Sussex Population Health Academy drives fairness in health and care

The Sussex Population Health Academy has equipped a new cohort of health and care professionals with the skills, confidence and support to tackle health inequalities head-on.

Over nine months spanning 2024-2025, Fellows from across the NHS, local authorities and the voluntary sector led projects that are already making a difference. Their work covers areas such as improving screening uptake, bridging the gap between mental and physical health, and enhancing oral health care for people with learning disabilities.

The practical and local actions resulting from the projects are shifting how the system thinks and acts on fairness.

Early signs of impact are already visible, from new workforce training and redesigned communication materials to improved data quality, community engagement and service access.

NHS Sussex ICB Director of Population Health and Inequalities, Jo-anne Alner –
“The projects all share one quality: they are small, focused actions that expose and address barriers too often missed by system-level interventions. They demonstrate that when local professionals are given permission to innovate and reflect, meaningful change follows.”

An academy to tackle local health inequalities

The 2024-2025 Sussex Population Health Academy, was a partnership between NHS Sussex ICB and Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex. It exists to strengthen the system’s capacity to tackle health inequalities by equipping people already in the system to make meaningful, local changes.

Health inequalities in Sussex remain persistent and deep-rooted. Some groups continue to face worse access, experience and outcomes simply because of who they are, where they live, or the circumstances they face. The Fellowship was set up to help change that pattern by developing a network of professionals who can apply an equity lens to the design and delivery of services.

Working together as a system

The Academy brings together people from every part of the system: from NHS trusts and local authorities to the voluntary and community sector and gives them the time, tools and support to focus on an inequality they see in their own area of work. In doing so, it builds the system’s confidence and capability to act on the causes of unfairness, not just the symptoms.

What the programme involved

Over nine months, Fellows took part in workshops, webinars and Action Learning Sets (a structured group-based approach to problem-solving). The content was framed around the 10 Principles for Health Equity.

The structure combined learning with reflection. Workshops built knowledge, an online hub kept the network connected, and Action Learning Sets created a space to test ideas, ask better questions, and challenge assumptions. Every session achieved 100% positive feedback, but more importantly, Fellows described real shifts in how they think about their day-to-day work and its impact on equity.

From policy to practice

The Academy’s next phase is about sustaining and spreading this learning. Fellows’ work is being collated and shared across the system, with several projects moving into pilot or implementation stages. The aim is not to create one-off initiatives, but to normalise equity-minded thinking across everything we design and deliver.

Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex Senior Innovation Manager, George Anibaba –
“The Fellowship shows what’s possible when local professionals are trusted to lead change, supported to learn together and encouraged to keep equity at the heart of improvement. It’s a reminder that lasting progress rarely starts with grand gestures, it starts with people, acting where they are, to make care fairer for those who need it most.”

Explore the projects

Twelve Fellows joined the 2024–25 cohort, representing a wide range of disciplines and experiences from clinicians and managers to analysts and community leads. With thanks to Clara Clein Wolfe, Lauren Walbrin, Stefanie Harding, Dr Christopher Odedun, Karen Hartley, Rebecca Corbett, Michelle Asbury, Claire Lockwood, Lois Howell, Jessica Crowe, Georgia Aloof and Amy-Louise Reimoser.

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