By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Volunteers will help the council to encourage residents in some deprived areas of Nottinghamshire to get vaccinated.
The project will see ‘Community Health and Wellbeing Champions’ use their networks and life experiences to “address community barriers to engagement”, dispel myths and false information and support people to make informed choices.
The Nottinghamshire County Council programme intends to “strengthen the resilience of Nottinghamshire communities against vaccine-preventable disease and other threats to mental and physical wellbeing”.
Council documents state that there are portions of the population in Nottinghamshire which have low Covid-19 vaccination uptake – with uptake lower in areas of higher deprivation and reducing with age.
The papers also state that locally and nationally there has also been a decrease in the number of children accessing their Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) and other childhood vaccines at the right time.
Uptake of second doses of the MMR vaccine among 5-year-olds in Nottinghamshire was 90.2% in 2020/21, which is lower than the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) target of 95%.
A core focus of the trained volunteers will be to reach out to communities where the council currently has limited influence, such as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Pregnant women and the working age population will also be targeted.
The volunteers will also be trained to look out for signs of poor mental health and signpost accordingly.
“Champions who act as key connectors within their communities have been identified as a gap for the County, which has become more apparent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic”, the council said.
The volunteers will work with family hubs, the health and wellbeing team at the council and teams within primary care.
They will be recruited and supported by three new paid council employees, known as Community Health and Wellbeing Champion Coordinators.
It is proposed that the new employees would be funded partly by £96,000 from the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) from the Government, which must be used before March 2023.
From April 2023, the council would fund the programme with £271,000 from the Public Health grant.
A recent Public Health England (PHE) review found that community champions can be effective in reducing health inequalities.
Council documents stated: “The unique value that differentiates CHWCs from the Public Health provided Health and Wellbeing team is that they will be recruited from the communities within which they will be engaging and will therefore offer a unique understanding of priorities, with a different level of
reach and influence. The wide geographical remit of the champions programme will also complement and build on the focussed engagement of the Local Area Coordinators, who will be working within five specific geographies of approximately 10,000 residents each.”
