On Wednesday 9 April 2025 about 20 of us from a combination of Walsall, Wolverhampton and South Staffs Branch Co-operative Party, the Labour Party in Walsall and our neighbours from Sandwell came together to develop our understanding about health inequalities in our areas and how that work is being taken forward in Coventry following the Marmot Principles.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot is arguably the world’s leading expert in social determinants of health. His core argument, with which he began his 2015 book, The Health Gap is:

“What good does it do to treat people and send them back to the conditions that made them sick?”

Since 2013, Marmot has proffered the most articulate, coherent, evidenced case for why, if you under-invest in childcare, education, employment, welfare, housing and the built environment, then health and life expectancy inevitably suffer.

We were delighted to be joined by speakers Councillor Matt Ward, Leader of the Labour group for Walsall Council, Councillor Doctor Chipiliro Kalebe-Nyamongo from Sandwell Council and a representative from Coventry City Council. We were especially grateful to Wolverhampton North East MP Sureena Brackenridge for unexpectedly joining our panel and making insightful and heartfelt contributions to the discussions.

Councillor Ward spoke briefly about the situation in Walsall where there is a sharp divide between the poorer west of the borough and the relatively more affluent east especially in relation to premature mortality, life expectancy and families living with fuel poverty. Walsall has the 11^th highest rate for fuel poverty in England.

Councillor Dr K-Nyamongo outlined a similar picture for parts of the West Midlands as a whole. Her view echoed the value of the Marmot principles and the strength of cooperative partnership approaches far outstripping the contribution of single health focused public services.

Her key focus again amplified the Marmot message that the social, economic and environmental determinants of health reach beyond traditional approaches to individuals’ life choices or apparent health conditions. That we need to move the interventions “upstream” to tackle the inequality of the determinants of health, rather than the individual health conditions that then emerge. And we heard about the journey within Coventry from 2013 when they embarked on their “Marmot City” vision and how, by careful focusing, monitoring and tracking, they have seen improvements. The Covid pandemic had inevitably hampered progress but also, if we needed any further evidence, that despite positive changes in the Indicators of Multiple Deprivation the effects of the pandemic were most starkly focussed in the poorest areas.

During the networking break, participants undertook a simple but effective SWOT analysis of the information we had heard and the approach we had learned about.

The activity prompted lots of questions to the full panel, ably and engagingly facilitated by Jennifer Hemingway, National Equalities Officer for the Co-operative Party.

Following the event, strong links have been established especially with Cllr Caan in Coventry who is happy to help the Labour Group in Walsall as they seek to develop their manifesto ready for 2026 and Councillor Ward is making steps to establish a working group to take that forward.

A further bonus is that elected members from Sandwell have also committed to investigating how to take the issue forward within their council and again, we are jointly committed to working closely with them and co-operating by offering mutual support.

In summary, this was a relatively small, informal and engaging event and we are grateful to the Co-operative Pary Activities Fund for assisting with it. We achieved the objectives of the ideas behind the event being:

1. Consider if the approach could and should be applied in Walsall and other areas in the region. Yes, it could and should!
2. If possible, to explore establishing a group to develop ideas and a potential policy framework. Yes, we have commitments from Walsall Labour Leader and Sandwell elected members, together with some joint working as required with Coventry.

Finally, and for me the most important thing I take away from the event is summarised in the article from 2024 by Ian Fannon at Claremont, commenting on the Marmot Approach:

“His work provides an inspiring call to arms for each of us and collectively to get real about what needs to change, and where our focus should lie.”

The proof of the pudding from our event in Walsall is yet to be determined. But we made a start. They say that the longest walk starts with one single step. And we achieved that. Thank you to everyone who contributed and supported the idea.