About Us

Katie Pinnock, Paul court, Lisa Weaks

We began life in 1995 in the west end of Newcastle and have since grown to deliver services across the region.  Throughout 2025 we will be celebrating 30 years of reducing health inequalities and improving the health and wellbeing of people of all ages.

Healthworks supports people of all ages to lead a healthier life; from being more active, to eating healthily, giving up smoking, managing diabetes, improving mobility and managing existing medical conditions.

We achieve this by:

• providing information about health, health improvement and health rights;
• providing resources for local communities in order to improve understanding of health issues and to have access to information and enable them to make the best health choices for themselves;
• offering a range of preventative approaches with an emphasis on collaboration between different agencies and professional groups;
• promoting the health benefits of exercise, healthy eating and life style changes;
• providing health training opportunities for organisations and the community;
• providing services aimed at reducing inequalities in health

Most of our work is in areas recognised as being largely disadvantaged where quality of life is reduced either by ill health or disability. These health inequalities are caused by low income, unemployment, lack of opportunity and lower education, poor housing and child poverty.  The cost of this inequality is substantial, both in years of life lost and costs to the economy. These factors result in greater dependence on health, social care and other services.

Professor Bola Owolabi, Director, Health Inequalities Improvement at NHS England, visited Healthworks to find out more about the projects, activities and interventions we deliver which support people of all ages to lead a healthier life. She also found out about how we work with partners across Public Health and the NHS to develop new initiatives and services to meet emerging need and reduce health inequalities in the North East.

Take a look at the video to find out more her visit and the services we offer:

Our Patron, Professor Marmot, and others including GPs and community leaders have expressed significant concern about poverty and social inequality, and the negative effect this can have on physical health, mental health, and life expectancy and on a population often described as hard-to-reach and excluded.

Professor Marmot, in his influential report “Fair Society, Healthy Lives, The Marmot Review” into health inequalities in England, and his 10 year review “Health Equity in England, The Marmot Review 10 Years On”, expressed significant concern about poverty and social inequality, and the negative effect this can have on physical health, mental health, and life expectancy and on a population often described as hard-to-reach and excluded.

His “Build Back Fairer” report identified inequalities in social and economic conditions before the pandemic contributed to the high and unequal death toll from COVID-19, measures to control the virus also impacted on health and the widening of health inequalities.

It is against this background that we work to support and enable communities, through advocacy, challenge and delivery to improve life outcomes.

Healthworks aims to support innovation, improve health, and stimulate economic growth:

• We work on developing innovative approaches to tackling health inequalities across the North East and North Cumbria- such as our digital delivery
• We develop interventions with patients and academics across the region and pilot them
• We work with the NHS and health businesses creating and developing initiatives, then test and pilot interventions or digital solutions with them
• We are looking for high quality Corporate sponsors who will enable us to scale up some of our ambitions across the region, by supporting our core funding to enable us to grow.
  Growing our collaborative health work supports the economy – making people fitter, more active for longer, it reduces the impact on the NHS and social care and people are able to be more productive for longer
• We recruit local staff and volunteers. Last year our salary bill was £1.5 million, contributing to the local economy, creating jobs that may not otherwise be available.
• We help keep money in our communities and this strengthens the local economy.

You can download and share our brochure to find out more about the services we offer by clicking the button below.

Find out more about the services we offer.