Health and Wellbeing Alliance launch Inclusion Health Audit Tool for VCSE organisations
Friends, Families and Travellers explain their Inclusion Health Audit Tool, which can be used by voluntary agencies to make sure that they are engaging adequately with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller and other sometimes vulnerable communities.
We are delighted to announce the launch of an Inclusion Health Audit Tool to measure the engagement of voluntary organisations with Inclusion Health groups. Friends Families and Travellers led this work in partnership with Homeless Link, as part of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance. The tool was created to help VCSE organisations audit and improve their engagement with Inclusion Health groups.
Inclusion Health groups are the communities which experience the poorest health outcomes across a range of indicators, including self-reported health, life expectancy and morbidity. Among these communities are the four most vulnerable groups to health inequalities: sex workers, vulnerable migrants, homeless people and Gypsies and Travellers.
The audit tool introduces the principles around Inclusion Health, asks a range of questions about your organisation and provides a bespoke guide to maximise your organisation’s engagement with socially excluded groups while also embedding the principles behind Inclusion Health into your everyday activities.
Speaking about the new audit tool, Sarah Sweeney, Communications and Health Policy Co-ordinator at Friends, Families and Travellers said:
“We hope that this tool will equip organisations in the voluntary sector to tackle health inequalities in the worst affected groups as part of their ‘business as usual’. We have a collective responsibility to ensure that everyone has the best chance of living a healthy and happy life.”
In the preface to the tool, Ravi Jaipaul, Public Health Manager in the Business Operations and Health Equity Division of Public Health England says:
“During the development of this audit tool, I was excited to hear inspiring examples of good practice from organisations specialising in work with inclusion health groups and reflections from voluntary organisations who are trying to improve.. it is vital that work which recognises and challenges the health inequalities becomes the norm throughout the voluntary sector.”
The Inclusion Health Audit Tool was developed by Friends, Families and Travellers and Homeless Linkwith support from a range of VCSE organisations including The Mental Health Consortia; FaithAction; Clinks; National Voices; National Ugly Mugs, Emmanuel Westly, the Valuing People Alliance, with input from The National LGB&T Partnership and Win Win Alliance, among others.
By Friends, Families and Travellers
Picture (c) istock