As part of the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England, aka 'Fair Society Healthy Lives': (Marmot Review), a number of expert Task Groups were set up to provide evidence and preliminary policy proposals in key areas of interest for the Review. This element of the work came under the umbrella of the 'Working Committee 1'.

Working Committee 1 (WC 1) was asked to identify new evidence in the key policy areas where action is likely to be most effective in reducing health inequalities in the short (2010–15), medium (2016–19) and long term (2020 and beyond). WC 1 assessed evidence about the efficacy of interventions to reduce health inequalities in nine policy areas:

1. Early child development and education
2. Employment arrangements and working conditions
3. Social protection
4. Built environment
5. Sustainable development
6. Economic analysis
7. Delivery systems and mechanisms
8. Priority public health conditions
9. Social inclusion and social mobility.

This Committee made recommendations identifying potentially effective actions in reducing health inequalities for Working Committees 2 and 3 to develop. The Committee ran from January to May 2009.

The Delivery Systems and Mechanisms Task Group consisted of Margaret Whitehead, Tim Doran, Mark Exworthy, Sue Richards and Don Matheson, and was set the task to:

"Assess new and under-exploited evidence on the most effective structures and organisations for jointly delivering reductions in health inequalities.

In particular, it includes an assessment of the roles of health services, governance arrangements, national policy organisations, government departments, local government and the third sector in reducing inequalities, in both social determinants and health outcomes”.