Health and Digital Literacy Partnership

The Partnership supports citizens to develop the skills that they will need to access, assess, and use health information in an increasingly digital environment.

Pilot projects received funding in two cohorts to try out different approaches to improving health and digital literacy.

The partnership is a collaboration between CILIP, the national NHS Knowledge and Library Services team (at NHS England, formerly Health Education England), Libraries Connected, and Arts Council England.

Aims of the Partnership

Our strategic aim is that all citizens have the health literacy skills, the underpinning digital skills, and the resources to make shared decisions and to manage their health and wellbeing.

We have agreed three intermediate outcomes that form the basis of our workstreams:

1. Improve health and digital literacy skills
2. Enable people to find and use high-quality patient, health, and wellbeing information
3. Build community partnerships, test approaches, and share good practice

Health and Digital Literacy Partnership pilot sites

Through the Partnership, small-scale pilots have been funded in two cohorts. The first projects started in April 2022 and the second set of projects ran in October 2022. Most of the pilots lasted nine months and they have now all been completed.

The pilot projects took place in rural and urban areas across England; Suffolk, Norfolk, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Leeds, Lancashire, Somerset, Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Scarborough, Newcastle, Ellesmere Port, Oldham, Aylesbury, and Essex.

Click the button below to read the outcomes of the Health and Digital Literacy Partnership pilot sites.

Health literacy activity survey

At the start of the partnership, CILIP coordinated a survey to assess the extent of health literacy activity and digital literacy activity in different sectors:

A new survey is being undertaken to review changes in activity levels over the two-year period.

Signposting to health information and the NHS Account from public libraries

Between October 2024 and February 2025, the National Health Literacy Partnership worked with colleagues within NHS England’s NHS App and digital citizen teams to test out tools for public libraries to signpost to high-quality health information and the NHS App. This initial evaluation has led to the inclusion of further work in public libraries to help members of the public to use the NHS App as part of the Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England.

Health and digital literacy resources

We have created a list of external resources to support and grow understanding of the importance of health and digital literacy. The resources include links to eLearning, book lists, data on national literacy levels, and more.