This group has been just one of the successes over the last year. The meetings are held monthly in Ipswich at present, but there are plans to spread out to like-minded groups and individuals in other parts of Suffolk in the future.

This group has been successful because it has given many people and groups ‘a voice’ for the first time and health providers attend meetings regularly to inform members of services they provide and ask how they can make sure people from BME communities are kept informed.

Peter Bradley, Director of Public Health attended a group meeting in January this year to present the 2008 Annual Report on equalities in Suffolk. Several issues were raised by members about how local people could be more involved to make the report more relevant to BME communities in Suffolk. Peter responded positively and set up a further meeting to discuss this and there will be more meetings in the future to talk with specific BME communities who have particular issues about accessing health and social care services.