Living in a deprived community can greatly reduce a person’s life expectancy by increasing their likelihood of cancer.

In some instances people living in deprived communities die several years earlier than someone living elsewhere.

Britain does not compare favourably with other European countries and the Government has set targets to reduce this health inequality.

The Improvement Foundation has been commissioned by the Department of Health to work with nine PCTs in 27 specific communities covering a total of around 300,000 people. The two-year programme will be completed in June 2009.

Focused on early presentation of lung, breast and bowel cancer, the aim is to increase the number of people seeking advice, and encourage and support them to seek treatment earlier.

As part of this the PCT teams identify and deliver locally-tailored ways of raising awareness about the risk factors and the benefits of earlier diagnosis.

The national policy on cancer is set out in the Cancer Reform Strategy on the Department of Health’s website.

There is also key information in the Department of Health's The NHS in England: Operating Framework 2008-09.

If you are interested in working with the Improvement Foundation please go to How we can help or click here to contact us.

Who is involved

The PCTs involved in the first wave of the programme are:

• South Tyneside, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Sunderland and Gateshead in North East England
• Salford, Halton & St Helens, Manchester and Liverpool in North West England

A number of additional PCTs are currently being recruited to the second wave of the programme.

There are three community teams in each PCT, consisting of local residents who have volunteered to be involved with relevant professionals. These vary from area to area, but include public and voluntary organisations as well as local businesses such as pharmacies.

What we are doing

The healthy communities collaborative method views local people as the key to understanding how their communities work. It brings together local people with professionals to work in close partnership to achieve their goals.

There are two strands to the cancer programme:

• Working with GPs to improve early diagnosis in primary care and referral for investigation in accordance with best clinical practice. Information is submitted by each participating GP practice on a monthly basis to help them to track their progress in monitoring and treating more people. The local project manager and team members work together with the practices to make any improvements that are required
• Work in the local communities to help educate and raise awareness of the symptoms of cancer, and when people should get in touch with their GP. The teams test ways of delivering health-related information in an understandable and acceptable way, to get people to present to their GP earlier. Teams gather information about their community to better understand the people living there and the level of service provision

In order to share and increase learning all 30 teams will meet together three times during the programme. 

Each site is supported by an assistant director from the Improvement Foundation and an on-site project manager.

The programme is overseen by a national Programme Board which includes members from the Department of Health, the Treasury and the Local Government Association.