Addressing health inequalities through engagement with people and communities

Summary

Allocating resources to ensure equitable engagement, prioritising accessibility, and addressing barriers faced by under-served communities experiencing health inequalities.

Link to health inequalities

Dedicated resourcing enables the development, implementation and evaluation of tailored interventions that address the specific inclusion and accessibility needs of people and communities that experience health and care inequalities. Financial and practical commitments also demonstrate genuine investment in, and the importance of, the experiences and insights of communities.

Activities, skills and resources

Emerging

• Allocate a dedicated, ringfenced annual budget for community engagement.
• Identify existing resources and assets that can be used to support engagement activities.
• Develop policies to cover participants’ expenses, such as travel, childcare, or other costs related to their engagement.

Developing

• Establish a flexible budgeting process that allows funds to be adjusted according to the unique engagement needs of each project or workstream.
• Expand policies to cover additional expenses that may arise from specific engagement needs, such as digital access support or interpretation services for certain communities.
• Foster a culture of flexibility within finance and engagement teams, enabling them to respond to varying engagement demands efficiently.

Maturing

• Schedule regular dialogue with community members, lived experience partners, and community groups to inform funding decisions.
• Develop processes to incorporate community input into budget planning and allocation decisions, with mechanisms to prioritise their needs and recommendations.
• Ensure resources are consistently available to cover all engagement expenses, with clear guidelines on reimbursement (for example, time compensation, accessibility needs).

Thriving

• Allocate funds to cover all aspects of engagement, including preparation, participation, and follow-up activities (pre- and post-session).
• Expand reimbursement policies to cover not only direct expenses but also the time, input, and expertise of participants across all engagement stages.
• Proactively allocate resources for varied engagement methods (for example, digital, in-person, small group discussions) to accommodate the unique needs of different communities.