NHS England takes action on health literacy

“Does health literacy matter?”. I am often asked this by clinicians and managers in the NHS – usually with the word ‘really’ inserted between ‘literacy’ and ‘matter’!  This is often quickly followed by the “what is it?” question. 

Research published by the British Journal of General Practice in 2015 shows that between 43 percent and 61 percent of English working age adults do not understand health information.

NHS England has been carrying out work to help improve the quality of information and support people to improve their health literacy. This work includes setting up a National Health Literacy Collaborative which will be developing a strategy and supporting the development of a collection of resources for professionals.

Read Jonathan Berry’s  blog which provides an update on NHS England’s work around health literacy. 

Jonathan Berry is the Personalisation & Control Specialist in NHS England’s Person Centred Care Team. He took up this post in November 2015, and leads on policy development with regard to Health Literacy and Shared Decision Making