On 3 July, the Department of Health and Social Care released ‘Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England,’ the Government’s flagship plan to improve health and health services in England.
Homeless Link welcomes the explicit reference to homelessness as driving health inequalities. Currently, as our Unhealthy State of Homelessness report details, people experiencing homelessness have significantly worse health outcomes than the general population, with 63 per cent having a long-term illness, infirmity or disability.
With other homelessness charities and service providers, we will be analysing the plan in detail in the coming days and weeks to identify how we can collaborate with government to implement the plan effectively.
Commenting on ‘Fit for the future,’ Homeless Link CEO Rick Henderson states:
“Homelessness can have a devastating impact on health. The average age of death of someone experiencing homelessness is around 30 years lower than that of the general population.”
“So the explicit acknowledgement of homelessness as a major driver of health inequalities within the 10 Year Health Plan is an extremely important step towards improving how the health system interacts with homelessness.”
“The introduction of Neighbourhood Health Services – if properly resourced – could help identify people in the community who are at risk of homelessness and enable earlier intervention to prevent people from losing their home in the first place.”
“The plan is light on detail regarding inclusion health and specialised services, however. We are hopeful to see more detail soon regarding how Government will target healthcare towards people experiencing homelessness, who face some of the most extreme health inequalities but often don’t show up in current NHS data. A new, universal marker to record housing status would go a long way to help health services target the deepest pockets of health inequality.”
“A lot of good work has already been done across the sector, including by Homeless Link members, on how the country’s health systems could better support people affected by homelessness. We look forward to sharing this insight with Ministers as plans for implementation are developed.”
