New Commissioner Guide to Health Equity

Health Innovation KSS has published the Commissioner Guide to Health Equity to support health and social care commissioners in addressing health inequalities of access.

Following on from the publication of the Innovator Guide to Health Equity, which has been downloaded over 1800 times, the Health Innovation KSS team have produced a guide specifically for commissioners. The guide once again builds on our Ten Principles of Health Equity, which were developed by the organisation, led by our Chief Medical Officer, Dr MaryAnn Ferreux, to ensure that we consider health equity in all our decision-making. Health equity is the goal to enable all people the opportunity to achieve their optimal level of health and the ten principles are based on latest best practice and evidence that has been proven to be supportive in promoting health equity.

Health and social care commissioners have a key role in addressing health inequalities of access to services and outcomes to narrow the health equity gap. This guide provides guidance on the health equity principles in the context of commissioning and an accompanying health equity self-assessment tool for commissioners and service providers. This is a practical tool to help target inequalities when commissioning innovation(s), including transforming services through quality improvement.

“Health equity is about ensuring everyone gets the support they need. It is important that commissioners consider health equity when commissioning services, but it is a complex area, and it can be hard to know where to start. This guide takes you through the process and helps you to think about health equity at every stage of the commissioning cycle, from strategic planning to procuring services, all the way through to evaluation.” – Dr MaryAnn Ferreux.

If you would like some further advice and guidance about health equity and support in bringing this into your commissioning practices, please contact your local Health Innovation Network. If you’re based in Kent, Surrey or Sussex, we at Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex would be delighted to support you, so please get in touch.

By working together, we can enable all people the opportunity to achieve their optimal level of health.