Inclusion health action in general practice: equality impact assessment

Recommendations and Conclusion

The EQIA process has identified that the IHAGP programme has potential to have positive impacts for those who have protected characteristics due to associations between some characteristics and health inequalities and socio-economic status. The main risks to the desired outcomes being achieved are:

• the capacity of the General Practice workforce;
• funding timescales (at the time of the EQIA, it had funding for one year);
• awareness and understanding of the IHAGP programme amongst participating practices.

To raise awareness of IHAGP across eligible practices, a comprehensive communications and engagement plan has been developed to produce resources and deliver learning events for practice staff. To ensure sustained impacts of the programme, funding will be sought on a longer-term basis, as evaluation supports IHAGP’s continuation, and wider work is underway to support general practice workforce capacity.

We would recommend that some of the protected groups that are more likely to experience health inequalities and poverty could in future be considered for potential targeting of IHAGP via sub-themes.