Inclusion for All
Our work at a glance
- Bringing people and services together. Since November 2019, our Inclusion for All hub has brought people with communication needs and health and care staff together to solve problems.
- Shaping the national standard. We helped NHS England test and improve its new self-assessment for the Accessible Information Standard.
- Making GP websites easier to use. We reviewed eight GP practice websites and shared what needs to change.
- Showing why it matters. Gemma's story shows what poor communication costs families and services.
- Helping people know their rights. Our videos explain your right to ask for communication support.
Your right to information you can understand
The Accessible Information Standard is a set of rules that all NHS and publicly funded social care services in England must follow. It has been in place since 2016.
If you have a disability, impairment or sensory loss, services must give you information in a way you can understand. They must also provide the communication support you need, such as a BSL interpreter, large print, or easy read.
In 2025, NHS England updated the standard. Services must now regularly review and respond to people's communication preferences.
If a service hasn't met your communication needs, tell us about it.
The Inclusion for All hub
We launched the hub in 2019. It's a citywide group, led by us, that brings people and health and care professionals together to identify where people are not communicated with in a way they understand and to work out how to meet different communication needs.
We believe accessible and inclusive services should be the norm. We help services meet the legal requirements of the 2025 standard.
The Inclusion for All hub is made up of people with lived experiences (Deaf, visually impaired and learning disabilities) and professionals from:
- Leeds City Council.
- NHS commissioners.
- Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust.
- Leeds Community NHS Trust.
- Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
- Deafblind UK
- Guide dogs
- Forum Central
- BID – Leeds Hearing and Sight Loss Service.
- National Federation of the Blind.
- Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People.
The hub met regularly between 2019 and 2023. Meetings have since paused, but we continue to work together make sure their services are accessible.
Get in touch if you would like to join the hub or share your experiences.
Why getting it right matters
Gemma cares for her parents, who are profoundly Deaf. She told us what happened when services in Leeds didn't meet their communication needs, and the toll it took on her parents and on her own wellbeing. She gives an example of a misunderstanding that happened at her mum's eye appointment when no interpreter was provided, and her mum missed an appointment because of a lack of clear communication.
Her story shows that when services get communication right, it saves time and money and leads to better health.
Shaping the national standard
NHS England asked us to be one of two cities to pilot its new self-assessment for the standard in 2025. Services use the self-assessment to check and publish how well they are meeting the standard. Hub members reviewed it to make sure it was practical, inclusive and useful.
Because of our feedback, NHS England changed the final version:
- Action plans. Organisations are now asked to publish an action plan based on their results.
- Fairer scoring. A simple 0 or 1 score was replaced with red, amber and green ratings, which show progress more accurately.
- Clearer questions. Questions that asked several things at once were split up, and vague words like "effectively" were removed.
- Better guidance. Each question now explains what evidence organisations should give.
Read our Pilot report to see our findings and the full list of recommendations.
Working in health or care? Download the self-assessment template from the NHS England Accessible Information Standard page.
Making GP websites Accessible
We worked with eight GP practices in Leeds centre and north Leeds to make their websites easier to use for people with communication needs. We found people with communication needs consistently rated websites lower than people without, suggesting those with additional needs are at a disadvantage. We provided the GP surgeries with a list of recommendations, many of which have been implemented.
We've shared our GP websites report with NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which plans and pays for local NHS services, and with groups that support GP practices. Together we're looking at shared resources so every practice can make these improvements.
Hearing from people in Leeds
In September 2022, we interviewed four individuals with communication needs about their experiences of accessing health and care services.
People with communication needs tell us what works for them and what needs to change:
- Karl's story: getting letters you can't read when you're blind.
- Jason's story: what deaf people need from health services.
- Shaun's story: understanding the needs of people with learning disabilities.
- Mr Lam's story: using services when English isn't your first language.
Supporting services to be more accessible
In 2023, we created a video which can be played on the monitors within services. The video highlights the patient's right to ask for appropriate communication support for health and care appointments and examples of support they can request.
