NHS England have set out key actions to help us delivery this action plan:
- Demonstrate how we will work together to improve equity for women, birthing people and babies and raise equality, diversity and inclusion for staff.
- Address the leading causes of perinatal mortality and morbidity for babies from ethnic minority backgrounds alongside babies born to those in the most deprived areas.
- It is also true that outcomes are worse for people from the LGBTQ+ community, people with learning disabilities, mental illness and other protected characteristics.
The NHS has identified 5 priority actions for health inequalities for the whole of England. These priorities have helped us to develop this action plan, helping us to focus our efforts:
- Restore NHS services inclusively.
- Mitigate against digital exclusion.
- Ensure datasets are complete and timely.
- Accelerate preventative programmes that engage those at greatest risk of poor health outcomes.
- Strengthen leadership and accountability.
Our action plan is also guided by the NHS’s three values:
- Proportionate universalism: To ‘raise and flatten’ the inequalities gradient, universal action is needed with a scale and intensity that reflects need.
- Collaboration: Achieving equity will require unity and co-ordinated effort across many stakeholders, especially to tackle the social determinants of health.
- Co-production: Interventions are more likely to be culturally and socially relevant and clinically effective if parents and staff work in partnership to improve clinical quality.