Manchester’s LGBT Foundation, a driving force behind the development of sexual orientation monitoring, has welcomed the publishing of a national standard it developed in conjunction with NHS England as a significant game changer in the future health and social care provision for lesbian, gay and bisexual people (LGB) in England.

The National Information Standard for sexual orientation monitoring released by NHS Digital aims to better meet the needs of LGB people through improved data collection. The new standard will also provide a mechanism for recording the sexual orientation of all patients and service users aged 16 years and over across all health services and Local Authority social care providers in England.

The new standard has been commissioned by NHS England and developed by LGBT Foundation working with a variety of partners including NHS Digital, the Department of Health, and Public Health England. It also involved an extensive consultation with organisations across the health and social care system, service users and the public.

Research by LGBT Foundation has shown that LGB people are disproportionately affected by a range of health inequalities and experience significant barriers to accessing health and care services. The research also pinpointed better sexual orientation monitoring as a vital step towards addressing these specific health inequalities and improving access to care.

Commenting on the launch, Paul Martin OBE, Chief Executive at LGBT Foundation, said:

“We’ve been working very closely with a dedicated Task & Finish Group for a number of years to create a way for health and social care professionals to monitor sexual orientation in a consistent way. I’m massively appreciative for all of their hard work in making this happen and so proud of what we’ve collectively achieved.”

“If we’re not counted, we don’t count, and the launch of the sexual orientation monitoring Information Standard is a hugely important step in the right direction towards addressing LGB inequality in health and social care in Greater Manchester and beyond.”