The North West Coast Diabetes Team designed and led a programme of work called the Diabetes Health Inequalities Programme (DHIP). DHIP was a collaborative and sharing programme that sponsored initiatives during the covid recovery period to tackle health inequalities relating to diabetes prevention and diabetes care across Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Merseyside.  The programme supported and funded 15 community led improvement projects and provided a toolkit to replicate this programme in other areas of the NHS. The work culminated in the development of a dynamic, interactive online report, sharing project details, outcomes, and downloadable resources.

In the North West not everybody accesses health services equally or receives the same level of care, moreover, health outcomes are different and opportunities to maintain good health remains a challenge. The DHIP funding provided opportunities for harder to reach groups to improve diabetes services taking account of cultural, educational, and psycho- social needs. 

The programme empowered communities and service providers across the North West to have design freedom to develop diabetes services as the experts in their own care. Projects focussed on a community-based approach to reducing health inequalities in diabetes care. Organisations and community groups were given the opportunity to bid for funding, 43 bids were received and after a rigorous review process 15 projects were selected. Thousands of people have been involved across the projects and each have got their own outcomes and case studies.

Learning outcomes:

• To receive top tips for delivering programmes, quickly and at scale.
• To enhance your understanding of the power of a community led programme.
• How to capture and share learning from across multiple projects to shape future programmes