During his visit, Prof. Marmot provided insights into the Institute of Health Equity and its new role as a partner in Somerset’s Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC). This Council-led partnership is working to improve health and reduce inequalities through better use of evidence and research.
Prof. Marmot is the Director of University College London’s Institute of Health Equity. His life’s work and two national reviews of health inequalities, in 2010 and 2020, have underpinned our understanding of unfair and avoidable inequalities in health.
In Somerset, the gap in life expectancy is more than 10 years between some localities, and even larger gaps in healthy life expectancy. Prof. Marmot’s work has been pivotal in demonstrating how these inequalities are influenced by factors throughout the life course, from early childhood experiences to education, employment, housing, health, and care. It underscores the importance of a whole-system approach to addressing these issues– the whole system has a role in taking action.
His work has been recognised by the new Labour government, which has committed to making the UK a ‘Marmot country’, calling for action across the life course and by all public services to reduce inequalities.
