Read: East Suffolk and North Essex backs levelling up framework

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) has become one of the first NHS Trusts to commit to a new set of levelling up measurements. 

In partnership with former Education Secretary Rt Hon Justine Greening and former Public Health Minister Rt Hon Anne Milton, ESNEFT will develop a Levelling Up Impact Report to map its activity against the Levelling Up Goals. 

Launched earlier this year by Justine Greening, the Goals provide a universal benchmark for organisations to track progress. The 14 goals provide Britain’s first levelling up framework to focus efforts on driving equality of opportunity at key life stages, from early years through to careers, alongside the barriers to opportunity such as closing the digital divide and health and wellbeing.

The report will highlight best practice already underway at the Trust, including collaboration with local communities to tackle issues such as fuel poverty and poor nutrition education, as well as work around employment, skills and training opportunities. It will also look at areas ESNEFT can go even further in tackling health and social inequalities. 

ESNEFT joins a growing number of organisations measuring their impact against the goals, including the BBC, Amazon UK, Cisco, Manchester United Foundation and Northumbria University.

A long-term campaigner on social mobility and levelling up both inside and now outside of Parliament, in 2018 Justine Greening co-founded the Social Mobility Pledge to bring organisations together to improve social mobility. The Levelling Up Goals are the first major piece of work launched by the most committed of these organisations.

Justine Greening said: “I’m thrilled to be working alongside Nick Hulme and the team at East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust on a Levelling Up Impact Report. ESNEFT is a huge employer and plays a significant role in the health and wellbeing of the communities it serves, not only through its hospitals and medical facilities but through its role as an anchor institution.  

Dr Shane Gordon

“The disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on certain communities has highlighted the urgent need for action on health inequalities and the wider role that NHS Trusts can play. Health plays an absolutely crucial role in the levelling up agenda and we must ensure that tackling health and related social inequalities is a priority.”

Dr Shane Gordon, Director of Strategy, Research and Innovation at ESNEFT, said: “East Suffolk and north Essex includes some of the most affluent areas of England but also some of the most deprived. Just looking at health, the significant inequalities in the communities we serve lead to poorer outcomes and shorter life expectancy and we are committed to this work of levelling up.”