The intention was to find areas that require improvements and identify successful practices that can be shared in other areas. The formal recommendations resulted from this piece of work and were co-developed by Diversity Resource International (DRI) and East Sussex County Council.

DRI organised six focus group discussions with 37 participants from various ethnically minoritised communities who reside in different areas of East Sussex. A variety of questions were put to the participants regarding their experiences of the social and healthcare services within East Sussex. The experiences and perceptions of accessing health and social care opportunities were not recorded to allow for more open sharing.

The information that was provided in the report was collected through a scribe present at all focus groups and workshops. The findings have be used to inform policy and training for health and social care workers, and how they can better serve the ethnically diverse and migrant communities.  

At the completion of the recommendation review by East Sussex County Council Public Health, loopback meeting(s) were held, inviting all participants to attend. Recommendations, agreed actions, and timelines were presented to the community members who contributed their lived expertise to the project. The final loopback increased accountability for local authorities acting on the information gathered and mitigated research fatigue for ethnically diverse communities.