Liverpool PCT
Profile
Liverpool has a population 436,100 people (2006 Mid year Estimates) served by 99 general practices / The total Black and Racial Minority (BRM) population is 10.7% compared with 15.3% for England (2005 Mid-Year Estimates), with more than 279 Ethnic groups and 81 languages spoken / Main ethnic minorities include African, Caribbean, Chinese, Irish, Indian, Mixed and Pakistani/ Liverpool is home to the highest concentration of mixed groups in England. The majority (56%) of areas in Liverpool are in the 10% most deprived areas nationally, resulting in health and economic disadvantages for these residents.
Our BME population faces big issues…
Diverse population: There is a wide range of communities from many different areas, including the China, Caribbean, Middle East, West Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Central / East Africa. As a dispersal city for asylum seekers we embrace communities form all parts of the globe. 06/07 we acknowledge 86 different interpreting requests.
High risk of diseases: Some of our B RM population face higher risks of certain diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and obesity, sickle cell, and tuberculosis. South Asian populations and African-Caribbeans face higher incidence of, for example, diabetes and coronary heart disease. Due to high levels of smoking all groups are at risk from lung cancer and smoking related conditions. Patient Profiling is used to analyse prevalence and targeting those at risk in participating GP Practices.
Deprivation: A majority of our BRM populations live in areas with the highest levels of deprivation as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (2007). The four electoral wards in the City in which 38% of the Black and racial minority population reside are among the 10% most deprived nationally against the Overall Index, and are also amongst the worst within the Health Deprivation and Disability element of the Index. The remainder of the BRM population are distributed across other areas of the city, which as a whole is ranked 4th nationally for having the highest proportion of our total population living in deprivation.
Marginalisation: Some BME populations are concentrated in particular wards, so it is easier to engage our initiatives with them - for example, Somali, Chinese, and Arabic speaking communities. Our Community Engagement Team works closely with our voluntary sector and local churches, mosques, temples etc to reach out and promote specific health campaigns. Also our Patient Profiling helps us identify these communities as we gradually profile all GP Practices.
Access to services: There are differing challenges for our BRM communities. Our staff are trained with the skills and competencies to deliver services to acknowledge the diversity within the city. The Primary Care Trust has invested significantly to the Social Inclusion Team which is a team speaking approximately fifteen languages between them, employed for their expertise and knowledge to their communities. There is the vital link between communities and health professional to eradicate barriers. We have evidence to support that our BRM communities continue not to access Mental Health Services but the recent recruitment of seven Community Development Workers will hopefully address any access issues.
Migration: There are large numbers of migrants, who suffer higher incidences of certain infectious diseases, such as TB and HIV, reflecting incidence in their country of origin. The mobility of these travellers can make it more difficult to assess, monitor and meet their health needs using conventional systems. We have services addressing the needs of the Irish / Gypsy communities who may reside in Liverpool at a dedicated site or may be transient. Liverpool’s is seeing lots of new communities, particularly in the last 10 years. Liverpool continues to be a dispersal city for asylum seekers, and one of only two cities in the UK where individuals can seek asylum. It is a challenge to access information on our new communities, as they are so transient and often do not register with GPs. But links with housing providers and the Home Office has provided some useful information. This information is useful in our planning and design of services and particularly interpreting and language requests.
Poor understanding: We use national statistics to indicate numerous health disadvantage issues for the ethnic minority population. We acknowledge that certain sub-populations face specific health challenges: Obesity in the Somali population, HIV and TB in Sub Saharan African and Asian communities and Sickle Cell disease in the African and Caribbean population. The PCT is active in using the Patient Profiling data to gather more in-depth knowledge from GP Practice systems about our various communities.
Our Workforce Needs:
In-Depth Workforce Profiling and Monitoring – We want to develop an accurate baseline workforce equal opportunities profile of the workforce and are doing this through a data cleanse project. We will compare the workforce profile in comparison to the local demography to establish if the workforce is representative of the local community at all levels and set meaningful long-term improvement targets to improve diversity at all levels in the workforce and implement a comprehensive framework to monitor our employment practices and policies.
Positive Action Initiatives – We need to put in place funding and resources for targeted recruitment, and training and development programmes to enable us to achieve a diverse workforce
Local Involvement – We want to understand and remove any real or perceived barriers that different areas of the community experience when applying for jobs with the PCT and to develop a comprehensive recruitment community engagement plan. We want to continue to develop the staff networks to contribute to decision-making and impact assessments to ensure that the views of the community are represented in decision making in the trust.
Greater Equality and Diversity Awareness – We want to raise the level of knowledge of equality and diversity issues in the workforce through implementing a new 3 year comprehensive equality and diversity training framework that meets requirements under national training standards, KSF, standards for better health and our statutory duties and through developing and implementing equality and diversity resources e.g. E & D toolkits, language and etiquette guidelines.
Commissioning Raises Issues…
Due to a limited number of organisations in a position to tender for services to meet the needs of the BRM communities. Liverpool Primary Care Trust in partnership with University of Central Lancashire aim to develop and capacity and capability of Black and Racial Minority community Organisations to become social enterprises. This will enable the PCT to be in a position to commission appropriate and responsive services that are accessible to our communities, by shaping and improving the service design.
We are Proud of…
Our Interpreting Contract: to meet the needs of our non-English speaking communities in the city, accessing health services.
Black Staff Network: which is able to support us in our impact assessment of HR policies.
Patient Profiling: this will be an important aspect of measuring uptake and access to services by patients from BME communities.
Programme Lead
Michelle Cox
Head of Equality and Diversity - Commissioning.
0151 296 7443