Tackling inequality and disadvantage: Key actions policy makers, commissioners and provider organisations can take when developing an approach with a digital component, February 2023

Tackling inequality and disadvantage: Key actions policy makers, commissioners and provider organisations can take when developing an approach with a digital component, February 2023 

This resource, launched by members of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, highlights how groups of people who experience the greatest barriers to accessing health and care are often the most likely to experience digital exclusion.  

The appendix of the document also contains additional, detailed insights into how digital exclusion affects groups who experience health inequalities. This includes people with learning disabilities, people seeking asylum, people in contact with the criminal justice system, people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and others. 

The guidance also highlights the key actions people who design health and care can take to tackle inequality and disadvantage when using digital tools, for example by: 

• Making a clear public commitment to respect the choices individuals make about when and how they want to access health and care services through remote and digital models. 
• Considering accessibility and inclusion from the outset – by testing design assumptions with diverse groups of people and ensuring tools meet diverse communication needs. 
• Thinking creatively about practical things that can be done to support and enable people (who want to) to use digital tools. 

The report is part of a wider body of work by the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, whose mission it is to enable policy, commissioning and provider organisations to design services and support based on the needs of people and communities who face disadvantage and exclusion. 

National Voices and NAVCA act as joint co-ordinators of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, which is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency.