Top national award for Northumbria school-age vaccination team’s community-centred approach

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s school-aged immunisation service provides vaccinations to children and young people across Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle and Gateshead.

The team won the ‘Communicating effectively with patients and families’ category at the Patient Experience Network National Awards 2024 for its work to involve communities in how it delivers services.

They have taken an approach of co-designing the programmes they deliver with communities in a bid to meet the needs of the families they look after and reduce health inequalities in the process.

Caroline Smith, joint clinical lead for the service, said: “Our team is absolutely focused on ensuring what we do works for children and young people and their families. The best way to do this is involving those communities we serve in helping to shape our service.”

Listening to feedback from families means the team started to provide evening and weekend sessions. During the flu vaccination programme last autumn, this included partnering with the then Active Northumberland to use leisure centres in the county.

As well as flu jabs, the team delivers the HPV vaccine for all Year 8 children to protect against different HPV-related cancers, the three-in-one teenage booster for diphtheria, tetanus and polio plus meningitis ACWY for all pupils aged 13-14.

Stephanie Gibbs, joint clinical lead for the team, said: “Winning this award isn’t at all why we do what we do, but it is still brilliant recognition of all the team’s hard work.”