Project and programmes

There are several key workstreams underway to embed the Marmot principles across Oxfordshire. Below is a summary of the work to date:

• Best Start in Life and Enabling Children and Young People to maximise control
• Fair Employment and Good Work for All
• Healthy Standard of Living 
• Primary Care
• Rural Inequalities 
• Embedding Research 
• Inclusion Health 

The workstreams listed below reflect key projects supporting the delivery of the Marmot approach. Further examples of wider activity can be found on the Embedding Marmot page.

Best start in life and enabling children and young people to maximise control

The Institute of Health Equity is finalising a deep-dive report, due for publication this summer, that examines the inequalities faced in Maternity, Babies, Children and Young People across the County. 

The report will be published on this website and organisations across the county are committed to developing local implementation plans from the recommendations in the report. 

Fair employment and good work for all

A further deep dive by the Institute of Health Equity into fair employment and good work in the county is in early stages of development, as with the Children and Young People report there is commitment from a range of stakeholders to develop action plans from the recommendations. 

Healthy standard of living

The Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) tool helps councils to identify families who could benefit from support around the cost of living and financial wellbeing. Taking a collaborative approach, all local authorities across the county have the opportunity to map LIFT usage to the Marmot principles, identifying further potential ways to help residents with benefits uptake by focusing on target groups. 

Primary care

A health inequalities template pilot is ongoing within an Oxford practice. Social prescribers have reported that the health inequalities template helps enable useful conversations with patients about the social determinants of health. The next steps are an evaluation of the pilot, which will be reported on in due course.

Rural inequalities 

The Oxfordshire Marmot Place programme is supporting a focused programme of work to better understand the challenges and strengths of rural communities. This includes a scoping exercise combining local and national data with targeted community engagement across selected areas, working with partners including Healthwatch Oxfordshire and Community First Oxfordshire. 

Embedding research 

The Local Policy Lab is an alliance between Oxfordshire County Council, the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University that aims to bridge the gap between research and local policy. As part of Oxfordshire’s Marmot Place work, it supports applied research through graduate fellows and Chief Scientific Advisors.

In 2026, 16 graduate fellows will be working across 8 projects, and they are expected to complete and showcase their research on 15th July. Projects span children and young people, inclusive growth, and a healthy standard of living, with partners invited to engage and shape outputs.

Find out more

Inclusion health

The Oxfordshire Marmot Place agenda is driving forward work to better understand and support the health needs of inclusion health groups. Inclusion health groups often face some of the starkest health inequalities across the county. This work involves partnering with the Institute of Health Equity to map the drivers of these inequalities, identify gaps, and build a shared prevention-focused approach across the system.