Case Study

The Inclusive Wellbeing Economies Fellowship Programme in Yorkshire and the Humber

Tackling the root causes of ill-health

Yorkshire and the Humber

Yorkshire and the Humber is a vibrant and diverse region in Northern England, home to bustling cities like Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and York, alongside charming towns and countryside villages. While rich in assets, the region faces real challenges in health, with life expectancy and healthy years falling below the national average for both men and women [1].

To address the root causes of these longstanding health issues, the Directors of Public Health in Yorkshire and the Humber [2] have come together to work on three shared strategic priorities [3]:

Inclusive wellbeing economies - Improving the health of people and communities by ensuring that economic activity is sustainable and achieving shared prosperity for all, with no-one left behind.
Climate change and sustainability - Championing sustainability as a core public health principle across the region to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.
Improving life chances for children and young people - Improving children and young people’s life chances by working with partners across the region on areas such as housing, education, health, the early years and household income, moving beyond traditional themes of worklessness and educational attainment.

The strategic priorities are large, complex issues that any one locality is unlikely to be able to meaningfully tackle in isolation. As such, the Directors concluded that collective action is needed across the region to drive meaningful change, often in partnership with combined mayoral authorities, non-governmental organisations, voluntary and community sector organisations and academia.

A dedicated advanced practitioner fellowship programme

Since 2022, the work on the three strategic priorities includes dedicated funding for an advanced practitioner fellowship programme, which provides an opportunity for three public health professionals per intake to carry out focused work on the priority ambitions (one fellow per ambition). Intakes take place once every 18 to 24 months and the fellowship opportunities are advertised publicly, with applicants being interviewed for the roles. Anyone wishing to apply must have the support of their line manager and the cost of backfill is covered for the host employer.

For a period of between 12 to 18 months, fellows spend half of their working time (usually around 18 hours per week) on their strategic priority. The Inclusive Wellbeing Economies fellowship focuses on driving forward work across local government and system partners to create “… more deliberate and socially purposeful economies – measured not only by how fast or aggressive they grow; but also, by how well wealth is created and shared across the whole population and place, and by the social and environmental outcomes they realise for people.

The fellowship provides a learning and development opportunity and fellows get priority access to relevant training, such as systems leadership training. In addition, mentoring support is available for fellows and they are encouraged to get together with their fellow peers to support each other’s work and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Developing a wide range of resources

To date, Inclusive Wellbeing Economy fellows have developed a wide range of resources [3], such as:

A local Inclusive Wellbeing Economy narrative and accompanying slidedeck and blog
A collated list of policy and data resources on Inclusive Wellbeing Economies
A collated list of tools for local authorities working on Inclusive Wellbeing Economies
Case studies of Inclusive Wellbeing Economies in practice in Yorkshire and the Humber

In addition, the Inclusive Wellbeing Economies fellows have run webinars on IWE, established an Inclusive Wellbeing Economies practitioner peer group, as well as a resource hub on the National Health Service’s Futures website [4]. Ongoing work is happening on incorporating community insights into the work on Inclusive Wellbeing Economies, the development of “Narrative to Action” guidance, a master slidedeck, and workshop templates that policymakers in Yorkshire and the Humber can implement and apply.

The fellowship programme shows how much progress can be made on advancing wellbeing economy thinking and approaches within government, when a dedicated role is created to coordinate and drive the work.