Aoife Slattery is Diabetes UK’s Tackling Inequality Engagement Lead and tells us more about The Tackling Inequality Commission that we launched at the start of this year – what it is, what we’ve committed to do and what she and the panel will be working on in 2023.
What is the commission?
Black African, Black Caribbean, South Asian people, and those living in deprivation experience the greatest inequality in their risk of developing diabetes, their access to care and treatment and their outcomes.
The Tackling Inequality Commission aims to find out what positive action needs to happen in order to narrow the gap for anyone experiencing health inequality.
It’ll consist of a panel of experts who will review submissions on the work needed now to reduce these inequalities – they will be receiving evidence from all over the UK about how where you live, work, and everything that surrounds you directly impacts on your health. Using this they’ll be producing a report that gives clear guidance on what we need to do next, urgently, to create more equality in diabetes health.
It’s really important for us that, as well as professionals experienced in the fields of diabetes healthcare, social policy and local government, that our panel includes people with direct experience of health inequality.
Who will be on the panel?
I’m pleased to announce the two co-chairs of the commission panel. We’ll be announcing the rest of the panel members as they are selected in the coming weeks.
Dr Faye Bruce is the Chair of the Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN) a national organisation which was formed in 2017 as a result of her PhD.
Professor Linda Bauld is the Bruce and John Usher Chair in Public Health in the Usher Institute, College of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and Chief Social Policy Adviser to the Scottish Government. She also sits on the board of Trustees for Diabetes UK.
What is happening between now and summer 2023?
Over the next few months, we will be gathering evidence through surveys, focus groups and interviews. Through this process we hope to find out about how to support more diverse leadership in diabetes care, find examples of great innovations and projects for those facing health inequality, and understand what matters most to those facing health inequality and how we ensure their voices guide the work we do.
Our panel will begin meeting from January 2023 and continue through a series of workshops to consider the evidence and agree a series of recommendations, developed in partnership with those who live with health inequality everyday. This report will be ready in July 2023 and will help shape our ongoing work as well as making sure the voices of those at risk of and living with diabetes are heard wherever we need change.
January 2023 will mark just over a year since we launched our Tackling Inequality Commitments, and I’m really looking forward to the commission assembling in the first half of the year to agree what the biggest impact is going to be for people living with diabetes facing health inequalities, and how Diabetes UK and its partners can work together to make this impact.
I’m looking forward to sharing with you where we get to next year.
Collecting evidence
In the meantime – we're asking healthcare professionals to complete our survey to find examples of good practice in tackling inequality. Once you've completed it, please share with your colleagues. We want to collect as much evidence as possible to guide our thoughts, so your input is hugely appreciated.
Or do email me inequalitycommission@diabetes.org.uk if you have any questions about the commission.
