Community health champion connects residents to life-changing health and wellbeing services

Some of the areas within the Kingbrook and Cauldwell Big Local area are among the 10 per cent most deprived nationally, with residents facing multiple health inequalities including a life expectancy that is lower than in the least deprived areas of Bedford. The Big Local partnership consulted the community on how to spend the Big Local £1m in Kingsbrook and Cauldwell, and found that people wanted to see support to create ​‘a happy and active community’ and ​‘a caring community’, as top priorities.

When Big Local volunteers began reaching out to see how they could work with the local GPs to achieve this, the London Road surgery explained that they knew from a recent ​‘Understanding Health Inequalities’ project (undertaken with Bedford Borough Public Health team) that a Health Champion role was what could make the biggest difference to their patients. In response, Kingsbrook and Cauldwell Big Local have funded a Community Health Champion who has proved to be the vital ​‘missing link’ in holistic care for GP surgery patients.

Based in a local surgery, the Health Champion, Simon, is connecting patients to life-changing services and opportunities that already exist locally but that they would not otherwise have known about. This has led to improvements in health and wellbeing that could not be achieved by a GP appointment alone. 

Most people leave a GP appointment with the prescription or medical referral that they need, but GPs do not always have capacity to help address underlying issues, such as a poor support network, poor housing or an inactive lifestyle, that could be affecting patients’ health. 

The Health Champion fills this gap, signposting and even accompanying people to attend carers’ support groups, debt and benefits advice, walking groups, and more. 

Simon has also partnered with local organisations to set up new initiatives that people can join, including a diabetes support group, therapeutic gardening group, and a Junior ParkRun running group, all of which have seen huge takeup. Simon’s role is unique within the 24 GP practices covering Bedford Borough population and he joins a pioneering wave of ​‘social prescribing’ in the UK.

The impact of Simon’s work on individuals’ lives has included reduced anxiety and depression, improved mobility, weight loss, being better able to manage long term conditions, and relief of stress that comes with accessing peer support groups or getting help on debt or benefits issues.

A recent evaluation of the trial looked at 10 case studies of patients who had had support from Simon, and found that the total health and social care savings and benefits across these case studies amounted to £39,667 – for example through doctor and nurse appointments avoided and physical inactivity avoided.

According to the report, there was also £9,067 total monetary benefit to the 10 individuals, such as benefits, grants and training accessed through support from the Community Health Champion.

Big Local were delighted to kick-start this solution that may never have otherwise got off the ground. The resident-led Big Local partnership voted to invest in a 12-month trial of the post, and supported the recruitment and induction of Simon. 

“Getting the right person for the Community Health Champion role has been very important to its success, so do your recruitment carefully,” says Dot, chair of Kingsbrook and Cauldwell Big Local. ​“We were very lucky to get Simon, he is not someone from ​‘outside’ coming in, and he’s engaging very well with local people. He also visited a similar scheme in East London to see how they did it, and we and the surgery ensured that he was offered a comprehensive induction and relevant training.” 

They introduced Simon in person to many community groups and activities that he could connect patients to. ​“Persist when you’re looking for partners,” says Dot. ​“When I started ringing GP surgeries to ask about collaboration, some didn’t return my emails, but I followed up with phone calls and the partnership with the London Road Surgery came out of that.” 

Soon doctors and nurses started to refer people to Simon, and he also began to engage people in the surgery waiting room and flu clinics, or through meeting people at community events. 

The community health champion model has been so successful at reducing the burden on its GP surgery that the NHS has started funding another three in South Bedford. Bedfordshire CCG and Bedford Borough Public Health allocated money to develop the scheme across Bedford after evidence showed the initiative worked, at a time when social prescribing was picking up pace nationally. 

After the first 12 months of significant impact, Big Local agreed to extend the trial by seven months. Now, the GP surgery has decided to fund this role themselves. In the light of the success at London Road surgery, many more local surgeries are looking to follow suit. 

Dot says, ​“Be open minded. Our initial thought was that we’d heard people had to travel a long way for cholesterol checks so we wanted to propose something that would solve that. But when we heard what London Road surgery had in mind, we were open to a bigger plan on what we could achieve.” 

“The London Road Health Surgery has one of the more deprived practice populations in Bedford,” says the Public Health Senior Practitioner (Vulnerable Groups) for Bedford Borough Council. 

“Linking the practice and the community means that the Community Health Champion is now having an impact on reducing health inequalities which can adversely affect the most vulnerable people, including those who are disadvantaged, have disability, and are unemployed, on low income or in minority ethnic communities, and those at risk of social isolation.” 

With his post now funded by the surgery, Simon continues to signpost patients to the many community activities that Kingsbrook and Cauldwell Big Local are supporting through their Big Local plan. It’s a collaboration that will be helping everyone to thrive for many years to come.