Country Profile

England is the largest home nation of the United Kingdom. Its welfare model derives from a liberal regime, where state influence is weaker than that of the market and modest benefits are in place. In the English system a model was developed, the so called Beveridge system, where there is universal access to care and the level of benefits is above the minimum. However the inequalities as measured by Gini coefficient are still substantial as compared with other European nations and are now 0.36 (United Nations Development Programme, 2004).

The issue of health inequalities has been researched for a long time in England. The Black Report, commissioned in 1977, reported in 1980 was the first major report to demonstrate the correlation between poverty and health. Although it was shelved for political reasons, it is still an important historical milestone. It raised the issue without gaining political support under the Conservative Government.

After the election of New Labour in 1997 social justice emerged as a key political commitment together with an explicit emphasis on tackling health inequalities. The Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health Report, under the chairmanship of Sir Donald Acheson, was commissioned in 1998 by the Department of Health to review the evidence on inequalities in health in England. The report proved to be of major national and international significance and led to further action in the area of health inequalities.

The background information to this entry was collected by the English project partner - Chris Brookes of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Policies, strategies and other documents

This section provides the key documents on health inequalities published on a national level in England in the  past decade.

Tools and resources

In this section main tools used to implement and monitor national policies in the field of health inequalities are listed.

Key Actors

In this section key actors that are in a position to have an impact on health inequalities policies, such as ministries, state agencies, universities and/or independent institutes are listed.

National database of good practice

Please click here to learn about the databases where you can find a collection of good practices aiming at reducing health inequalities collected in England.