Reducing Inequalities in Communities (RIC)
Across Bradford district and Craven, there are significant health inequalities in communities and the gap in how long people will live is stark. People in the most deprived areas of our district are living with more ill health and dying earlier.
To address this stark inequality, the Reducing Inequalities in Communities (RIC) programme was set up in 2019 as a five-year programme to test out various interventions in central Bradford. The programme has been overseeing the delivery of 21 projects, involving a range of partners.
Watch this short video to find out more about the RIC programme.
We are now moving into the final year of the RIC programme which involves evaluating the projects and recommending which should be continued. This learning will be shared through our Reducing Inequalities Alliance.
Human stories
As part of our RIC evaluation, we have been collecting stories from local people involved in our projects to hear the impact the interventions have had on them.
The health gap
Starting in the least deprived area, Wharfedale, life expectancy is 87 years for women and 84 years for men. Moving into central Bradford, this dramatically reduces. In the most deprived area, Manningham, people’s life expectancy here is around 10 years less than Wharfedale.
If we take away the time people are living with poor mental wellbeing and ill health – we get what is known as healthy life expectancy. And the gap gets bigger – people living in Manningham have 20 years less healthy life than those in Wharfedale.
Bradford Inequalities Research Unit
From the start we have known that we would need to be sure that what we do makes a real difference to our population which is why we have worked closely with Born in Bradford (BiB), the University of York and Queen Mary University of London to create the Bradford Inequalities Research Unit (BIRU). BIRU helps us to:
- understand the causes of ill health and inequalities in central Bradford
- identify areas to prioritise
- build an evidence base of what works
As part of this approach, BIRU is also exploring ‘community readiness’ in different projects to make sure interventions are as effective as possible.
More information to help you
“An excellent approach taken to Reducing Inequalities in Communities (RIC) via a system wide whole life course approach to tackling health inequalities. Inspiring!” – HSJ
