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In Liverpool, considerable disparities exist in health outcomes depending on the neighbourhood, with residents in less affluent areas facing shorter and less healthy lives compared to those in wealthier parts of the city. Addressing these inequalities presents a significant challenge, but an expanding collaborative effort involving local communities, healthcare providers, researchers, and various organisations is showing that meaningful progress begins within neighbourhoods themselves.
The ReCITE Festival of Learning, held on 18 June 2026, brought together a diverse group including residents, voluntary groups, NHS partners, researchers, public sector representatives, and creative professionals to confront some of the key factors contributing to poor health and reduced life expectancy. Their initiatives work toward building trust, enhancing service accessibility, and creating solutions that truly reflect people’s lived experiences in these communities.
Councillor Ruth Bennett, Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council, emphasized the necessity of collaborative approaches: “The most persistent and unfair differences in health outcomes cannot be solved by services alone. They require approaches that build trust, strengthen relationships, increase community power and create genuine opportunities for people to shape solutions themselves.” She highlighted how ReCITE exemplifies partnership working by uniting communities, voluntary organisations, health services, researchers, and creative partners to co-create solutions grounded in local priorities.
Several projects featured through ReCITE focus on distinct health challenges impacting Liverpool’s populations. In central Liverpool, Liverpool Lighthouse collaborates with families to raise awareness and increase uptake of whooping cough vaccinations during pregnancy, protecting newborns from severe illness. The Lungevity initiative in North Liverpool aims to improve recognition of lung cancer symptoms and promote earlier engagement with healthcare services to enhance treatment outcomes. Additionally, Rotunda’s North Liverpool Lives project addresses social isolation and mental wellbeing among men in Vauxhall and Kirkdale, reflecting the links between loneliness and broader health disparities. Other efforts include the High Intensity Users project supporting individuals with complex needs who frequently use emergency care, Stay Healthy Liverpool’s work with migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking communities to improve access to trusted health information, and the Walton Centre’s Seize Control programme empowering people with epilepsy. Young participants in the Innov8 Community Innovation Team in Liverpool 8 advocate for awareness of Type 2 diabetes and healthier lifestyles to aid prevention from an early age.
Though each initiative targets a specific issue, they collectively strive to prevent illness, improve wellbeing, and ensure that communities most affected by health inequalities have a significant role in shaping solutions. Dr Dawn Holford, ReCITE Research Lead, stated, “Learning from our collective stories is how we seed the change we need.” She added, “The communities involved in ReCITE bring knowledge, relationships and lived experience that are essential to tackling health inequalities. When organisations work alongside communities as equal partners, we create solutions that are more relevant, more trusted and ultimately more effective.”
Echoing this sentiment, Amina Ismail, a member of the Community Innovation Team, noted, “The people who live, work and care within communities are often the people who understand those communities best. They hold the stories, the relationships, the knowledge and the insight that can sometimes be missed when decisions are made from a distance. When communities are involved from the beginning, not simply consulted at the end, solutions become more relevant, more trusted and more likely to make a lasting difference.”
Liverpool City Council’s Public Health team endorses this partnership-driven model, which integrates community insight, local leadership, and public services to address underlying causes of poor health. Melissa Campbell, Public Health Consultant with the council, remarked, “Health inequalities are not inevitable. They are driven by a complex range of social, economic and environmental factors, and addressing them requires collective action. What makes ReCITE different is its focus on partnership. Communities, health professionals, researchers and organisations are working together as equals, combining local knowledge with evidence and expertise to develop solutions that reflect the needs of local people.” This approach corresponds closely with the council’s dedication to enhancing health and wellbeing, preventative care, and encouraging residents to play an active role in shaping their communities.
The Festival of Learning underscored the growing success of this collaborative approach, reinforcing a clear message: combating health inequalities demands strong partnerships, shared learning, and placing communities at the centre of change efforts
Read the full article on Liverpool Express here: Read More
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