About health inequalities

Health inequalities are avoidable differences in health between different groups within society. They can arise from a range of factors, including geography, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation and age.

Addressing these inequalities is crucial for population health, and is a key focus for healthcare partners across the county – including Lincolnshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board, Public Health departments and the Lincolnshire CCG, amongst others.

At Active Lincolnshire, we work with these partners to address health inequalities by ensuring the provision of inclusive, accessible opportunities to be physically active.

Why are we committed to tackling health inequalities in Lincolnshire

• It’s a moral imperative – we want to make sure everyone has access to the same opportunities to be active
• Ill health, disability and premature mortality disproportionately affect the most deprived populations
• Physical activity can help reduce health inequalities and improve the outcomes of healthcare

We recognise the positive impact we can have on tackling inequalities by making sure everyone has access to relevant, sustainable opportunities to be active. We also know that people with more challenging health needs may need extra support or require new and different ways to take part in physical activity.

At the heart of our work is the commitment to collaborate with partners across the county to influence a whole system approach to physical activity. That’s why we work with partners on a range of programmes and partnerships to reduce the impact of inactivity on health inequalities, focusing our efforts on those that need the most support.

Here are some of the ways we’ve been tackling health inequalities in Lincolnshire:

• Delivering Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities project
• A pilot project working with Active Dorset
• Working with NECAP (North East Coast Active Partnership)

Physical activity & the healthcare system

Active Lincolnshire is working with the Lincolnshire CCG and Active Dorset on a 12-month pilot project to embed physical activity across the healthcare system.

The project follows a successful programme in Dorset, funded by Sport England, that saw Active Dorset develop closer links with healthcare providers (Dorset Active Ageing Project). Learning from their experience, Active Lincolnshire is collaborating with partners to share resources and research, as well as exploring new opportunities to provide healthcare professionals with the tools they need to help people be more active.

For more resources on embedding physical activity into the healthcare system click here or visit our Knowledge Hub.

North East Coastal Active Partnership (NECAP)

Active Lincolnshire is one of six Active Partnerships that operate along the North East coast of England, stretching from Gibraltar Point in Lincolnshire all the way to the Scottish borders. Along with Active Lincolnshire, these partners include Rise, County Durham Sport, Tees Valley Sport, North Yorkshire Sport and Active Humber.

As a region, the coastal areas of the North East face significantly worse health inequalities than the majority of the country, compounded by communities that are less likely to be physically active.

That’s why we formed the North East Coastal Active Partnership (NECAP) – a collective of Active Partnerships working to address inactivity and health inequalities in North East England. This area is coterminous with the North East region of the Coastal Communities Alliance, the body that looks after coastal matters across England.

Due to the finite resources that each Active Partnership has, along with our commitment to work with our partners along the coast, we believe that we need to work as a collective to address these issues. Together, we are collaborating in a way that reflects the NECAP group’s shared purpose: to turn the tide on physical inactivity along the North East coast.

Turning the tide on physical inactivity

As part of this goal, we have created the following report: England’s physically inactive coast: turning the tide on physical inactivity rates

The report outlines the very real problems we face and seeks support from bodies, specifically Sport England, to help us address the low physical activity rates we face in these communities.

50% of the most inactive counties in the country are along the North East coast. Even when looking at the people whose activity rates do meet the recommended physical activity levels, four of our Active Partnerships are in the bottom eight on that measure. Of the coastal areas in the partnership, Lincolnshire is the least active county.

Physical activity rates are just one of the many issues and inequalities where our coastal communities score poorly in comparison to other coastal areas of England and especially to non-coastal communities.

Covid-19 has hit us hard and our coastal towns have regularly been at the top of the worst affected places in England. While the impact of Covid-19 has been felt in all areas of society, many of our coastal communities have faced the brunt of this crisis due to the existing inequalities that were already embedded along the North East coast.

Better together

We feel that by working as a collective, we can show that the issues we face are not unique to our own individual area, allowing us to have a much greater impact. What’s more, partnerships at a community level in places facing the greatest disadvantages have been shown to yield positive outcomes.

By seeking to address the underlying low levels of physical activity in our communities, we aim to ensure that we see long-term improvements across a range of other health and wellbeing inequalities.

We have identified three recommendations to help drive our ambition over the long term and have asked Sport England to support us with these recommendations:

Recommendation 1:

Sport England and other national agencies recognise the high levels of inactivity along the North East coast of England and the need to address this long-term situation to effect wider societal change.

Recommendation 2:

As it reviews how it will best fund organisations to tackle inequalities over the next four years, Sport England discuss with the six North East Coast Active Partnerships how that funding approach could best help to increase the activity rates along the North East coast.

Recommendation 3:

Sport England and the six Active Partnerships work together over the next 12 months in a collaborative way, like the ‘core cities’ model, on what can be done now to improve activity rates along the North East coast.

The report sets out our rationale on why we think a new approach is required. This is not a simple bid for cash – it's about changing the way we all work in a collaborative way across an area that has largely been ignored by a whole variety of Government and national agencies. The area has struggled to make its voice heard on the challenges it faces.

Get involved

Active Lincolnshire wants to work with local stakeholders, the wider NECAP group and Sport England to understand how we can solve this epic challenge together.

The last 10 years have seen the North East coast go significantly backwards in terms of wealth, health and activity. We remain a resolutely inactive community and place; quite simply, our collective efforts over the last decade have failed to make the required impact in our coastal communities.

By learning from the experiences of the last decade and collaborating as Active Partnerships, we can find new and innovative ways to drive significant change and reduce inequalities, supporting the communities we serve to see physical activity as part of the solution.

If you’d like to discuss the report further or work with us to increase activity levels in Lincolnshire, especially in coastal areas, please contact:

Emma Tatlow, Chief Executive