Health Inequalities VCFSE Grant Fund
Additional Data
Idea Outlines
Thanks again to those who joined us for the two collaboration days for the Health Inequalities VCFSE Grant Fund – we’ve already had some great project ideas come through!
We’ve pulled together a short summary for each of the ideas so far, and some have more details underneath. If any catch your eye and you’d like to get involved, just drop a message to the named contact under each one (ideally by Friday 1st August).
We’d love to see more people getting involved, so don’t hesitate to reach out if something interests you – or if you have any questions at all. And if you’ve got an idea of your own collaborative project, we’d love to hear it! There’s still time to get involved and shape something new – just get in touch.
Look forward to hearing from you!
The slides are available here from the online session (the data slides were the same for both the in person and online events).
Health Champions
Data informs us that people living in deprived are less likely to access NHS health checks which in turn has an impact on the numbers of years that people live well. We also know that there are also communities of interest who have lower rates of accessing health checks. For those that are 40 -74, surgeries will make two telephone calls to book appointment .
To increase the uptake of Health Checks, it is proposed to train voluntary health champions to target areas of deprivation and communities of interest. The role of the champions will be to knock on doors of those not accessing health checks to encourage and support people to attend these checks. In addition, the Health Champions will give out key health messages to their communities. This will be done by attending regular community meetings and utilising local communication including newsletters and social media.
Data also shows that alongside multiple deprivation, some of our communities face Digital Exclusion, this can often be compounded by people having long distances to travel to attend appointments. A further role of the health champion will be to support people to book appointments on line and identify creative transport solutions.
Interested? Email hello@lvet.org with the idea title as the subject!
Conversations and Continued Engagement at Project St Thomas
Trust and communication have emerged as key barriers preventing community members from attending health checks, receiving vaccinations and keeping appointments. Faith-based challenges have also been identified too, and so Project St Thomas have established a partnership with NHS teams to address these concerns.
NHS nursing staff will attend a service at Project St Thomas over a weekend, and participate in their Sunday Meals Session, which reaches many residents from deprived areas including temporary accommodation and homelessness. Their congregation is exceptionally diverse in terms of race, nationality and languages spoken. The initiative centres on facilitating simple conversations in a comfortable environment. They’ll be no pressure or direct medical advice, with a focus on building confidence and trust. There will be discussions about the importance of vaccinations, health checks and GP registrations in a light-touch way.
Their idea is focusing on what happens next after this weekend, engaging and developing activities that will break down barriers identified. It is much wider than the planned weekend!
You can find out more about this idea here. Interested? Email hello@lvet.org with the idea title as the subject!
Building Brighter Futures
Grantham College are interested in a collaborative project to work with many organisations and agencies in Lincolnshire. They’re keen to get involved in projects accessing health checks, digital inclusion and attending hospital appointments. Their project, Building Brighter Futures (BBF) is made up of staff with lived experience of these issues as well as seeing these barriers affect our participants.
Interested? Email hello@lvet.org with the idea title as the subject!
Vaccinations and Community Champions
Uptake of vaccines is below levels required, and there are many factors contributing to this (anti-vax theory, cultural differences, lack of knowledge, busy lives, thinking it won’t happen to me etc.). This proposal would be to significantly ramp up promotional activity on the benefits by training Community Champions, creating and deploying targeted messages through community radio, local community activity and the library network.
Vaccination activity will be delivered in a variety of venues, such as large scale populations (Foodball Clubs) and local community spaces (Libraries and village halls). These will include the general public, and encourage specific populations where current uptake is low too (including people with severe mental illness, people from minority communities etc.)
You can find out more about this idea here. Interested? Email hello@lvet.org with the idea title as the subject!
Support for people with musculoskeletal conditions who are out of work
Darkside Rising CIC would like to be involved in a collaborative project that supports people with musculoskeletal conditions who are out of work. They are a women’s health organisation based in Lincoln, specializing in adaptive physical activity for long term health conditions, as well as menopause and postnatal support. They deliver a trauma informed approach to physical activity, particularly recognizing and resisting systemic and medical trauma.
They’ve got a new initiative funded by the National Lottery, offering accredited physical activity qualifications to community organisations across Lincolnshire, supporting them to embed physical activity into their work, and teaches personalised and trauma informed approaches.
Accessibility and availability of specialist physical activity is key in supporting the health of people with musculoskeletal conditions. Many community organisations offer non-physical support which could be upskilled to physical activity, and others may offer physical activity but struggle with accessibility for this specific population.
You can find out more on this idea here. Interested? Email Shantelle (hello@darksiderising.co.uk)
Digital Buddies
It’s increasingly clear that a lack of digital access and confidence is not only a social issue but a growing determinant of health inequality, particularly in rural and underserved areas of Lincolnshire. To support this, Dale has started an early-stage concept of Digital Buddies!
This concept proposes training individuals (who may be currently out of work), especially those facing digital exclusion themselves, to become local digital peer mentors. These “buddies” could provide informal support to others in their community to access NHS services, manage appointments online, or use digital health tools.
In addition to improving access and health literacy, the model offers employment-relevant skill development, fosters intergenerational support, and strengthens local networks. It aligns closely with the priorities set out by WHO’s digital equity framework and the NHS Long Term Plan.
Interested? Email Dale (dale@lincolnshirecf.co.uk)
Learning Disabilities and Health Checks
The idea is for people with learning disabilities to have the right to equality health care, for everyone to be able to access a good quality health check in a comfortable environment, ensuring a personal approach. It is to work in partnership with local primary care networks. Every individual with a learning disability should be provided with ongoing opportunities to participate in decisions that might affect their health, in a personalised approach.
Moving forward, the idea is to support other day services in the county to ensure that everyone with a learning disability has a quality health check within a comfortable environment, and reasonable adjustments are available in a personalised approach.
Additionally, to explore funding a set of weighing scales for wheelchair users that can be shared across all day services as often local surgeries don’t have access to them.
Interested? Email hello@lvet.org with the idea title as the subject!
Fit For Surgery Pathway
This idea explores opportunities following the ‘Fit for Surgery’ pathway, first piloted in an Everyone Active leisure contract. It is a programme that supports those people with knee and hip conditions on a waiting list for surgery. The aim of the programme is to get people moving to reduce surgical procedures and costs for the NHS. It also encourages people to move more and try physical therapy through one of our partnered programmes.
More information can be found on the slides here.
Interested? Email hello@lvet.org with the idea title as the subject!
Trauma-Informed Approaches
With their background in trauma informed care, Darkside Rising CIC would like to develop a 10hr introduction to trauma informed practice, which would run alongside the activities that are successful in securing the collaborative funding. So they would look at trauma-informed approaches to supporting people to access health checks and vaccinations for example, in addition to physical activity, and integrate a co-production approach so that we’re covering the topics that are most important to them.
Building Brighter Futures would be a site of co-production, and we welcome co-production activities with any other organisations that are interested.
Interested? Email Shantelle (hello@darksiderising.co.uk)
If you have any questions on the above or want to talk further, please do get in touch – hello@lvet.org