BME and 'Seldom Heard' Voices

National Voices has a strategic commitment to engage with Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) and ‘seldom heard’ communities. The involvement of these communities in health and social care policy, and sometimes practice, has historically been limiting or exclusive and not necessarily carried out as a matter of practice. BME and ‘seldom heard’ communities – which include older people, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, young people, Travellers and disabled people for example - lack a collective voice.

Involving individuals from BME Groups in the development of public services has been a key feature of government policy for some time and much progress has been made. However, given the varied experiences of minority communities in relation to consultation and involvement, there is clearly a need for further work to be undertaken by policy-makers and representatives from the voluntary sector in this area.

National Voices’ work in this area has so far gathered the experiences of people who identify with these groups, looking primarily at the impact of culture and age on involvement in health and social care. We have been working in partnership with organisations that represent these communities at a grass-roots level and our work adds weight to these voices by bringing them together and acting as a conduit to getting them heard and actually listened to by policy-makers and change agents.

Please click on Events in the left-hand menu to see the outputs from our involvement sessions with BME and 'seldom heard' communities so far.