Collaborative Learning Island Portsmouth (CLIP): Delivering Health Determinants Social Research to explore and tackle health inequalities experienced by our population

Portsmouth City Council (PCC) has been awarded funding from the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research for a Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) to be delivered from January 2025 - December 2029. To achieve approval to deliver the full HDRC programme, PCC and partners have 12 months' funding (during 2024) for strategy development and activity for culture change, capacity building and community involvement.

PCC's HDRC proposal, Collaborative Learning Island Portsmouth (CLIP presents a model that, in partnership with co-applicants HIVE Portsmouth and the University of Portsmouth (UoP), will generate research activity that combines academic and local knowledge about the conditions that produce health inequalities with knowledge about the lived experience of health inequalities. These understandings and the way we communicate them will create dialogue between community members, researchers, practitioners and leaders about our findings and what they mean for people, communities and the design and delivery of interventions.

We aim to create a Portsmouth-wide research culture where together; we gather knowledge to explain and act on what prevents shortened lives and helps people live well.

Portsmouth is an ideal population in which to research health determinants. It is an island city with some of the most deprived areas in the UK, where life expectancy for some people is much lower than others living close by. Social drivers such as poverty, housing conditions, low educational attainment, and access to healthcare all contribute to this inequality; drivers that, as a unitary authority, PCC is well placed to tackle.

CLIP firstly aims to build capacity for research by extending the functions of existing teams and involving statutory partners, the public and colleagues from UoP. This infrastructure and collaboration will deliver our second aim: a Health Determinants Social Research (HDSR) programme delivering Discovery research; a detailed analysis of health and wellbeing challenges identified by our teams, communities, and partners.

In delivering the new structure and programme, we will create conditions that support our third aim; a shift in culture to one that seeks out research evidence and generates open dialogue about what the evidence means for the actions needed to reduce health inequalities and the burden of ill health in our communities.

CLIP's collaborations with co-applicants from the UoP and HIVE Portsmouth are the foundation of our HDSR programme, and we will draw on the skills, guidance, and resources of all partners to deliver research and learning. Our programme office in a central community venue, hosted by our co-applicants at HIVE Portsmouth, will enable more equal working relationships with members of our local communities supported by our voluntary sector partners.

Within the 5-years of the HDRC, CLIP will deliver a sustainable research model that informs both decision making about actions to reduce health inequalities, and the design of interventions that prevent or reduce their effects. Our deliverables will overlap temporally and include: •Building our team, aligning resources and governance for accountability and quality assurance

•Identifying research areas with our partners in response to local data, experience, and insights •Delivery of cycles of Discovery research leading to city-wide dialogue and actions informed by research

•Creation and uptake of development opportunities for council colleagues, community partners, students, and academics.

•An embedded evaluation involving all partners, reflecting and reporting on our methods and their impact, and sharing learning with other HDRCs.

Portsmouth's HDRC model will produce locally relevant, community informed research to support PCC, with our partners, to make decisions that improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.