About the toolkit
The Fairer Practice Toolkit and Tracker
This is an independent companion website created to help practices implement the RCGP's Fairer Practice Toolkit and track their progress. It is not an RCGP website. This website has been created and is maintained by Professor Dominic Patterson, the RCGP's Fairer Practice lead.
Toolkit development
The project was led by Professor Dominic Patterson, GP in Doncaster and Chair of the RCGP's Health Equity Special Interest Group. The development process included:
- A Fairer Practice survey gathering insights from practitioners across the UK
- A stakeholder roundtable bringing together GPs, patients, system leaders, and researchers
- Co-production workshops to refine and prioritise actions
- Multiple iterations based on stakeholder feedback
The toolkit was developed through a collaborative process overseen by a working group comprising expert GPs, patient representatives and members of the Health Equity Special Interest Group (HESIG) of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
The evidence base
The Fairer Practice Toolkit was created to provide general practices with practical, evidence-informed actions to reduce health inequalities. It draws on evidence including:
- FAIRSTEPS research from the University of Sheffield and the EQUALISE study from the University of Cambridge (brought together in the Building Equitable Primary Care programme)
- The Inclusion Health Action in General Practice programme in Scotland
- NHS England's Core20PLUS5 framework
- The Health Equity Evidence Centre's synthesis of high-impact interventions
- NHS Wales Primary Care One guidance on reducing health inequalities
- Academic research on missingness, structural competence, and trauma-informed care
- Case studies and quality improvement initiatives from practices across the UK
The use of AI in toolkit development
Artificial intelligence tools were used to support the editorial process during the development of this toolkit, including formatting consistency, language refinement, and structural coherence. All toolkit actions, evidence review, and strategic decisions were developed by the working group drawing on their expertise, research evidence, and insights from co-production.
The substance and direction of this toolkit reflect human judgement, clinical experience, and the voices of those working to reduce health inequalities in general practice.