The Partnership for Black People’s Health: Collaborating to Address Health Inequities Faced by Black Communities in the UK

Please could you give us an overview of the project?

Black African and Black Caribbean communities suffer a disproportionate burden of health inequalities in all areas of medicine and public health. This is partly due to racism, which compounds other forms of discrimination and other social and economic inequalities (for example, those based on economic class, age, gender, immigration status, sexuality, ethnicity or age).

It also can be attributed to the fact that many interventions to improve health fail to reach Black African and Black Caribbean communities. This is partly because of a lack of effective involvement of members of these communities in the development of plans for healthcare, public health and research. Also, fewer people from Black African and Black Caribbean communities are employed in research institutions and therefore these communities have less power over how research evidence is produced.

The aim of the Partnership for Black People’s Health (P4BPH) was therefore to build on and expand a community of practice able to address health inequalities in Black communities in the UK through community involvement. In doing so, we sought to contribute to both SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities).

To meet this aim, we had the following objectives:

To convene a community of practice involving community organisations, community members, lived experience experts, clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners focused on Black People’s Health.
To facilitate regular exchanges to share and discuss methods that can be applied in community deliberations.
To conduct a series of public deliberations and community involvement activities with different Black African and Black Caribbean groups to explore health understandings, experiences, and identify priorities for health research and interventions.
To identify and assess effective involvement methods tailored to specific groups and their health priorities.
Based on the above, to co-produce a community-driven research agenda and develop funding applications to support it.
Create a case study for use by future partnerships.

Please could you tell us more about how the project worked and what you did?

The project was led by 19 Partners (8 clinical and social science academics and 11 community leaders). Over 18 months, we hosted 16 public engagement events with Black African and Black Caribbean members of the public, with variation by age (16-80 years old), sexuality, gender, health condition, migrant status, and ethnicity. We employed focus group, photovoice, body mapping, world cafe, and arts-based techniques. The engagement activities covered issues from specific health conditions to broader health and equity concerns. All events were led by Black facilitators, all participants were reimbursed for their time, and all sessions were held in community or public spaces, at accessible times, and with culturally appropriate food. In total, we engaged with 207 members of the public.

Partners met every three weeks for the first 12 months of the project, then every month for the final six months. At each meeting, Partners that had led on involvement activities (referred to as 'Involvement Leads') discussed feedback from their events and/or plans for future events. In this way, over the course of the project, Partners shared learning about methodologies, challenges and opportunities, and issues discussed by public participants. Some of the Partners joined up to carry out some of the engagement events together. Involvement Leads completed a feedback and reflection form for their activities which included questions on what public participants had raised in engagement discussions but also prompted reflection on methodology and experience of the Involvement Lead. Once all events were completed, a team of five Partners (two academics and three community Partners) carried out an analysis workshop to synthesise findings from participants. These were then shared and refined with the whole Partnership across three grant development workshops aimed at co-producing a research and intervention agenda to form the basis of additional funding applications.

What kind of impact did your project have?

Our findings informed the development of a community-led research and intervention agenda, and of a community of practice able to collaborate and advise on a variety of projects that, collectively and over time, will lead to better evidence for policy and systemic change to address the varied needs of heterogeneous Black communities in the UK and reduce health inequalities in the population.

Outputs included a community-facing report that was distributed to all public participants in P4BPH and their networks, the podcast ‘A Dialogue of Equals’ which covers Black Men's Health issues with priorities set by the Haringey Black Men’s Health Action Research Group (started through P4BPH), and social media assets to support dissemination.

Our key impact achievements included:

Bringing together a significant number of involvement & community leaders, across London and the Midlands, that meet tri-weekly to share and collaborate on previous and upcoming engagement activities.
Extending our original network to include further community-based collaborators showing the need and opportunities that the Partnership speaks to
Obtaining additional public engagement funding for i) evaluating in detail the Partnership for Black People's Health and ii) extending the meaningful involvement of Black men in research about their own health
Disseminating our work at the national Black Health Inequalities Summit held in London in March 2024.

Where will this project go next?

More broadly, Partners and participants in this project's engagement events are able to join efforts for participatory knowledge-making going forward. As one example, members of the public who took part in our engagement are currently included as co-researchers on grants in preparation or under review, and their presence will contribute to enrich the relevance and therefore impact of future research evidence.

The public impact of our dissemination strategy (community-facing report, social media material, and a podcast under production) will need to be evaluated but it is likely to be important to raise awareness of both the issues highlighted and the approaches used by P4BPH, e.g. centering Black leadership and community voice and dispelling negative perceptions about 'hard to reach' groups in the community.

The Partners are in discussion with multiple academic researchers seeking advice on their studies. Beyond a more common approach of 'patient and public involvement and engagement', the Partnership represents a skilled and strengthened network of knowledge co-production that can collectively respond to the questions posed by academic researchers as to the design and concepts in their studies.

In other words, as a public-academic partnership, the impact of P4BPH is expected to continue to reach both in the direction of the public and practitioners, and in the direction of shaping the ways in which research with Black communities is conducted, and the topics of such research, ultimately with the hope to lead to improvements in the evidence base for policy and services.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Partnership for Black People’s Health supports SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) by seeking to address health disparities through culturally appropriate, community-led engagement and co-producing research agendas that reflect the priorities of Black African and Black Caribbean communities. The community report we have produced sets out a clear agenda for researchers working in this field, and we now have a number of grants in preparation to build on this work. The Partnership supports SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) by giving a platform to marginalised voices, fostering inclusive participation in health research, and building a collaborative network of academics, clinicians, and community leaders to influence policy and systemic change. Through these actions, the Partnership promotes equitable health outcomes and challenges structural barriers to participation.

SDGs supported:

SDG 3: Good health and well-being
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

Find out more about the SDGs at Queen Mary University of London.

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