What we’re calling for
Putting health at the heart
of government policy
We’re campaigning to make better health a national priority — not just for the NHS, but across every aspect of government. If the current government is going to achieve its mission of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy, then health must be considered in every decision, across every department.
Achieving these health goals requires a cross-government health inequalities strategy — one that recognises health as a shared responsibility.
1. Put at the health at the heart of government by:
Setting realistic but ambitious targets to tackle health inequalities
Targets help keep focus, but one headline measure isn’t enough. Healthy life expectancy matters, but we also need to track things like overall life span and the health of younger and working-age people — who are often overlooked. And since big outcomes take years to shift, we need short-term measures too, with clear accountability, to show what’s working now.
Ensuring clear roles for all departments to drive action on the building blocks of health
Every government department should understand how their work impacts people’s health and have a clear role in improving it. That means better coordination and shared priorities across departments to make sure policies are pulling in the same direction.
Providing enough funding to make it happen – especially for public health, support in the early years of life, and preventing illness before it starts
To make real progress, we need investment in the things that keep people healthy in the first place — like public health services, support for children in the early years, and prevention programmes. These are often overlooked, but they’re crucial for improving health in the long-run.
Making sure there’s accountability on tackling health inequalities, with an independent body to keep the government in check
We need a cross-government health inequalities strategy that puts health equity at the heart of decision making, through a light-touch statutory framework. This should include an independent body that holds the government to account for reducing health inequalities — tracking progress, shining a light on what’s working (and what isn’t), and making sure no community gets left behind.
2. Fix the building blocks of health
Our health is shaped by the world around us. It starts in our homes, schools, jobs, communities, and environment. We’re campaigning for change across all of these areas to ensure the building blocks that shape our health and allow us to live long, healthy lives are in place for everyone.
We do that by supporting and amplifying our members’ campaigning across the building blocks of health, as well as funding a series of partnership policy posts within our member organisations to develop evidence-based policy solutions that help shape our campaigning.
Our members campaign to:
- Extend employment support
- Reform Statutory Sick Pay
- Improve access to work and occupational health
With our support, Learning & Work Institute developed policy solutions to ensure that jobs help and not hinder health, covering ways to support disabled people and people with long-term conditions to move into and remain in work, how local governments can create healthier working lives and creating healthy home and hybrid working.
We’re also backing Race Equality Foundation’s Too Poor to Be Sick campaign, shining a light on how insecure work hits the health of Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic communities. We’re supporting research, co-creating messages with workers, digital storytelling events, public awareness work, and practical tools like toolkits and templates for MPs.
Our members campaign to:
- Invest in walking, wheeling and cycling to create healthy highstreets
- Restore public health funding
- Update planning laws to promote health
Our members campaign to:
- Build new social housing for the most in need
- Ensure decent homes
- Guarantee secure, affordable tenancies
With Crisis, we funded a policy post exploring affordability in the private rented housing sector that then underpinned their campaigning for affordable rents in the UK. As part of this, we supported their call to raise Local Housing Allowance so that it continues to cover at least the bottom 30% of rents.
Our members campaign to:
- Achieve WHO air quality standards
- The right to breathe clean air to be enshrined in UK law
- Improve access to nature for everyone
With our funding, Global Action Plan developed an ambitious policy framework for clean air and launched Clean Air Day, the UK’s largest air pollution campaign.
We’re also backing The Wildlife Trusts’ Access to Nature for All campaign, helping get more people into green spaces and supporting communities working to tackle health inequalities through nature.
Our members campaign to:
- Remove the two-child benefit limit and household benefit cap
- Ensure Universal Credit meets the cost of essentials
- Ensure that reforms to the welfare system do not further entrench health inequalities
With our funding, The Food Foundation are taking part at the Liberal Democrats and Labour 2025 party conferences: where their young Food Ambassadors will spotlight how food inequality impacts our health, money, environment, and childhoods.
Our members campaign to:
- Guarantee free and nutritious school meals
- Reinvest in Sure Start
- Improve school food standards
- Provide young people with mental health support in their communities
With our funding, we’re backing Centre for Mental Health‘s Future Minds campaign through a headline event at Labour’s 2025 party conference, community mobilisation, and a creative media push amplifying young voices on mental health inequality.
