On this page:
- Information you can trust
- The PIF tick – our quality guarantee
- Involving people with lived experience of diabetes
- Information in different formats
Information you can trust
Our health information is a reliable source of support for people living with diabetes or affected by diabetes.
Diabetes is a hard condition to understand. There’s a lot to take in, particularly at medical appointments.
So, having clear, up-to-date information about diabetes at your fingertips can give you the confidence to manage the condition. Whether you're getting to grips with a diagnosis, working out what food won’t spike your blood sugars, or knowing your legal rights at work – we're here for you.
Keeping things simple
We try to explain information simply without losing any meaning. When there is more than one word for the same thing, which can be the case with some medical terms, we’ll explain what these terms mean should you hear them from your doctor or at the hospital.
Can be used by everyone
Diabetes can affect anyone. So, we try to make sure everyone affected by diabetes can find and benefit from our support and expert information. This includes people whose first language is not English or who have sight problems.
We work hard to make sure our website meets digital accessibility standards and that our information is easy to read whatever device you're using.
Ensuring medical accuracy
All our health information is co-produced by our team of content producers and our inhouse Clinical Team – who we call our clinical advisors.
They are registered healthcare professionals with experience of working with people with diabetes in clinical settings like clinics or hospitals.
Our clinical advisors use the latest medical information, clinical guidelines, and diabetes research to make sure our health information is accurate. This includes written and visual information such as illustrations and infographics – which are usually produced by our Brand and Creative Team.
Other teams who support with health content include:
- Our Research Communications Team who keeps us up to date with the latest insights, treatments and discoveries about diabetes including those from our own funded diabetes research projects.
- Our Policy Team who can advise on the legal rights of people affected by diabetes and NHS care for diabetes in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
For specialist subjects, our clinical advisors may consult external diabetes experts.
Working with external partners
We welcome funding from external partners to help us support people affected by diabetes. This includes funding for developing content.
We do not involve partners in content creation, but we acknowledge their funding support on the content they have funded.
We are not paid to endorse products.
See a list of our current corporate partners and projects they are involved in.
The PIF TICK – our quality guarantee
We are proud to be members of the Patient Information Forum (PIF) and have been awarded the PIF TICK quality mark. This shows the public that we are a trusted health information provider.
Health information on our website
We update the health information on our website at least once every three years, along with any essential updates in between.
When you see the PIF TICK on our content, it shows the information is evidence-based, up-to-date and easy to use and understand. And that we have followed a rigorous set of editorial guidelines and have documented our process.
The PIF TICK guarantees that we have involved users in the development of our content. For us, that means people with lived experience of diabetes. Find out more about this below.
Involving people with lived experience of diabetes
People with lived experience of diabetes play a key role in helping us develop our health information content by:
- Sharing their frustrations, worries and questions about diabetes with us in different ways, for example by calling our helpline, which helps us understand what information they most need.
- Sharing their personal stories which helps us make content more relevant.
- Helping us review content.
How to join us a content reviewer
If you’d like to volunteer a content reviewer, the easiest way is to sign up to the Diabetes Voices Network. You will then find out about opportunities to help us review content.
For big content projects, we also take our plans to meetings of the Diabetes Lived Experience Advisory Committee (DLEA) – made up of people affected by diabetes. And we gather their feedback.
If you are interested in applying to join the committee or have any other questions, please email involvement@diabetes.org.uk
Information in different formats
We all prefer different ways to take in health information. See what’s right for you. All information is free:
- Order our free diabetes booklets.
- Get personalised, online information from our website.
- Find our information in other languages.
- Watch our subtitled videos on our YouTube channel.
- Call our helpline team 0345 123 2399 to get information in large print and audio, or just to talk things through.
- Sign into our Learning Zone to find quizzes and games to help you learn the basics of managing diabetes.
