New year, new challenges: Strengthening prevention where it matters most

As we enter 2026, HEG begins the year with a clear focus: strengthening prevention where it matters most, embedding equity into systems, and translating evidence into practical action.

Health inequalities in England remain widespread, unfair and entirely avoidable. Yet public services continue to operate under sustained pressure, often responding downstream to harms that are rooted in structural conditions upstream. HEG’s work over the next 12 months is grounded in shifting that balance, partnering for prevention, and supporting schools, health systems and policymakers to address the social, commercial and environmental drivers of poor health, and to create environments where healthier choices are easier, more affordable and more equitable.

Shaping the evidence on food policy: the GOLDFINCH project

In February 2026, HEG will become a delivery partner on GOLDFINCH (Fiscal INCentives for Health through UPF reduction), a major 30-month research programme led by Imperial College London and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

GOLDFINCH will examine how fiscal policies, including taxes and subsidies, could reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods while increasing access to minimally processed alternatives. Researchers across the UK, Italy and Australia will model both short-term changes in food purchasing and longer-term impacts on diet-related health outcomes.

HEG will play a central role in ensuring this research is grounded in public and community perspectives. We will lead a programme of public consultation throughout the project, supporting meaningful involvement at each stage. This reflects HEG’s commitment to applied research that informs policy and practice, ensuring evidence supports real-world decision-making on the commercial determinants of health.

Building healthier futures in secondary schools

From January, HEG will begin the development and pilot testing of a Senior Schools Pledge for a Healthy and Active Future, extending our established prevention framework into secondary school settings. This work builds on the success of the existing Schools Pledge programme, which has already supported nearly 70 primary schools across Cheshire and Merseyside to adopt a whole-school approach to healthier food, physical activity and wellbeing.

Secondary schools present a more complex prevention environment—shaped by larger institutions, different governance arrangements and the developmental needs of young people navigating adolescence. Over the next year, HEG will work closely with schools, local authorities and wider partners to scope and co-design a framework that is practical, flexible and grounded in lived experience. The model will be piloted in three secondary schools across the sub-region, testing how prevention can be embedded into policy, culture and everyday practice at scale.

Strengthening holiday provision and food environments

Alongside school-based prevention, HEG continues to support healthier food environments beyond term time. Ahead of the Easter holidays, Food Active will deliver Good Food for the Holidays training to Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) clubs. This training equips staff with the skills and confidence to serve tasty, nutritious food throughout holiday provision. Since 2021, it has been delivered to more than 700 practitioners across England, including in Cheshire and Merseyside, and most recently Sunderland, Warrington and Sandwell.

HEG is also working with Liverpool City Council on Exploring community food environments through the eyes of children and families. This creative consultation project engages children, young people and families to better understand perceptions of the local food environment, with a particular focus on food and drink advertising. The evidence generated will support local policy-making in relation to food environments and the commercial determinants of health, ensuring that decisions are informed by lived experience as well as research.

Tackling stigma, violence and place-based inequality

HEG’s work in 2026 continues to address the social and cultural drivers of inequality alongside structural change. Building on momentum from Why weight to talk?, new place-based programmes such as The Wigan Weigh will focus on tackling weight stigma in primary care through compassionate, system-wide approaches that support both practitioners and patients.

At the same time, HEG will extend bystander intervention training across the Liverpool City Region, embedding the prevention of violence against women and girls within sport and physical activity settings. This work positions sport not only as a site of participation, but as a powerful setting for cultural change and primary prevention.

Supporting healthier places across Lancashire

In 2026–27, HEG will continue delivery of the Lancashire Healthier Places Programme, commissioned by Lancashire County Council as part of a wider Healthy Hearts Strategy. The programme focuses on system leadership and a place-based approach to creating healthier weight environments, supporting districts to implement bespoke Healthy Weight Declarations that reflect local priorities and assets.

A year of purposeful prevention

Across all of this work, one principle remains central: prevention is not an add-on. It must be built into the systems, policies and environments that shape everyday life. In 2026, Health Equalities Group will continue to act as a trusted partner to local authorities, the NHS, researchers and community organisations, bringing evidence, insight and practical tools together to reduce inequalities and improve population health. With ambition, collaboration and sustained commitment to upstream action, meaningful change is not only possible – it is already underway.