Health and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (EqHIIA) is a tool to assess the impact on people of applying a proposed, new, or revised policy or practice. HIIA goes beyond the public sector’s legal duty of the Equality Act 2010 to assess impact (EqHIIA) by assessing the impact on:

• health inequalities
• people with protected characteristics
• human rights
• socioeconomic circumstances

Why conduct a Health and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment?

Many policies, plans, proposals, or decisions have the potential to impact on health and potentially widen health inequalities. By conducting an EqHIIA the potential impacts can be considered, and action taken to reduce those impacts.
Impact assessments help to

• ensure we are not discriminating
• widen access to opportunities
• promote the interests of people with protected characteristics

During the pandemic, the Public Participation Team applied for funding through NHS Charities Together to address some of the gaps in engagement with Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and other seldom heard communities.

A grant of £50,000 was received and this supported funding a Social Inclusion Facilitator role for 12 months. The aim of this role was to establish links and build relationships with seldom heard community groups and organisations and individuals across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, and Powys.

The project ran from January 2021 to October 2022; at the start of the project a gap analysis of our existing links with socially excluded groups was undertaken to identify Areas of Focus. To read about this project and the outcomes please click on the button below: