VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance
Good Things Foundation is a member of the VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) Health and Wellbeing Alliance 2021-2024. The HW Alliance is supported by the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency. It is a partnership between the VCSE sector and the health and care system to share expertise with the aim of improving services for all communities in England. We are one of 20 VCSE consortia taking part. Our membership of the HW Alliance allows us to highlight issues around digital inclusion and inequalities, and work with policy teams in the health and care system as well as other HW Alliance members to improve services and reduce inequalities.
We believe digital is now a wider determinant of health. As well as shaping access to health and care services, digital impacts across all aspects of our lives affecting our opportunities and shaping health inequalities. Digital technologies and online services can improve health and wellbeing – as long as people have the access, skills, confidence and support to benefit.
Below you can find links to resources we’ve created as members of the HW Alliance, and reports from past programmes, such as the NHS Widening Digital Participation programme (2013-2020).
Resources supported by the HW Alliance:
- Practical guide on health inequalities and mitigating risks of digital exclusion (2022) This looks at available evidence with regard to protected characteristics and health inequalities groups, and includes a list of resources and suggested actions to take
- Inclusive access to GP care: promising approaches to digital inclusion (forthcoming)
This provides some top tips for VCSE, health and care system partners about ways to support more inclusive access to online GP systems, plus some case studies. - Accessibility and Inclusion guidance for HW Alliance members (2023)
Other Good Things Foundation resources on digital inclusion in health and care:
If you would like to found out more about our work with the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, please contact a member of the project team:
- Dr Emma Stone, Director of Evidence and Engagement emma.stone@goodthingsfoundation.org
- Katie Heard, Head of Research and Data Insights
katie.heard@goodthingsfoundation.org
- Andrew Rice, Project Manager
andrew.rice@goodthingsfoundation.org