Much of what shapes how long we live in good health is decided far from the GP surgery or hospital ward: it’s based on the food on our shelves, the places we live and work and the choices our surroundings make easy or hard. Yet much of our attention and spending still goes on treating ill health once it has arrived.

Shifting that balance, from treating illness to championing prevention, is one of the most important questions facing policymakers today, and one that Nesta and The King’s Fund have come together to address. 

Nesta exists to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges. Our mission goal is to halve the prevalence of obesity in the UK by 2030, because it is one of the leading causes of preventable ill health and one of the biggest barriers to improving healthy life expectancy. For over a century, The King’s Fund has worked to improve people’s health and care - bringing a system-wide perspective to the challenges facing our population - to support our vision of a world where everyone can live a healthy life. 

Nesta and The King’s Fund share a focus on tackling the root causes of health inequalities so that everyone has the opportunity to live a longer, healthier life. The King's Fund brings long-standing expertise in health and care systems and policy, and a holistic view of how they work together. Nesta brings a focused, data-driven approach to designing, testing and scaling the solutions that can most effectively reduce obesity rates across the whole population. By combining these perspectives, we hope to shed new light on how we can turn the tide on obesity and other preventable ill health.

This partnership is dedicated to answering some of the most pressing questions in health and prevention, including health inequalities and devolution. Through this series of blogs, we explore how to build a more preventative, equitable system that supports longer, healthier lives for everyone.