Health of The Region

Across the West Midlands, the length of time people live, and the length of time people live in good health, are much shorter than the national average. This was exposed and made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities were among those most affected.

In the West Midlands:

Women live for 82.2 years on average (England 83.2) and spend 22 years in poor health

Men live for 78.0 years on average (England 79.6) and spend 18 years in poor health.

47.9% people reporting high levels of anxiety in 2020 compared to a 2019 average of 21.9%.

On average, people reporting feeling ‘often lonely’ ranged from 4.9% to 6.5% over this period; and was generally higher for younger people.

In collaboration with partners, the WMCA launched the Health of the Region report in 2020 with the aim to tackle this problem. Early intervention and prevention can have a lasting impact on someone’s life and can help to reduce their reliance on support services in later years. The report set out a regional framework for action to tackle health inequalities across 4 key challenge areas:

1. Improving outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities
2. Tackling the wider determinants of health
3. Widening access to health and care
4. Enabling people-powered health

WMCA and partners across the region made 50+ commitments to action to tackle these challenge areas. Commitments and progress can be found (here) and case studies from actions across the region can be found (here).

A series of roundtable events provided a regional forum for communities to engage with health and wellbeing system leaders on the issues facing the health of the region. A Core Group which brings together 15 representatives from across the health and wellbeing system in the West Midlands has been taking their work forward.  Find out more about the group in a blog by chair Amrick Singh Ubhi, view the latest Core Group blog (Health of the Region Blog).

Members of the Core Group