macmillan Cancer Support and all those who shared their ideas at the October 2018 seminar.

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