Croydon's Director of Public Health, Ruth Hutchinson, is urging a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to decision-making across the borough, emphasizing that health outcomes are shaped by a wide range of factors beyond clinical care.

During a Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, Hutchinson presented her annual report, themed Health is everybody's business. The report advocates for integrating health considerations into all policy-making sectors, including housing, education, employment, and the environment.

HiAP is a well-established evidence-based approach to transforming the way we work, to achieve improvements for our communities, by ensuring that health, sustainability and equity are considered and are at the core of all our decision-making, Hutchinson stated in the report. It requires not just a whole Council response, but a whole system approach bringing together all key sectors and agencies to address the full range of factors that influence health.

The report highlights seven case studies illustrating the application of HiAP principles in Croydon, demonstrating how health is being considered in areas such as the Food and Healthy Weight Partnership, the Best Start in Life Family Hubs Programme, the Ethnicity and Mental Health Inequality Programme (EMHIP), and initiatives addressing rough sleeping, domestic abuse, trading standards, and reablement services.

Four key recommendations were put forward:

  1. Establish a formal Croydon Council Health in All Policies (HiAP) Framework to guide policy and service development.
  2. Create a central HiAP resource hub for the Council offering guidance, templates, tools, case studies, and expert support.
  3. Strengthen the systematic use of the Council's policy and regulatory levers, including procurement, licensing, planning, and commissioning, to improve health and reduce inequalities.
  4. Embed HiAP principles within the One Croydon Alliance and develop Croydon's role as an 'anchor system' for population health.

The report underscores that improving health and reducing inequalities requires a collaborative effort, moving beyond reactive models of care to embrace preventative strategies that address the wider determinants of health. This approach is seen as crucial for creating fairer conditions and ensuring sustainable improvements in population health across Croydon.