In 2008, the Leader of Glasgow City Council established a Health Commission for the city. It was challenged to come up with innovative recommendations to tackle Glasgow’s record on health. The principal outputs expected from the Health Commission were:
• A statement of Glasgow’s main health improvement challenges
• A key focus on tackling health inequalities
• Recommendations for priority interventions/changes.
Professor Pamela Gillies, Principal of Glasgow Caledonian University, is the Chair of the Health Commission and there are 15 members, who come from a diverse range of backgrounds. The Health Commission met for the first time at the end of June 2008 and issued its report in August 2009.
The Health Commission invited various people to speak about specific areas that affect health in Glasgow. They were asked to share their expertise and to offer suggestions for doing better in particular areas of policy and practice. The discussions, which these speakers helped to promote, have been used to inform the recommendations that the Health Commission is proposing. The Health Commission members also consulted with communities across Glasgow on a draft set of recommendations and made changes to their report in the light of feedback from people.
The Health Commission report makes 20 recommendations for improving health and tackling inequalities in Glasgow. These recommendations are grouped under three themes:
• People & culture
• The environment
• Changing services