Today, a partnership of voluntary sector organisations launched a new tool to support Primary Care Networks to assess and improve their work with Inclusion Health groups. These are the groups identified as experiencing the worst health inequalities in England. The tool, which is supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement, was developed with input from people experiencing health inequalities and representatives from Primary Care Networks.
Primary Care Networks who use the tool are asked to assess their performance across 22 metrics. This takes around ten minutes to complete. Primary Care Networks who score highly across the 22 inclusion health metrics are able to download an Inclusion Health Quality Mark and use this across communications materials.
Once a representative from a Primary Care Network has completed the self-assessment, they are provided with a completely unique and tailored guide to support them to embed action on tackling health inequalities into their Primary Care Network’s everyday activities. There are over a trillion combinations of the guidance. This includes guidance on responding to diverse communications needs, managing population health and assessing needs of Inclusion Health groups and templates for providing medical evidence for housing, benefits and more.
The tool was developed by Friends, Families and Travellers, Homeless Link, Doctors of the World, National Ugly Mugs and Stonewall Housing, with input from Primary Care Networks, organisations specialising in work with Inclusion Health groups and people experiencing health inequalities.
Speaking about the new tool, Sarah Sweeney, Policy and Communications Manager at Friends, Families and Travellers said:
“The severe health inequalities experienced by Inclusion Health groups are unjust and avoidable. There are simple and practical steps Primary Care Networks can follow to make a real difference to the lives of those experiencing the sharp edge of health inequalities in our society. We hope that our tool will help Primary Care Networks to take stock of their work with people experiencing the worst health inequalities in their neighbourhood and to develop strategies to address this as part of their everyday work. We have already heard so many inspiring examples of this happening and look forward to hearing more.”
Notes for Editor
About Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT)
Friends, Families and Travellers is a leading national charity that works to end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life.
Inclusion Health
Inclusion Health is a field which seeks to prevent and address the health and social inequalities experienced by groups of people at risk of or living with extremely poor health as a result of poverty, marginalisation, multi-morbidity and social exclusion.
The groups originally defined under the term “Inclusion Health” include Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, people experiencing homelessness, vulnerable migrants and sex workers. However, the term is widely used to refer to populations at the sharp edge of health inequalities as a result of social exclusion and stigmatisation. This includes people in contact with the criminal justice system, people with learning disabilities and mental health needs and more.
Media Contact
Lucy Hetherington, Communications Officer
Tel: 07425 419853 Email: lucy@gypsy-traveller.org
Additional resources
Example ‘output report’ from the self assessment tool for Primary Care Networks. View the report.
