Colleagues from the Trust, other NHS providers, social care and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners took part in the lunchtime webinar hosted by ELFT.
It was held on Thursday, June 12 and explored the theme of poverty proofing – an approach that seeks to identify and overcome some of the barriers people may face in accessing services owing to having less financial resource.
Guest speaker was Ailbhe Cashman, poverty proofing coordinator for Children North East, a charity that has been working with NHS trusts alongside schools and cultural organisations.
Ailbhe discussed the benefits of organisations championing a poverty informed care approach.
The top takeaway from the session was that Trusts should take time to understand the financial needs of people they are supporting, know about support available and make it easy to access, such as the claiming back of NHS travel expenses for service users, and be comfortable about talking about financial support as part of care.
Whenever possible, clinics should also be delivered in places close to where people live, in community settings, schools and outreach locations.
“This was an excellent session which provided practical guidance that we, the NHS, need to consider as part of our commitment to helping improve the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve,” said Laura Austin Croft, ELFT Director of Population Health.
The session was the second in a series of lunchtime webinars organised for guests to learn, reflect and discuss what the population health topic means in terms of how we work as an NHS Trust and with partners across place.
They are open for all Trust colleagues, service users, carers, governors, members and ICB colleagues, voluntary sector partners and local authority public health teams from North East London (NEL) and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes (BLMK).
If you would like to learn more about the principles of poverty proofing and how it can support the work of your team contact laura.austincroft@nhs.net.