Our commitment to addressing equality and diversity in health and care innovation
Innovation and transformation must be accessible and responsive to our diverse populations, and all our projects are informed by insight into health inequalities across East Midlands’ communities.
The East Midlands is one of the most diverse areas of the UK. We have put in place dedicated resources to ensure our work is built around the needs of people from across protected characteristic groups, and also that it reflects broader issues within society, such as particular challenges faced within urban and rural communities.
We undertake Equality Impact Assessments for all our projects - regularly reviewed as the innovation progresses through the pipeline stages. Building on this commitment, we established the Expert People’s Panel, an independent group drawn from the different protected characteristic groups, with health experience across a range of conditions. The panel provides critical friend input to our equality assessments.
We are committed to the AHSN Network’s Diversity Pledges – these are owned by our team members, helping ensure equality and diversity remain front and centre, so our innovations continue to respond to the diverse populations we serve.
We also provide expertise and support to our healthcare partners and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) – for example by producing health inequality summaries tailored to each ICS area that cross- reference data from multiple sources.
