There are numerous relevant health inequalities resources and documents developed by think tanks, third sector organisations and membership organisations, which provide useful recommendations on tackling health inequalities within NHS services. As the membership organisation for NHS trusts in England, our NHS Providers health inequalities support programme seeks to embed health inequalities as core business in trusts. The programme has developed the following relevant resources and recommendations for trusts:
- Reducing health inequalities faced by children and young people (NHS Providers, 2023c)
- Being an anchor institution: partnership approaches to improving population health (NHS Providers, 2023a)
- Tackling health inequalities with effective data and insight (NHS Providers, 2022b)
NHS Confederation is a membership organisation for healthcare systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Their equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programme supports members to improve EDI accountability and leadership, tackling inequality through our EDI networks and partnerships. The Health Inequalities Leadership Framework board assurance tool is to assist board members in the assessment of any strategies or plans for their impact on health inequality (NHS Confederation, 2023). NHS Confederation have also published a toolkit for integrated care systems, to inform spending and embed action on health inequalities (NHS confederation, 2024).
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) represents and supports NHS ambulance services in the UK. Alongside NHSE, NHSP and other system partners, AACE published their consensus statement on health inequalities, outlining the role that ambulance trusts play (AACE, 2023).
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) have created a dashboard on trust catchment populations, to help trusts understand the needs of the populations that they serve (OHID, 2022). A large collection of public health data, including inequality tools, are available through the OHID fingertips profiles (OHID, 2024). OHID – formerly Public Health England - have also developed the Health Equity Assessment Tool which provides a structure to assess health inequalities in relation to programmes and services and supports professionals to take action to tackle inequalities (Public Health England, 2020). They have also published a population intervention triangle, which provides a framework for action to reduce health inequalities (Public Health England, 2021).
The Department of Health and Social Care have statutory guidance on the development of Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWSs), which aim to reduce health inequalities and improve the health and wellbeing of local populations (Department of Health and Social Care, 2013).
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence - formerly The Health Development Agency - produced a Health needs assessment at a glance, which provides a practical guide for services looking to undertake a health needs assessment (Health Development Agency, 2005).
The Provider Public Health Network, an independent forum of healthcare public health professionals, have developed a population health framework for healthcare providers in collaboration with NHS Providers (NHS Providers, 2019). The framework sets out principles for a population health approach, including actions around health inequalities and the wider determinants.
The specialty specific medical Royal Colleges also have dedicated resources relating to health inequalities that are useful for trusts to consider relating to the range of services they provide, specifically targeted towards different practitioner groups.