Plain English recognition for our A healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria guide

An easy to understand guide has been published to support health and care staff to explain how NHS, council and community organisations are working together to improve health and care for local people.

Armed with sticky notes, more that a dozen different groups have worked through the document, page by page, asking questions and making comments and suggestions to make sure its clear and coherent. All of this work has led to the document being awarded a Crystal Mark by the Plain English Campaign.

To attain this mark, the Plain English Campaign say that documents have to be as clear as possible.

Things they look for include:

• the use of ‘everyday’ English;
• consistent and correct use of punctuation and grammar;
• explanations of technical terms; and
• clear, helpful headings, which stand out from the text.

Health and care staff are being asked to use this as a tool for conversations with colleagues and members of the public, to help people to understand the challenges we face and the shared vision for working together.

The publication is available online here and describes some of the challenges faced in health and care and gives some ideas for how we might solve them. This document is not a detailed plan of what may change. It is instead a vision of how we can work together with health and care staff and our communities to make a difference.