Beth Underwood

Beth began her professional life in education before moving to work in the social housing sector where she managed frontline teams and a portfolio of service improvement. During these 13 years, Beth worked with communities across south Wales who experienced both socio-economic disadvantage and inequality in health outcomes. In 2020 Beth moved to the NHS Wales Improvement Service where she aimed to transfer her learning to affect person-centred change. In 2022, Beth was introduced to the work of the Healthy Housing Alliance in Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB whom recognised not only the importance of housing as a key determinant of health but represented a cross-sector partnership between housing organisations and the NHS where there was a shared purpose to build healthier communities, focussing on those with the greatest disadvantage. In 2023 she had the privilege of taking up the role to manage the innovative Health & Housing Programme in CTM. The Programme to date has focussed on 2 key pillars. The first has been to use Asset Based Community Development principles to learn how to shift the relationship of anchor institutions with people and communities across CTM. Recognising that health and well-being are derived primarily from family and neighbourhood networks of support. The second has been innovating to overcome barriers to the effective use of linked health and housing data. The objective being to design projects that are driven by a data set that understands both clinical vulnerability and healthcare need, as well as housing quality and socio-economic circumstances at a household level. Targeted, data driven work for proactive care and prevention.