There are many definitions of health literacy available, the national health literacy action plan, Making it Easy (2017-2025), defines health literacy as:
“Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems”
Health literacy relates to a range of communications including, written, spoken and visual. All health and social care staff in Scotland have a responsibility to support health literacy.
In recognition of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish Health Literacy Action Plan Implementation Group (SHLAPIG) sought to reinvigorate their work. They wanted to further understand the impact of health literacy for people, communities and organisations and to learn where it is working well and areas for improvement. As well as supporting the development of policy and practice, the group are also looking ahead to the next strategic plan which they will be writing soon. Translating and consolidating the work so far helped to develop of an overarching strategic aim and national theory of change to support the update of the action plan.
To demonstrate improvement in practice SHLAPIG required a real-world examples where the drivers (key areas that would drive the outcome) could help identify and develop projects that would help us learn and provide possible ways to raise the awareness and application of health literacy within public sector organisations.
Following some initial scoping, NHS Shetland, Shetland Community Connections and the Shetland Community Learning and Development team worked with colleagues in Scottish Government to identify 3 small tests of change across three different services. A small project team was set up to draw on knowledge, skills, resources and expertise in relation to health literacy, local need, local service design and delivery alongside the quality improvement approach and stakeholder engagement. The three projects have focused on:
- access to primary care services for people who use British Sign Language,
- developing communication tools and resources for healthcare staff working with people who have learning disabilities
- providing training and resources for staff working within communities to increase capacity to deliver approaches informed by health literacy tools and techniques.
More details about these projects will be shared in this web space when available in summer 2023.
For more information about health literacy: