Lambeth Health Determinants Research and Evaluation Network (Lambeth HEART)

Summary: Our vision for the HDRC is to understand and act on the drivers of inequalities in Lambeth. The HDRC will create local research infrastructure and capacity in an integrated health and care system; build on a sophisticated linked data infrastructure which already brings together linked health information but will be expanded to local authority data; focus approaches on race equity and intersectionality with other protected characteristics and impacts of health.

Background: The London Borough of Lambeth (LBL) is a diverse inner-city borough with substantial health & wellbeing needs. LBL has an ambition to reduce the inequalities experienced by our residents by improving the economic, social and environmental factors, which contribute to wider health & wellbeing outcomes. The place based integrated care partnership Lambeth Together, shares our ambition of improving health and wellbeing and reducing inequalities.

Aim: To develop an open and participative research collaboration which generates new knowledge, identifies, and applies existing evidence to tackle wider determinants to reduce inequalities in health and wellbeing outcomes. This will be underpinned by research, data, evidence which involves local people and informs decisions made by LBL and its partners and is delivered within an integrated health and care system.

Objectives: 1. Develop a culture of research though leadership, training and engagement; 2. Establish mechanisms for the co-production with local communities; 3.

Further develop and build on existing data infrastructure to support wider determinants research linking local authority data, and build capacity; 4. Develop wider collaboration to extend the scope of research agendas and projects; 5. Build on existing platforms to support dissemination of learning, sharing of resources and engagement with partners and communities; 6.

Support strategic and scalable interventions which are likely to have reach and impact in the social determinants of health; 7. Ensure sustainability by building skills and capacity to apply for external research funding aligned to local priorities

Key deliverables: We have 17 deliverables related to these objectives focusing on culture change, collaboration, developing research data infrastructure, learning from other HDRCs, using evidence to influence policy and research agendas; scope and develop platforms to support dissemination; evaluation and reporting; agree work to design interventions; support the commissioning and evaluation of programmes; horizon scan for research funding opportunities.

Collaborations: This proposal was co-developed with a range of partners including staff, academics, Black Thrive, Healthwatch Lambeth, various community groups, Councillor's, and our statutory partners such as Lambeth Together and Kings Health Partners

Anticipated impact and dissemination: The impact of our HDRC can divided into changes in the structure and process of decision-making in LBL, short-term changes in local policies & practice, service impacts, and longer-term impacts on health and wellbeing and inequalities to people in Lambeth. We will follow the principles of good dissemination; produce a range of outputs tailored to our audiences in an accessible language; utilise opportunities to build on our existing networks, and events within our partnerships.