SPOTLIGHT: Improving Inclusion Health Outcomes

Introduction

Spotlight is a data dissemination platform that collates and presents key statistics related to the public health outcomes of Inclusion health groups across the following themes: access to and utilisation of health care; preventative care; health outcomes; and wider determinants of health.

The aim of Spotlight is to improve accessibility and visibility of data and evidence related to inclusion health populations. Data have been selected for inclusion based on validity, reliability, and relevance of the original source.

Quality Assurance

Each indicator contained within Spotlight was developed in collaboration with data owners and has undergone a formal quality assurance process. Careful consideration has been given to ensure that relevant caveats and limitations are communicated in the metadata and key information required to interpret graphs is provided upfront..

Introduction

Inclusion health is a ‘catch-all’ term used to describe people who are socially excluded, typically experience multiple overlapping risk factors for poor health (such as poverty, violence and complex trauma), experience stigma and discrimination, and are not consistently accounted for in electronic records (such as healthcare databases). These experiences frequently lead to barriers in access to healthcare and extremely poor health outcomes. People belonging to inclusion health groups frequently suffer from multiple health issues, which can include mental and physical ill health and substance dependence issues. This leads to extremely poor health outcomes, often much worse than the general population, lower average age of death, and it contributes considerably to increasing health inequalities.

Inclusion health includes any population group that is socially excluded. This can include people who experience homelessness, drug and alcohol dependence, vulnerable migrants, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, sex workers, people in contact with the justice system and victims of modern slavery, but can also include other socially excluded groups. There will be differences in needs within socially excluded groups (for example between men and women) and these differences should be understood and responded to appropriately.

How to use this tool

Please do not use your browser back button to navigate as this will exit the tool.
You can search for indicators in two ways: browsing by theme or by keywords.

Navigating by theme

1. Select the theme of interest from the toolbar
2. Choose a subtheme from the dropdown menu
3. Select the indicator to display using the ‘indicator’ drop down
4. Select the population or time period of interest from the second dropdown, if applicable
5. Navigate between the graph, source data and metadata by selecting the appropriate tab above the graph
6. Read any supporting information to the left of each page before interpreting graphs
7. Read the metadata for more information and data sources

Navigating by keyword

1. Type a keyword of interest into the search bar in the glossary tab. This will highlight all indicators containing the specified keyword
2. Click the link button at the side of the indicator title
3. Select the relevant indicator from the ‘indicator' dropdown
4. Select the population or time period of interest from the second dropdown, if applicable
5. Navigate between the graph, source data and metadata by selecting the appropriate tab above the graph
6. Read any supporting information to the left of each page before interpreting graphs
7. Read the metadata for more information and data sources

Interacting with the data

• Hover over the graph to see relevant information for each data point
• Graphs can be downloaded by clicking the ‘download’ button below the graph

A note about statistical validity

Confidence intervals are used within Spotlight wherever appropriate. A confidence interval is a range of values that is used to quantify the imprecision in the estimate of a particular indicator. Specifically, it quantifies the imprecision that results from random variation in the measurement of the indicator. A wider confidence interval shows that the indicator value presented is likely to be a less precise estimate of the underlying value.

Feedback

We are interested in your feedback. If you have any comments or suggested changes please contact inclusion.health@dhsc.gov.uk.