Children and Young People’s Health Equity Collaborative

The Health Equity Collaborative is an innovative partnership which brings together children’s charity Barnardo’s, the UCL Institute for Health Equity (IHE) and integrated care systems (ICSs) from Birmingham and Solihull, South Yorkshire and Cheshire and Merseyside.

This first-of-its-kind programme, which is sponsored by Barnardo’s for a three-year period, aims to tackle physical and mental health inequalities facing children and young people today.

It is well reported that today’s younger generations are struggling in a post-Covid era and through the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. The aim of the Health Equity Collaborative is to identify and address the social determinants of health which both affect and matter most to children and young people across the key issues of Education, Home, and Community. This valuable data will form the basis of a new Children and Young People’s Health Equity Framework. This will be used to identify the key factors to assess and monitor impact and performance of pilot programmes and services which will help reduce the resulting health inequalities in each region.  

The Collaborative has already met with over 300 children and young people to start hearing their voices, listen to what they have to say and find out what changes they think are needed to support their health and wellbeing.

Find out more on the Barnardo's website and by watching the video below.