From misinformation to confidence: transforming vaccination awareness in underserved communities

The programme embedded community involvement through volunteer Community Vaccination Champions led by Voluntary Action Leeds, alongside a locally coordinated grants scheme led by Forum Central and close partnerships with trusted third-sector organisations.

By focusing on improving knowledge, addressing misinformation and reducing barriers through culturally appropriate engagement, the programme delivered a prevention-focused, system-wide approach that supports the Leeds Ambitions by reducing inequalities, building resilience and preventing future outbreaks.

The programme focuses on proactively engaging with communities with low uptake, working closely to understand and co-develop solutions to overcome barriers. However, the programme also provides support in response to outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases, such as measles.

The Leeds Community Vaccine Champions programme was established to engage communities with low vaccination uptake. Data was collated across all vaccination programmes which identified key trends in specific areas and communities of Leeds with consistently low vaccination uptake. From April 2025, Voluntary Action Leeds and Forum

Central delivered a programme built on learning from the city’s COVID-19 response, particularly the importance of trusted relationships and locally led engagement.

A key feature of the programme is that engagement takes place in familiar, trusted environments, such as community centres, faith settings, parent groups, food clubs, cultural events and at the school gates. This approach removes barriers associated with formal healthcare settings and ensures that conversations about vaccination happen in spaces where people feel safe and confident. Trust, cultural sensitivity, multilingual delivery and community ownership have been critical to success, particularly in reaching individuals who may not engage with traditional council-led or clinical services.

To extend reach and encourage hyperlocal engagement, Forum Central coordinated a small grants programme for grassroots and community organisations. This enabled groups to design and deliver bespoke engagement activities tailored to their communities, including multilingual workshops, myth-busting sessions, culturally relevant visual materials, and one-to-one support with navigating health care services to book vaccination appointments.

The grants programme reduced barriers for smaller organisations to participate, broadened the range of voices involved, and identified new community leaders to share positive vaccination messages. It also ensured that activity was responsive to local need, further strengthening community ownership and trust.

When Leeds experienced a sustained community measles outbreak over a nine-month period, community champions and trusted VCSE organisations worked closely with the LCC health protection team, members of the Outbreak Control Team (OCT), led by the UK Health Security Agency.

The community champions were central to the community engagement element of the response by providing cultural insight into the approaches agreed by the OCT by ensuring that key messages were developed and shared with communities and that national communications and resources were adapted to ensure they met the needs of the population.

Qualitative feedback from participants demonstrates the value of this approach. Community members consistently reported appreciating opportunities to ask questions openly in non-judgemental environments, particularly when discussions were facilitated in their first language. Champions, as trusted and known members of their communities, were viewed as more credible and relatable than generic public health messaging.

Accessible materials, including visual, multilingual and audio resources, alongside one-to-one support, improved understanding and confidence, particularly for individuals with lower health literacy or digital exclusion. The visible support of community leaders and positive vaccination experiences shared locally also played an important role in influencing attitudes and encouraging others to consider vaccination for themselves and their families.

While the primary objective of the programme was to improve confidence and knowledge as precursors to behaviour change, there is strong qualitative evidence and service feedback indicating increased intention to engage with primary care and review vaccination status. An independent evaluation by Leeds Beckett University is underway to assess the programme’s impact on confidence, behaviours and system learning which will inform future approaches.

The programme has driven significant changes in practice across public health and system partners. Community insight has directly informed the development of vaccination messaging, including tone, language and format, and has shifted delivery models away from standalone clinics via Primary Care towards outreach embedded in existing community activity.

This programme makes a direct contribution to the Leeds Ambitions by supporting a healthier city through prevention and equity, a thriving city through volunteering and community power, and a resilient city through strengthened systems and communities. It also supports Leeds’ Marmot City commitment by addressing the wider determinants of health, including trust, language and access, while amplifying community voice within health improvement activity.

More broadly, the approach supports the council’s strategic aim to tackle poverty and inequality by targeting resources where they are most needed and enabling those experiencing the greatest disadvantage to improve their health outcomes more rapidly.

The model developed in Leeds is both scalable and transferable and is in the process of being rolled out across all five West Yorkshire local authority areas –a collaboration between NHS, local authorities and VCSE organisations. The programme has strengthened partnerships, built social capital and enhanced the system’s ability to respond to future health protection challenges.