HEALTH and social care officials in the North-East have met to look at ways in which services cater for people with numeracy and literacy needs.

The Skills for Life and Health workshop brought together a range of people working in health and social care to put together ideas to improve communication with patients.

It also looked at how support staff may have problems with literacy or numeracy.

The conference, in Middlesbrough, followed evidence that more than 20 per cent of the population in the North East has some level of literacy or numeracy problem.

County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority has published a Skills for Life strategy and the workshop was the first step towards bringing the strategy to life.