Addressing health inequalities through engagement with people and communities

Summary

Identify and prioritise populations most affected by health inequalities to target engagement and interventions effectively.

Link to health inequalities

Identifying affected populations is key to tackling health inequalities, ensuring efforts focus on those most at risk and those with protected characteristics. Using data, addressing gaps, and including community insights makes engagement inclusive and relevant. Collaboration builds trust, empowers communities, and improves accountability, driving better care and reduced disparities for under-served groups.

Activities, skills and resources

Emerging

• Use existing data to Identify populations that may influence or be affected by a specific project or workstream. 

Developing

• Analyse the quality of available data and whether it is applicable.
• Identify gaps in existing knowledge.
• Recognise emerging patterns of over- and/or under-engagement.

Maturing

• Interrogate available data (as previous).
• Identify and incorporate complementary ’soft’ intelligence, including from non-traditional sources.

Thriving

• Work with communities to identify populations that may influence or be affected by – a specific project or workstream.
• Work with communities to co-create a plan to meaningfully engage those populations in decision-making related to that project or workstream.