The priorities and challenges facing us all today commit health partners to outcomes that require us to continue to develop and innovate in how we engage, collectively with communities across London.

Together, the London Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH London), Office of Health Improvement and Disparities London (OHID), UK Health Security Agency London (UKHSA), Greater London Assembly (GLA) and London Councils sponsored the Community Champions Development Programme bringing together colleagues from across London Councils and the NHS who were involved in coordinating direct engagement with residents around health.

The programme included bi-monthly action learning sets, input from experts on areas of practice, quarterly listening programmes from our health systems partnership, investment in how to monitor and evidence the impact of these types of programmes and more. It built on lessons from the pan-London COVID-19 Champions Coordinators programme which ran from March 2021 – April 2022.

The programme launched on 22 February 2023 and was attended by colleagues from across London’s health systems as well as community champions from London boroughs who gave powerful testimonies of their experiences during COVID-19 and their willingness to continue to support their communities.

With the cost-of-living crisis devastating the most vulnerable Londoners, and the pressures on the NHS, it’s even more important that people continue to have easy access to health information that they can trust.

The next phase of the programme will explore how we can to further use the networks to focus on local initiatives to tackle health inequalities, whilst ensuring we continue to support learning and the sharing of good practice.

Launch event presentations

As part of the learning from London COVID-19 Champions Co-ordinators programme, the London Programme commissioned an external provider to document and celebrate what happened within each London borough and provide insights and resources for the development of community champions programmes moving forward.

The document, Transformations in Community Collaboration: Lessons from COVID-19 champions programmes across London, is a compendium of case studies of champions programmes that took place across London during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023 we published Transformations in Community Collaboration: Lessons from COVID-19 champions programmes across London. This unique document tells the story of each COVID / Vaccine Champion programme in London. It also identifies key themes, choices and insights from across the 32 programmes.

One of the most powerful findings was the impact that regular and on-going interaction with the public through Champions programmes had on Directors of Public Health and other senior leaders. The review found in particular, the furthest extreme of two-way communication involves residents speaking directly to public health officials, building personal relationships with them, and seeing their input actioned by statutory bodies within days or weeks of sharing. This is compared to the slower but more structured pace of more formalised co-production, co-design and engagement strategies.

We are now launching Transformations in Community Collaboration II – building on the lessons from COVD-19 Vaccine Champions programmes to look broadly and widely at what we can learn from good practice in two-way on-going dialogue between organisations and residents / communities and the public.

We’re looking to learn from inspiring case studies of deep conversation with communities. Examples can come from anywhere in the world, and deal with any topic, but it’s great if they have a connection to health, health inequalities, or community resilience in crises.

If you know of a great project or initiative, please get in touch via ccdpcasestudies@newham.gov.uk

Please see our 1-page infographic giving more information.

We look forward to sharing the findings in the Autumn.