2021 Annual Report Health Literacy
Health Literacy UK (HLUK) was founded in March 2007 and was awarded Special Interest Group status by the Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) the same year. HLUK was launched with Prof Gill Rowlands as Chair 2007 – 2014; now Chaired by Dr Evelyn McElhinney (March 2021), taking over from Prof Joanne Protheroe 2014 - 2021. Since our inception we have become an active group continuing to deliver on our objectives and actively supporting the development of the research evidence and best practice base for Health Literacy (HL) in England and across the four countries of the UK. In this report we describe the activities of the group 2020 - 2021.
Health Literacy Group UK Steering Group members - representatives across the UK
• Dr Evelyn McElhinney PhD: Chair (EM)
• Anne McCusker: Treasurer (AmC)
• Prof Gill Rowlands: Policy Lead (GR)
• Prof Joanne Protheroe: Research Lead (JP)
• Tania Cork (TC)
• Dr Mike Oliver PhD (MO)
• Mandy Wardle-McLeish (MWMC)
• Michaela Booth (MB)
The steering group meets 3-4 times a year. This has been via MS Teams during 2020 - 2021.
Updates from Chair on activities for 2021
Despite the continued pandemic this has been a busy year for HLUK.
Late 2020, early 2021 we updated our webpage. This is an ongoing project to try to maintain all resources. The website is still attracting visitors especially at conference time and during Health Literacy Month. Membership of HLUK currently sits at 1189 (October 2021). Member can sign up via the website or via our Gmail account. We also have a YouTube which allows us to upload seminar recordings.
December 2020 – February 2021: Preparing for annual conference – online April 2021
February 2021: Response on behalf of HLUK as stakeholder to NICE consultation on draft guidance around Shared Decision Making (SDM)
March 2021: Presentation to the North Kensington Health & Wellbeing group, established as part of the response to the Grenfell Tower disaster
April 2021: HLUK Conference online – 1-day conference with 23 presentations, 3 keynotes and 70 delegates
April 2021: input to NHS England - Measuring supported self-management: Five steps to help teams choose approaches
June 2021: Exhibitor stand - Supported the Living & Dying Well: 49th Annual Scientific Meeting of SAPC 2021
October 2021: Health literacy UK – Health Literacy Month Seminar Series – 3 webinars
As an independent practitioner, Steering Group Member Dr Mike Oliver is working with a charity, Local Authorities, the NHS and Health Education England to raise awareness of the importance of health literacy, with a particular focus on helping health and care organisations to provide a health literate service and environment for their service users.
All members have presented at a number of national and global conferences over the last year and have abstracts accepted for conferences in 2022.
*Future plans
Continue to contribute to policy, education, and research through UK and globally via health literacy groups. We will continue to develop and deliver our seminar programme, and plan to hold our next conference in Spring 2023 (tbc). An important focus next year will be to continue to inform policy development in the NHS with, we expect and hope, a real impact on patient care.