Sexual health services in Bradford district
The council has looked at data on sexual health outcomes and engaged with people who use services and organisations that provide services. This has allowed the council to identify what needs to continue because it works well for residents and what are the key challenges for improving sexual health outcomes, in particular reducing the negative impact of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and improving the positive impact of contraception on the health and wellbeing of Bradford’s population.
The council identified from this work that further feedback should be sought from particular groups of interest, and commissioned Healthwatch Bradford and District to provide additional targeted engagement and produce a summary report to inform the future commissioning of services.
These included South Asian men, Black African men, LGBTQI+ as a discrete focus with young people and also as a wider population and Black African women. The following focus groups have been held:
- Yorkshire MESMAC- LGBTQI+
- Highfield Food Co-operative – South Asian men and African men
- Highfield Food Co-operative – Young people
- Bradford African Community – Black African men and women refugees
Healthwatch Bradford and Public Health at City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council have taken a new and innovative approach to engaging with communities whose views often go unheard.
The council has encouraged Healthwatch to take a leading role in identifying groups for engagement, and empowering communities to have conversations in ways that work best for them. Our role, as the independent champion for those served by health and care services in Bradford district, is simply to help amplify those voices through this report.
We feel the project has been hugely positive, not just in the quality of information that has been produced but also in the new ways of working that have been established and the potential that exists for further future collaboration.
