Health Action Zones: Partnerships for Health Equity

Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. "Health Action Zones," written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, examines their development and impact from a variety of perspectives. It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which Health Action Zones were established and which greatly contributed to learning about health policy and practice development in the early part of the twenty-first century. As importantly, the book discusses enduring themes on topics such as building capacity for collaboration amongst diverse and unequal partners and developing the capacity to learn within complex policy systems. It assesses the successes of specific strategies aimed at improving health and reducing health inequalities. "Health Action Zones" provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative that will be of great value to those concerned with building the evidence-base for future action. It also offers guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems. The multidisciplinary nature of this text makes it suitable for a wide range of postgraduate courses including those covering issues in public health, community care, urban studies, social policy, health and social care research, local governance and public services.