Economies for Healthier Lives
Economy and Work, Inequalities
Jan 2021 - Ongoing
The Health Foundation’s Economies for Healthier Lives (EfHL) programme funded five partnerships across the UK between 2021 and 2024 to deliver interventions that could reduce health inequalities through action on economic development.
The Glasgow City Region (GCR) partnership aimed to achieve this by maximising the health benefits generated by the region’s capital investment programmes. The primary output from this work has been a Capital Investment Health Impact Assessment Toolkit (or ‘CHIA’ toolkit); a resource to support the inclusion of health impact assessment for the city regions’ major capital spend projects.
Glasgow Centre for Population Health provided evaluation support to the Glasgow City Region (GCR) partnership throughout, which included annual reporting on progress and outcomes over the three-year period.
Project objectives
The GCR Economies for Healthier Lives (EfHLs) project aimed to maximise the health, wellbeing and economic benefits generated by Glasgow City Region’s Capital Investment Programme.
Three evaluation objectives guided the process throughout:
- Offer practical learning on the ‘process’ of delivering the project that can support its ongoing delivery and evolution.
- Provide an up-to-date account of project progress and ‘process’ learning for the funders (Health Foundation), the learning support organisation (RSA), the overall programme evaluators (Renaisi), and various project stakeholders and wider interest groups.
- Assess progress against the project’s agreed outcomes.
What is involved
Given the exploratory nature of the project, a formative approach to evaluation was developed. This involved collecting regular feedback from team members and project stakeholders through a combination of interviews, focus groups, surveys, observation and an ongoing review of written outputs from the project.
Findings & outcomes
Timeline and learning
Learning was collated throughout the life-course of the project. This was primarily to support the ongoing delivery of the project and to provide a steer on the actions needed to sustain the influence of the toolkit beyond the funding period. For year one, learning was generated in relation to project progress and the baseline expectations of partners. This highlighted broad consensus around project aims and a shared ambition for the project to support better partnership working between public health and economic development staff, as well as other allied professions.
Early operational challenges highlighted by members of the Core Team were predominantly related to ways of working and organisational culture, as well as to external factors that could shape organisational priorities and capacity.
Enabling factors were described in relation to effective ongoing engagement, leadership, alignment with policy and strategy, understanding and buy-in, and the potential usability of the toolkit.
Perceived success factors included collaboration around the development of an evidence-informed tool, widespread use of the tool across a diversity of sectors, prioritisation of a reduction in health inequalities through evidence-informed decision making and learning from the project shaping practice elsewhere.
In year two, the work continued to develop in line with the agreed Project Plan, with key milestones including the development of an Appreciate Inquiry Report, the delivery of ten Development Cohort Sessions for staff involved in impact assessment, and a Stakeholder Workshop. Additionally, a Community Panel was formed to help shape the development of the toolkit.
In year three, the Core Team fulfilled the project’s primary objective of developing a toolkit to support the consideration of health in capital spend projects. This was achieved through a planned, persistent and iterative approach by the Project Lead and Core Team, underpinned by evidence and the experience of multiple stakeholders, including the Community Panel.
Next steps
Since launch, the CHIA toolkit has been piloted and tested with a range of groups delivering capital spend projects across Glasgow City Region. The toolkit will continue to be developed iteratively, shaped by learning on its practical application in different contexts. The legacy of the work hinges on uptake and integration into everyday decision-making, particularly within local authorities.
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