Wales to become Marmot nation to tackle health inequalities

Wales is set to become the world's first 'Marmot nation', as part of work to tackle health inequalities.

Becoming a Marmot nation involves adopting public health expert Sir Michael Marmot’s eight principles, which aim to eliminate unfair and avoidable differences in health. These could be caused by where people live, what kind of job they do and how they are treated in society.

The announcement follows success in Torfaen, which was an early adopter of the Marmot principles when the wider Gwent area became a Marmot region.

The Welsh Government will work with the Institute of Health Equity (IHE), which is led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot.

The work will focus on adopting the eight Marmot principles to: give every child the best start in life; enable all children, young people, and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives; create fair employment and good work for all; ensure a healthy standard of living for all; create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities; strengthen the role and impact of ill health prevention; tackle racism, discrimination, and their outcomes; an pursue environmental sustainability and health equity together.

Minister for mental health and wellbeing Sarah Murphy said: "Becoming a Marmot nation is about acknowledging that health inequalities are mostly shaped by the social determinants of health – the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

"In Torfaen, we can see positive change at community level due to organisations working together innovatively. By adopting these eight Marmot principles nationally, we will be taking action across government to support better health and wellbeing for all.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot said: "A society that meets the needs of its members will have good health and relatively small inequalities in health.

"Healthcare is, of course, important for health. More important are social circumstances, as summarised in the eight Marmot principles. The policy implications are clear. Health policy is for the whole of government, not just for the health department or the NHS."