Poverty
The Poverty Special Interest Group (SIG) was established in 2022 to provide an authoritative resource and network for the public health community to promote and protect UK population health through addressing poverty, both by its reduction and mitigation.
There is a wealth of evidence showing a clear socioeconomic gradient in health. Poverty and income are a key driver of health outcomes and inequalities across the life course, underpinning the social determinants of health. An estimated 1 in 5 of the population live in poverty, rising to nearly 1 in 3 for children. Poverty and its impacts on health are not inevitable; we can take action to both prevent poverty and mitigate its impacts.
The purpose of the SIG is to improve population health and equity by promoting evidence informed polices at local, national and international levels that prevent poverty and mitigate its effects on health. To achieve this by developing resources, education of public health professionals, networking, partnership, and advocacy.
Specifically, the SIG aims to:
- To provide a resource to collate definitions of poverty and information on changing levels and burden of all types of poverty, the evidence of their impact on health and wellbeing, and the effect of national policies on poverty.
- To share knowledge and experience of evidence informed interventions to both prevent and mitigate the effects of poverty in all its forms at local, national and international level and their impact on health and wellbeing.
- To share learning on how public health professionals can influence policies addressing poverty.
- To engage and partner with existing poverty focused bodies and with other public health and health organisations.
- To coordinate the work of other SIGs in this space.
- To advocate for policies to alleviate poverty and to thereby reduce health inequities.
- To develop a communication strategy for the work of the SIG
The impact of poverty and the cost of living crisis on health, and the FPH’s policy recommendations in response to this are summarised in the policy briefing here: Living Healthier and Longer: Poverty and the Cost-of-Living Crisis - Faculty of Public Health (fph.org.uk)
Contact
The Poverty SIG reports to the Health Improvement Committee (HIC) and is chaired by Paul Roderick who can be contacted at pjr@soton.ac.uk.
Join the Poverty SIG
FPH members can join this SIG by logging into their FPH members’ portal account, selecting the ‘Committees/SIGs’ button and choosing the correct SIG. You will then be asked to provide a few details, following which your application will be automatically approved. Further details on FPH membership are available here.
Additional Poverty SIG Resources
Webinar Recordings
The United Nations has recognised that mental distress is the challenge for humanity navigating our future of uncertain and complex times, not least climate change and widening inequalities. This webinar will share knowledge on understanding the mental health inequities associated with climate change and discuss the public health approaches that can be used to reduce them.
This webinar was organised by the FPH Public Mental Health, Academic Public Health, Sustainable Development, and Poverty SIGs and took place on 10 April 2024 as part of series of learning webinars during Global Public Health Week.
You can view the slides shared by Judi Kidger and Fiona Duncan (NIHR), as well as the links shared in the chat throughout the webinar here.
