David Finch Assistant Director
David Finch is Assistant Director in the Healthy Lives directorate.
David joined the Health Foundation in May 2018 and currently leads a programme of work developing policy and analysis related to the wider determinants of health. His work focuses the role that social and economic policy and business can play in improving health, and understanding the influence that health has on social and economic outcomes of people and places.
Previously David worked for the Resolution Foundation as a Senior Fellow working on a range of issues including tax and benefit policy with a focus on Universal Credit, calculating the Living Wage, demographics, pensions and pay progression.
Prior to this, he worked as an Economic Adviser at the Department for Work and Pensions on areas including childcare and state pensions. David studied Economics at the University of Sussex.
Latest articles
Long read
The continuing impact of COVID-19 on health and inequalities
Just over a year after our COVID-19 impact inquiry published its findings, what more do we know...
Blog
What do the public think about taking action to improve health inequalities in Scotland?
Introducing the Health Foundation’s work with partners to conduct an independent review of health...
Chart
Spending Review 2021: what it means for health and social care
In this analysis we take a deeper look at what the Spending Review means for health and social care,...
Chart
Why greater investment in the public health grant should be a priority
The public health grant has been cut by 24% on a real-terms per capita basis since 2015/16. We...
Blog
The cut to Universal Credit is set to widen health inequalities when the government has promised to ‘level up’ health
David Finch, assistant director of Healthy Lives, writes about why the £20 uplift to Universal...
Research report
Unequal pandemic, fairer recovery
A comprehensive review of the factors that affected the UK’s devastating COVID-19 death toll.
Blog
Insuring against insecurity – how the pandemic has shown the need for social security reform
Many people who experienced severe financial strain during the pandemic were not eligible to claim...
Chart
City mayors can play a key role in improving our health
What can metro mayors do to improve people’s health in their regions? We look at policy priorities...
Long read
Unemployment and mental health
Analysis from our healthy lives team shows it’s vital for policymakers to act upstream in tackling...
Briefing
Improving the nation’s health
In light of COVID-19 and the government’s decision to abolish Public Health England (PHE), this...
Long read
Spending Review 2020
In the face of daunting costs from the COVID-19 pandemic, our long read looks at what a 1-year...
Blog
‘Levelling up’ just got much harder
A look at the Health Foundation's COVID-19 impact inquiry: a UK-wide inquiry exploring the...
Chart
How are changes to employment and finances impacting mental health during lockdown?
We explore how changes in people’s employment and financial circumstances affected their mental...
Chart
Understanding excess deaths: variation in the impact of COVID-19 between countries, regions and localities
This analysis compares the impact of COVID-19 in different countries, regions and localities through...
Blog
Understanding the data about COVID-19 related deaths
David Finch explains the differences between the two main sources of data about the number of...
Long read
Improving health by tackling market failure
This long read explores what market failure is, its relevance for health, and how the government...
Long read
The nation's health
We explore worrying trends that have emerged in the UK’s health in recent years and set out...
Analysis
Mortality and life expectancy trends in the UK
Since 2011 improvements in life expectancy in the UK have stalled, and for certain groups of the...
Long read
A health index for England: opportunities and challenges
This long read explores the government’s proposal to place health as a core measure of government...
Long read
Where does the 2019 Spending Round leave health and social care, and the nation’s health prospects?
The Chancellor stated that the 2019 Spending Round ‘turned the page on austerity’. But is the new...
Analysis
Creating healthy lives
This publication makes the case for an ambitious, whole-government approach to long-term investment...
Blog
The ‘good health’ gap: what will it take to reduce health inequalities?
Following the publication of the government’s prevention green paper David Finch considers a missed...
Blog
Invest in public health now, or store up problems for the future
How are public health grant cuts and delayed policy decisions damaging public health? David Finch...
Thought paper
The local health environment
The CMO’s annual report 2019 considers what the state of the public’s health in England in 2040...
Blog
The healthy life expectancy gap
David Finch, Senior Fellow in Healthy Lives, unpicks the latest ONS data on healthy life expectancy.
Blog
Prioritising the nation’s health as an asset
David Finch explains why we need to start thinking about our nation’s health as an asset requiring...
Briefing
The nation's health as an asset
A briefing that asks: what is the social and economic value of maintaining and improving people's...
Briefing
Taking our health for granted
This briefing paper assesses the extent of cuts to the public health grant since 2014/15 and...
Blog
Health investment needs long-term thinking
Investing in public health pays off down the line. As the government seeks to restore NHS funding it...
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