Universities as partners in progress on inclusion health
/In this new blog, Dr Sarah Anderson, Senior Community Engagement Manager at the University of Edinburgh, discusses the relationships between Edinburgh University and the city’s communities, focusing on their new Community Plan.
We think of universities as centres of learning and new discoveries. This is undoubtedly their core mission, but here at the University of Edinburgh, we think we are more than this. With our new Community Plan 2025-30, we aim to strengthen our position as a partner in progress for our local communities, including for the health of those most marginalised in society.
Inclusion health in our DNA
‘Inclusion health’ is a clinical, policy, practice and research agenda which focuses on populations that have disproportionately poor health and are poorly served by mainstream healthcare, e.g., people facing homelessness, individuals engaged in sex work, migrants in vulnerable circumstances, and those involved with the criminal justice system.
The responsibility of the University to our local communities is ingrained. We were formed in 1583 by Edinburgh Town Council. During the twentieth century, the settlement movement emerged in Edinburgh, aiming to alleviate poverty, provide services to people experiencing disadvantage, and empowering communities. Part of the approach included our staff and students living within those communities they sought to support.
In 2017, Social Work at the University celebrated its centenary, and we have been teaching community learning and development since 1961. In the twenty-first century, we were the first university in Scotland to have a plan specifically for how we interact with our local region, catalysed by our Assistant Principal Community, whose expertise in youth justice means she has witnessed the complex challenges faced by some local residents up close over decades of their lives.
Our Usher Institute is home to what was the first Chair of Public Health in the United Kingdom, created in the 1890s in response to the shocking public health situation in Edinburgh. In 2017, the Centre for Homelessness and Inclusion Health was established by a group of University of Edinburgh academics, NHS clinicians and professionals, and homelessness service providers who were concerned about the extreme health inequalities and other challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness or other severe deprivation within and beyond Edinburgh.
Inclusion health in our Community Plan 2025-30
It is no surprise, then, that inclusion health is a key thread through our Community Plan 2025-30, which we launched October 2025. This Plan outlines how the University will support communities in the City of Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife and Borders to create the change that matters to them. By the end of the Plan, we hope to have helped to create the conditions that enable local communities to not just survive, but thrive. Our Plan recognises that preventing inequalities will improve the life chances of local residents, and recognises the interdependent factors involved in health and wellbeing such as education and skills, employment and leisure, housing and services.
Where people live is a key factor in determining health and wellbeing outcomes and the plan explicitly recognises is the importance of place for people to thrive. Feeling connected to others, having a link to our cultural heritage, being able to exercise, and having access to nature that is, itself, thriving, all contribute to our health. The Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife and Borders contain many different types of place, so what is still needed for people to thrive is not one-size-fits-all and we will play our part in being responsive.
Words into action
So, how will we put our words into action and play a part in improving the health of the most marginalised local residents? We have nearly 50,000 students and almost 19,000 individual members of staff whom, I really hope, will bring the Plan to life in a way that makes sense for them and their role over the next five years. One recent example is the events that public researcher Emilie McSwiggan organised for Challenge Poverty Week 2025.
There are also some things we are committed to as an organisation, including:
Continuing our work through the Centre for Homelessness and Inclusion Health, and ensuring our medical and veterinary students have opportunities to learn about inclusion health.
Continuing to invest in social housing, which includes Simon Community Scotland’s supported housing scheme.
Continuing our community grant scheme, enabling communities to address the issues that matter to them.
Maximising the benefits to local communities from our procurement spend.
Making it as easy as we can for our staff and students to volunteer within local communities.
Continuing healthcare outreach to, for example, boost uptake of vaccinations in communities where uptake is low.
Continuing to provide free support and advice to homeless animal owners, using this as an opportunity to signpost owners to other services.
Undertaking research that we hope will ultimately boost the supply of affordable, net zero homes in the region, and being a fair employer, to help prevent severe hardship to begin with.
This list is far from exhaustive. There is also much emphasis on continuation, and that is deliberate – in developing the Plan, much of what local communities told us was about what they wanted us to keep doing. And none of this work can be achieved by the University acting alone – we are not the expert in everything, and it is not our place to be so. We are part of a complex web of actors, which is why ‘Partnering for positive social impact’ is the very first priority of the Plan.
Read the University of Edinburgh’s Community Plan 2025-30
And if you would like to discuss any part of it further, you can email local@ed.ac.uk marking it for the attention of Sarah Anderson.
