How putting communities in control effects health outcomes.

There is a growing interest in collective control as a determinant of health outcomes. This concerns the extent to which people can jointly take control of what happens in their neighbourhoods, take action together and exert influence over the things that matter to them. In order to contribute to the evidence base around how control can be developed and whether and how increased control leads to health outcomes, the New Economics Foundation and Leeds Beckett University are evaluating the People’s Health Trust’s Local People and Local Conversations programmes. The two programmes are long term (lasting up to nine years), providing funds and support to groups of people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods across England, Scotland and Wales so that residents can come together and take action on local issues with the aims of increasing their control, improving health and reducing health inequalities. This evaluation adds to the growing body of evidence about the impacts of control and offers learning with significant implications for how community-based health initiatives are designed and supported.