Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to reduce health inequalities in Dudley.

As part of our health mission, the Government is committed to ensuring people live well for longer. This includes tackling the determinants that underpin stark health inequalities, to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions.

We are working closely with local Directors of Public Health to ensure the ring-fenced Public Health Grant funds evidence-based activity to improve health and tackle health inequalities. The grant allocated to the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council for 2024/25 was £23,251,698. In addition, £1,221,970 was allocated to invest in drug misuse services. The council also receives funding, £1,533,953 from 2023/24 to 2024/25, for the Family Hub and Start for Life Programme. This programme is creating a network of family hubs with services that support families from conception to the age of two.

We are also working alongside NHS England Midlands and the Black Country Integrated Care System to support a range of local initiatives and to embed the Core20PLUS5 approach, focused on clinical areas with the most need of accelerated improvement in the poorest 20% of the population and other underserved population groups identified locally. Work also continues with the West Midlands Combined Authority to take forward a health in all policies approach across the wider determinants of health.