Diabetes UK Professional Conference 2026 – DESMOND Update
(l to r) Liesl Richardson, DAFNE, and Alison Northern, Implementation Lead for DESMOND.
The 2026 Diabetes UK Professional Conference, held in Liverpool, saw work from the DESMOND and Leicester Diabetes Centre teams prominently featured across an energising three days. This year the conference had a key focus on addressing health inequalities to ensure that 'no one is left behind', a theme brought to life in the opening plenary delivered by Professor Kamlesh Khunti, co-Director for Leicester Diabetes Centre.
Alison Northern, Implementation Lead, attended the conference and delivered a workshop on Thursday afternoon alongside Liesl Richardson from the central DAFNE team. Their jointly delivered session, “Structured Education Reimagined: Overcoming Barriers and Inequalities”, provided an opportunity to showcase the work both teams have undertaken to address health inequalities and improve accessibility to structured education.
The interactive workshop also challenged more than 70 attendees to develop innovative ideas and practical strategies for engaging diverse communities and reimagining local diabetes education services.
Alison explains, “For those of us working in diabetes structured education, equity isn’t an add-on; it’s a measure of how well structured education, and the service that supports it, is designed.”
In addition to the workshop, three abstracts related to our diabetes education were presented in the conference Poster Hub. Please click on the posters below to explore this work in more detail.