People living in coastal towns like Blackpool, Weston-Super-Mare, and Hastings die younger and suffer more major diseases than their inland neighbours, with overstretched health services unable to close the gap. This matters because the 2021 Chief Medical Officer’s report identified coastal communities as having some of the worst health outcomes in the country. Poverty, poor housing, low wages, and limited opportunities drive these inequalities. Creative assets—arts and cultural organisations—could help, and Integrated Care Systems are meant to weave them into preventive health and social care. But collaboration between the NHS, local authorities, universities, voluntary groups, and residents routinely fails because these organisations have different goals, structures, and cultures. No one has yet produced a practical, evidence-based plan for how they can work together effectively. If this research succeeds, it will deliver exactly that: a tested plan for cross-sector collaboration in three coastal areas, focused on young people’s mental health, substance misuse, and end-of-life care. The plan could then be adopted by other coastal communities nationwide, reshaping how health services, councils, and community groups coordinate to tackle entrenched health inequalities.
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As shown by the Chief Medical Officer's 2021 report, coastal communities suffer some of the worst health outcomes in the country, and significant inequalities(1). In coastal towns, poverty, poor housing, limited opportunities and a low-wage economy(2) result in lower life expectancy and higher rates of major diseases compared to inland neighbours. Meanwhile, health services are overstretched(1). Creative community assets such as arts and culture organisations have the potential to improve lives(3), and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) aim to integrate community assets with preventive interventions and health and social care. However, collaboration between NHS, local authorities, universities, voluntary and community sector and residents is challenging because of differences in organisational objectives, structure, and culture. We need to understand how these stakeholders can come together to improve people's health. Our approach Building on our work in Phase 2 of this funding call, we will focus on three coastal areas with poor health in different regions of England: Blackpool, Weston-Super-Mare, and Hastings. We will work together, uniting these different stakeholders, to generate an evidence-based plan to support collaboration across sectors and with the community to tackle health inequalities. We will focus on key problem areas in mental health identified by our communities: young people's mental health and wellbeing; drug and alcohol (substance) misuse; and life-limiting illness and bereavement.
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