Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department taking to use NHS dietitians to help reduce health inequalities.

Dietitians have an important contribution to reducing health inequalities. The Department published Addressing health inequalities across allied health professional (AHP) services: a guide for AHP system leaders in May 2024. The guide focuses on what AHP leaders need to know and what actions they can take at a system level to address health inequalities. This includes the utility of dietitians to reduce health inequalities. The guide is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/addressing-health-inequalities-across-allied-health-professional-ahp-services-a-guide-for-ahp-system-leaders/addressing-health-inequalities-across-allied-health-professional-ahp-services-a-guide-for-ahp-system-leaders

We continue to promote the framework, My role in tackling health inequalities: a framework for allied health professionals, published in 2021. This work describes how allied health professionals (AHPs), including dietitians, can raise awareness, take action, and optimise advocacy through six lenses: self; patients; clinical teams, pathway and service groups; communities and networks; systems; and nurturing the future. The framework is designed to support AHPs to do whatever they can, large or small, to tackle health inequalities. Each section of the framework is accompanied by examples of AHP-led work already under way across England. The framework is available at the following link:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/reports/tackling-health-inequalities-framework-allied-health-professionals