An independent report from the Institute of Health Equity, presented to Medway’s Health and Wellbeing Board on 3 September 2026, set out more than 30 recommendations for reducing health inequalities across the borough, following Medway’s declaration as a Marmot Place in April 2025.
Medway’s Health and Wellbeing Board received the first independent assessment of the borough’s progress as a Marmot Place when it met on 3 September 2026, with the Institute of Health Equity (IHE) setting out a wide range of recommendations aimed at halving health inequalities over the next decade.
Background to the Marmot Place declaration
Medway formally launched its intention to become a Marmot Place at an event at Rochester Corn Exchange in April 2025, attended by over 110 people from public, private, voluntary and academic sector partners. Following that launch, the Medway Advisory Group committed to the following aspiration: “In ten years’ time, Medway will halve the gap in life expectancy between Medway and England; halve the gap in life expectancy between the best and worst-off areas in Medway; and halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between Medway and England.”
The Medway Marmot Advisory Group is chaired by Sir Michael Marmot and includes senior representation from Medway Council, the NHS, education and the voluntary sector. The group meets quarterly.
Consultation on the recommendations
A consultation period was launched at an online event on 8 April 2026, attended by over 70 local stakeholders, with presentations from Sir Michael Marmot and Dr David Whiting, Director of Public Health. Six online workshop sessions were then held throughout April and May 2026, each focused on a different subsection of the recommendations. Cumulative attendance across the workshops reached over 90 stakeholders. Officers reported that the vast majority of comments and workshop attendees gave feedback that the report and recommendations resonated with them and fully supported the programme of work.
Key recommendations
The IHE’s recommendations cover a broad range of areas. They include reducing inequalities in children’s early development — particularly speech and language skills — and providing greater support for parents and carers in the early years. The report recommended profiling the population of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and convening a “NEET Summit” to engage partners.
On housing, the IHE recommended prioritising the provision of safe and warm housing to ensure a healthy standard of living for children and young people. On employment, it called for the development of a local good work charter for employers, building on the national Good Business Charter, and making becoming a signatory a requirement for NHS and public sector contracts. This would include wages meeting the minimum income for healthy living and provision of in-work benefits including sick pay, holiday and maternity and paternity pay.
The report also recommended retaining the idea for a community hub or one-stop-shop with co-located services for families, accessible in terms of opening hours, the nature of the space, geographic location and connection to public transport. It further called for routine collection of data by ethnicity to establish the extent of ethnic inequalities, and for the development of an integrated equity impact assessment tool for decision-making across Medway.
Officers noted there was no specific source of funding identified to realise the recommendations, describing the approach instead as “evolving ways of working, decision making, and prioritising to ensure that health equity is at the heart of Medway.”
The board was asked to note the IHE report and to comment on which priority organisations the recommendations should be circulated to and how best to engage them.
The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the committee’s decision is not yet on the public record.
Sources
- Medway Council — Health and Wellbeing Board, 3 September 2026 (agenda and papers)
- Medway Marmot Place Partnership Update — report to Health and Wellbeing Board, 3 September 2026 (Medway Council)
- Appendix A: Medway Marmot Place Partnership: Together for a Fairer, Healthier Future — Institute of Health Equity report (Medway Council)
Top image: illustrative, computer-generated. Illustrative AI-generated image. This is not a photograph of any real location in Medway or Kent.