Research Team Activity

It has been busy few months for the Research Team at ECS. In the Summer and into the Autumn we commenced work on new commissions from NHS England and Improvement; Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust; and Stoke-on-Trent City Council, as well as working on projects that were already under way.

Along with our Healthwatch colleagues in Leicester and Leicestershire, Sandwell, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire we undertook a series of focus groups on behalf of NHS England and Improvement exploring attitudes to Covid-19 vaccination, health concerns and trust with groups of people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds. This culminated in reports for each area that NHS England are using for their long-term planning in health messaging.

We have been commissioned by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust to undertake work on patient and staff experience and Birmingham and Midlands Eye Centre, using a combination of observation and semi-structured interviews. The observations at both the City Hospital site and Sandwell General Hospital have been undertaken and interviews are ongoing. The project is due to report to the Trust in February 2023.

In the summer we were successful in tendering for a project with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to deliver a Citizens Inquiry on health inequality in four areas of the city. The Council has secured funding for this project through the Integrated Care Board and aims to understand what is impacting on the heath of local people. It is anticipated that the findings will contribute to long term plans on interventions by the ICS to improve the health outcomes for local people.

 The work is taking place in the localities around Abbey Hulton, Bentilee, Blurton and Chell Health/Bradeley Village. We have recruited Community Researchers who have co-designed the research tools and they are currently undertaking their fieldwork. Shortly they will work with us to draw out the key themes from their work and put on an event for people from the local community to comment on the findings before it is presented to the Council.

This work is due to end at the end of January 2023.

We recently completed work on the Black Country Ambassadors project that began in April 2022. We were commissioned by Black Country ICB to project manage work to recruit local community Ambassadors in Walsall and Wolverhampton who would engage with people in their communities about how to access Primary Care and how to make use of the NHS App. We worked with One Walsall and WVCA and they undertook the recruitment of the local organisations. We provided training to the Ambassadors and undertook an evaluation of the project in order for the ICB to consider rolling out the programme to other areas in the Black Country.