Here is the accessible transcript for our video on Health Determinants Research Collaborations.
[Opening shot showing aerial view over an English town, followed by images of Lambeth Town Hall]
Professor Brian Ferguson, Director of NIHR Public Health Research Programme - "The NIHR's long-term strategy has got a strong focus on prevention and public health research. So there's been an ambition within NIHR to increase the amount of investment going into prevention and public health research. There's a real sense that to increase research capacity in local government requires dedicated investment. That was the thinking behind the HDRCs."
Dr Susan Hampshaw, Director of NIHR HDRC Doncaster - "Ever since COVID times we've really recognised that a healthy life expectancy isn't quite where it was."
[Footage of people crossing a busy street in a London borough]
Councillor Jim Dickson, Lambeth Council Cabinet Member for Healthier Communities - "Lambeth is this amazing, diverse, vibrant community, in which people with hugely different backgrounds and heritages all live and work side by side."
Emily Humphreys, Associate Director Public Health, Tower Hamlets Council - "Tower Hamlets is an amazing borough. It's got such a diverse set of communities and a diverse set of challenges that goes with that. Alongside that we also have an amazingly diverse set of opportunities. We've got really engaged voluntary sector organisations and community groups that really want to get involved."
Dr Somen Banerjee, Director of Public Health, Tower Hamlets Council - "Over many centuries, there has been poorer health in the borough, and that's linked to poverty, housing conditions, and environmental issues."
Martin Murchie, Director of NIHR HDRC Aberdeen - "Because of the oil and gas industry, Aberdeen has been viewed as a city that's pretty affluent. But that affluence was never felt equally in the city. Fundamentally, what we're aiming for over the period of the award is a significant change within the local authority and its partners around research."
[Animation showing the locations of HDRCs around the UK on a map]
David Pye, Research Programme Manager, Local Government Association - "Local authorities have the key role in shaping place. From a strategic level there's a wide disparity in terms of life expectancy - the most deprived areas have females who live around two thirds of their life in general good health. Whereas in the least deprived areas that was four fifths, so that is a huge disparity in living well, never mind life expectancy. So at its most fundamental, research is crucial to understanding not only what is happening, but what would make things better."
Dr Susan Hampshaw, Director of NIHR HDRC Doncaster - "So what makes the HDRC different and special? There's a real buzz around the work that the HDRC is doing so that we can really think about the wider determinants of health, the building blocks of health."
[Aerial footage of a higher education campus]
Emily Humphreys, Associate Director of Public Health, Tower Hamlets Council - "The great thing about being part of this new programme is the enthusiasm that people bring to it. We've got fantastic commitment from three different universities and from the voluntary sector, that all really want to make this work."
Councillor Jim Dickson, Lambeth Council Cabinet Member for Healthier Communities - "We've got a full team recruited, we are establishing all the sorts of platforms we need to do this well. So that's governance, ethics, the way we handle data."
Dr Somen Banerjee, Director of Public Health, Tower Hamlets Council - "The priority is to make us a place that attracts research. In five years' time, I think where we want to be is that we use evidence and research in our decision making."
Dr Susan Hampshaw, Director of NIHR HDRC Doncaster - "And we recognise that it will take some time, but we do really want to work with local people and build some really trusted relationships."
Councillor Jim Dickson, Lambeth Council Cabinet Member for Healthier Communities - "I just think it's going to be an amazingly exciting partnership between the council, the community and academics.
Professor Brian Ferguson, Director of NIHR Public Health Research Programme - "The HDRCs are a catalyst, and local government tells us that it is a game changer for them. It's allowed them to build up the people and the capacity to really start to do some dedicated research.