About Health Champions in the North East and North Cumbria
The use of Health Champion programmes really gained traction during the Covid-19 pandemic with many local authority areas building on established champion programmes or developing a specific Covid Champion approach to engage local communities, feed in valuable insight and ensure key public health messages were received by all.
The legacy from these programmes has supported the use of champions to promote a wide range of health messages across North East and North Cumbria. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities have worked alongside VONNE to establish a regional programme – engaging with, and taking learning from local champion programmes and exploring further opportunities to promote the use of champion approaches.
Sharing learning
A learning set has been developed to capture learning from NENC programmes. The resource:
- Captures and shares learning, resources and ways of working
- Can inform the development of future champion led programmes of work
- Acts as a live resource to build and collate the evidence base around this work
- Demonstrates the effectiveness and impact of utilising a champion approach
A huge thanks to all local areas for sharing their learning!
Health Champions Development Fund
Five organisations from across the North East and North Cumbria were successful in securing grants from the 2024/25 Health Champions Development Fund.
The funding, provided by the Integrated Care Board (ICB), was used at neighbourhood and place level to support local partnerships between Local Authority Health Champion programmes and VCSE sector organisations working together to reach communities - with a particular focus on Core20Plus5 priorities. The aim of the investment was to develop more sustainable Health Champion projects, build on community assets, increase capacity of programmes that respond to local needs, and further extend their reach into communities.
Grants were awarded to the following local partnership projects:
Gateshead Local Authority Public Health team worked with a range of community partners to increase Health Champion activity in response to local needs, focussing on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). Find out more about their CVD Champions outreach events here.
International Community Organisation of Sunderland (ICOS) worked with Sunderland City Council to expand the Health Champions network focussing on women and ethnically minoritised communities. Read two case studies about their work here.
Tyne Housing Association helped reduce health inequalities amongst people experiencing homelessness, supporting them to make positive lifestyle changes and increase access to key health messaging and services. You can learn more about their new emotional resilience project here and they have contributed to this VONNE blog exploring trauma informed practice.
The Pioneering Care Partnership project’s aim was to understand the barriers that migrant communities (including refugees and asylum seekers) face when accessing health and/or other public services in Stockton-on Tees.
Healthworks worked with communities and local authorities across Newcastle and Gateshead to raise awareness of children’s oral health.
Health Champions volunteer across the region
Teams of Health Champions work hard to share crucial health information with people in their communities in South Tees, Sunderland, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough.
This video shares the voices of Debbie, Louis and Robin - volunteer Health Champions from Gateshead - and highlights the positive impact of the programme for people in their local communities and on the Health Champions themselves.
Explore the Health and Wellbeing Hub
The Integrated Care System (ICS) explained
VCSE Partnership Programme
VCSE Research Partnerships
Social Prescribing
Healthy Communities and Social Prescribing
- About the North East and North Cumbria Healthy Communities and Social Prescribing programme.
- Our Health Champions project.
- Creative health resources
Reading for Wellbeing