In partnership with the BSW Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Case Study
The Challenge
Health inequalities can be difficult to address when communities experiencing lower engagement with health services are not reached through traditional approaches.
BSW Integrated Care Board (ICB) wanted to improve vaccination confidence and uptake among communities across Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire experiencing lower vaccination uptake or confidence.
The challenge was not simply about providing more information. Different communities faced different barriers, including language, misinformation, stigma, accessibility and a lack of trust in organisations delivering health messages.
The ICB recognised that local community organisations were often best placed to understand these barriers and engage people through trusted relationships and familiar community settings.
Our Solution
Changing Suits worked with BSW ICB in 2025 to support a community grants programme designed to help organisations develop and deliver their own approaches to improving vaccination awareness.
Our role was to help bridge the gap between the public sector and local communities.
We supported community organisations to apply for funding, promoted the grant opportunity and provided additional support throughout the application process. Changing Suits also sat on the selection panel alongside ICB and Local Authority colleagues, helping assess applications and bring community knowledge into funding decisions.
Importantly, our role was not just about identifying organisations with strong applications. We also helped the ICB understand the value and potential impact of community organisations whose applications may not have been as strong on paper.
This helped create a more inclusive approach to funding – recognising that the ability to complete a funding application does not always reflect an organisation’s ability to reach and engage its community.
Bringing Health Services Into Communities
Once funding was awarded, community organisations developed a wide range of approaches to reach their target populations.
These included community events, focus groups, workshops, one-to-one conversations, social media campaigns, outreach through places of worship and local businesses, translated resources, community champions and vaccination clinics.
The project reached a range of communities, including Black, Asian, Eastern European, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, as well as people experiencing homelessness, mental illness and other health inequalities.
The approach demonstrated that health information can be more effectively received when it is delivered in the right setting, in the right format and by people communities trust.
The Impact
Over six months, the community grants programme achieved:
- 4,435 vaccination conversations with target groups and wider communities
- 23 collaborative vaccination clinics delivered at community events
- 251 COVID and flu vaccinations delivered
- 304 people known to have received an immunisation
- 342 wider health and wellbeing conversations through clinical teams
- 4,400 people reached through community social media campaigns
- The project also supported 1,635 people within specific target groups.
Beyond the numbers, the project generated valuable insight into how different communities understand and respond to vaccination.
For example, the evaluation found that trust, language and the use of community-based messengers were particularly important within some communities. In the Polish community, working with a Polish-speaking volunteer and pharmacist helped create space for open discussion around concerns and misinformation.
A Partnership That Puts Communities at the Centre
The project demonstrated what can happen when public sector organisations work alongside grassroots community organisations as genuine partners.
The ICB evaluation concluded that the project successfully improved access, supported more convenient delivery and addressed health inequalities through collaboration with local partners. It also found that community resources and links between public health and community groups had been strengthened.
“The project has been successful beyond our expectations, and it has allowed the community to discuss the topic of vaccinations more openly, and reduced misconceptions that community leaders initially had.”
Helen Felmingham
Inequalities Manager, NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Looking Ahead
The project highlighted that building trust and changing perceptions takes time. The evaluation recommended continued investment in trusted community messengers, stronger relationships with community and religious leaders, accessible and translated resources, and ongoing health engagement within community settings.
Changing Suits continues to support public sector organisations to work more effectively with ethnically diverse communities – bringing together community insight, trusted relationships and practical delivery to help tackle health inequalities.
Work With Us
If you are looking to reach communities that you have had limited success reaching so far, then get in touch with us here.
For more case studies and free resources see them here.