A scheme to use grassroots health workers to identify the best places where NHS health promotions should be concentrated is being tried out in the region.
It could mean individual schools, or local areas with particular problems, will be targeted for intensive health promotion work.
Health visitors and school nurses in North Tyneside have been selected to pioneer the Government-backed scheme, which is part of a nationwide strategy to improve the health of relatively deprived areas.
The Health Visitor School Nurse Development Programme will give community-based nurses the leading role in promoting good health and preventing early deaths from conditions like cancer, heart disease, accidents and suicides.
North Tyneside Primary Care Trust has won Government funding for a year, along with three other UK pilots - in Bexley, Milton Keynes and Derby.
If the scheme works, it could be used as a model for the rest of the country.
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