The West Midlands Cancer Alliance (WMCA) is committed to tackling health inequalities, recognising that factors such as deprivation, ethnicity, geography and access to services can significantly shape people’s experiences of cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survival.
Reducing these inequalities is both a moral responsibility and a central ambition of the NHS Long Term Plan, which calls for earlier diagnosis, improved survival, and better patient outcomes across all communities.
Our Engagement and Involvement Strategy underpins the Health Inequalities approach, providing the framework through which we listen, learn, and act on the experiences of patients and communities across the region.
By combining the 8 Point Plan with our engagement principles, we ensure that tackling health inequalities is not a standalone initiative but a golden thread running through everything we do.
Together, this integrated approach enables us to deliver more equitable, person-centred cancer care across the West Midlands, fully aligned with the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve outcomes and reduce unwarranted variation.
People and Community Engagement – Regional Guidance
The West Midlands Cancer Alliance has developed this Regional Engagement Guidance to support Integrated Care Boards in strengthening patient involvement, communityengagement, and co-production in cancer care.
Our goal is to ensure that people living with cancer, as well as their families and carers, have a meaningful voice in shaping the services that affect their care and wellbeing.
This guidance provides practical guidance, resources, and best practice approaches to support the recruitment, induction, and ongoing training of patient advocates. By equipping patient representatives with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need, we aim to foster genuine partnership and collaboration between patients, carers, and healthcare professionals.
WMCA People and Community Regional Guidance
The Alliance is committed to meaningful co-production and engagement with patients, carers and communities across the cancer pathway.
This approach provides us with firsthand insights and valuable experiences, helping us ensure that healthcare improvements, services and innovations are genuinely aligned with the needs and preferences of those that they are intended to support. We recognise that individuals with lived experience can offer powerful perspectives that shape services in ways professionals alone may not anticipate.
This work is aligned with the Experience of Care and People & Community Engagement Delivery Plan, and includes the following key deliverables:
The Alliance proposes to implement this plan over a three-year timeline, supported by appropriate resources and structured around regular progress reviews to monitor delivery against the objectives.
Read the WMCA Involvement and Engagement Strategy