Read standard 2: Reducing inequalities

Organisations demonstrate their commitment to addressing health inequalities in gender identity healthcare by collaborating and working in partnership to:

• undertake comprehensive population needs assessments
• identify the specific needs of different groups of people who are accessing gender identity services
• proactively engage with people with lived experience, including marginalised and under-served groups, to reduce barriers to access
• provide meaningful and responsive opportunities to engage with people with living experience, including reimbursement of expenses to cover appropriate engagement costs
• undertake an evaluation of staff’s understanding of health inequalities with action plans developed as appropriate
• understand people’s multiple and complex needs and how this impacts on accessing services and support
• ensure service design and delivery is inclusive
• ensure systems which support the management and transfer of healthcare are inclusive, including patient forms and IT systems.

Organisations have processes in place to assess the impact of any work undertaken to reduce health inequalities. This includes:

• planned service improvement and evaluation
• gathering qualitative and quantitative data
• demonstration of learning from feedback and complaints.

Organisations can demonstrate where working in partnership with people with lived experience has led to improvements in equitable access to, and experience of, gender identity healthcare services.

Organisations work in partnership with other services, including primary care, community based services and academic institutions, to:

• improve understanding of access to gender identity services
• reduce barriers to care
• develop or design new services
• ensure continuity and consistency of care
• promote best practice and shared learning
• support and undertake research and evaluation.

What does the standard mean for people?

• You can be confident that your care will be fair, equitable and non-discriminatory.
• You will have the opportunity to provide feedback on your experiences of services.
• You will have the opportunity to be involved in reviewing and designing services.

What does the standard mean for staff?

Staff, in line with roles, responsibilities and workplace setting:

• understand the needs and experiences of the communities in which they work, including the impact of health inequalities, intersectionality and protected characteristics
• are encouraged to identify areas for improvement
• work in partnership to reduce inequalities
• put people’s rights to equitable and non-discriminatory care at the centre of their work.
  
  

What does the standard mean for the organisation?

Organisations:

• are committed to achieving equality and equity of access
• have systems and processes in place to understand their population, including data on demographics and protected characteristics
• understand the needs and experiences of the communities that they serve
• are proactive in activities to review and improve service access and design
• support staff in training and undertaking service improvement work
• ensure services are inclusive and accessible, for example waiting room design, private consultation rooms, information displayed
• work with partners, including primary care, public health, pharmacy, third sector and other services to improve access and reduce inequalities.

Examples of what meeting this standard might look like

• EQIAs and Island Communities Impact Assessments, Children’s Rights Impact Assessments demonstrating evidence based, co-design of services and meaningful lived experience engagement.
• Evidence of engaging with people, communities and under-served groups to understand the barriers to access and how to address them.
• Examples of inclusive methods of engagement and consideration of the person’s needs to provide a meaningful opportunity to contribute, for example hybrid meetings, and provision of travel or overnight expenses to attend events.
• Multidisciplinary and multi-agency working and education to understand and minimise barriers to accessing gender identity services.
• Evaluation of the impact of staff training and other learning on understanding of inequalities.
• Participation in research and evaluation activities.
• Examples of how feedback has led to improvements in services.
• Evidence of examples of how services have responded to intersectionality and diversity of lived experience.
• Examples of patient forms and IT systems which enable the sharing of information, for example person’s preferred pronouns and name.