Background It is known that there are inequalities of access to hospice care (Tobin, Rogers, Winterburn, et al. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2022;12(2):142–51). Community engagement within hard-to-reach communities is of utmost importance because it serves as a catalyst for empowerment and social cohesion. Implementing successful community engagement relies on a clear understanding of who to engage with, where to engage with them, and how to foster and maintain relationships.

Aims To share key learning about an effective community engagement programme and how UK census data can be used to plan and evaluate outreach effectiveness.

Methods St Luke’s has developed an engagement framework that provides a detailed explanation of how to design and implement targeted community engagement. Furthermore, St Luke’s have devised a tool that outlines the socioeconomic diversity of regions across Sheffield using the 2021 Census and 2019 English Indices of Deprivation, which can help guide decisions about where to implement the community engagement program.

Results The community engagement program has demonstrated success through increasing the diversity of access to our care. In the past two years, we have increased referrals to our community service from the Muslim community by 50%. Our tool has highlighted the areas of the city where the diversity of St Luke’s patients does not align with the diversity of the region, and we are designing further outreach hubs within these regions to further reduce inequalities of access.

Conclusion The community engagement tools that we are using at St Luke’s can aid the efficient use of community engagement resources by effectively determining the who, what, where, and how of community outreach. We believe that sharing our knowledge and experience of our engagement tools will support other hospices to effectively engage with their local communities using the resources available.