Health Services: Travellers

The Government is committed to reducing health inequalities, including for Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities, through its 10-Year Health Plan for England and NHS England’s CORE20PLUS5 approach.

Regarding barriers identified by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, we are taking action to address stigma, informational, and technological barriers to healthcare. This includes supporting guidance for health and care professionals, developed in partnership with Roma-led organisations, to improve understanding of community needs, challenge discrimination, and build trust in services. The supporting guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/improving-roma-health-a-guide-for-health-and-care-professionals

We are also improving access to information and care by promoting accessible communication, including tailored resources, such as visual materials and wordless picture stories, community-language materials, face-to-face outreach, and non-digital routes into services. Further information on the wordless picture stories is available at the following link:

https://www.booksbeyondwords.co.uk/

Alongside this, we are strengthening ethnicity data collection and investing in research on lived experience to ensure services are better designed to meet the needs of Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities and reduce inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes.