£4.5m to be spent on health projects including childhood obesity and improving vaccination rate

The funding is aimed to help the most disadvantaged people in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire with targeted support.

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System (ICS), a partnership of health and care organisations, selected nine finalists to receive funding from over 100 applications.

The Health Inequalities and Innovation Investment Fund will support the expansion of a ‘Family Mentor Scheme’ which supports people with regular visits from pregnancy up to a child’s 4th birthday.

The programme is already running in Aspley, Bulwell, Hyson Green and Arboretum, and it will now be expanded to cover more areas of Nottingham.

The funding will also support people experiencing two or more issues including mental health issues, homelessness, offending and substance misuse.

A service that provides intensive support for people based on their individual needs will be created. Another project which was awarded funding was to reduce childhood obesity, due to a “concerning rise in childhood obesity rates, particularly in low-income areas”.

The funding will be spent on a service providing personalised weight management support for children and young people who live in areas of deprivation.

And another project is aimed to improve the uptake of childhood vaccinations and immunisations in Nottingham.

Teams will work in areas with the highest inequalities to understand vaccine barriers and hesitancy.

Kathy McLean, Chair of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS, said there is a “huge difference” between the life expectancy of those living in deprived areas of Nottinghamshire compared to those living in affluent areas.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’m really delighted we’ve done this. The projects will have an actual impact, they will do something that will make a difference.

“£4.5m may not sound like a vast amount, but in a year where finances are tight, I think it’s really good that we are putting money behind the words. The projects around improving early years really chimes well with us.

“We know if we can help families and youngsters have a good start, that will have a huge impact. This is around looking to the future. Improving childhood vaccinations and immunisations is really important.

“Childhood obesity will reduce health inequalities in that area is really important. We are laying the foundations for years to come. Some of these things don’t need millions, they need something to get going.”

Other projects which have received funding are:

County Integrated Severe and Multiple Disadvantage Clinical Team: A project to address those in underserved areas with a focus on physical health, mental health and drug and alcohol dependency problems

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams: to work with people who have severe multiple disadvantages such as homelessness, mental health issues, offending and substance misuse. This will be provided in Bassetlaw, Mid Notts and South Notts

Community hypertension case finding: The project will seek to understand the barriers to effective hypertension case finding.