Project Name: Black Country ICB Cancer Health Inequalities in Wolverhampton Project
Project Summary:
This Collaborative Working Project is designed to improve the quality and equity of care delivered to Cancer screening service users and to develop local protocols in line with:
- General Medical Council
- National Care for Health and Care Excellence (“NICE”) advanced breast cancer clinical guidelines
- Core20PLUS5 approach
- Black Country ICB Health Inequalities Strategy
Summary of key objectives:
- Awareness and education; to improve understanding of vague cancer symptoms.
- Increase screening uptake; to educate on the screening process.
- Access to healthcare enablement; to understand and address barriers faced when liaising with the Healthcare System
- Address healthcare inequalities by targeting underserved communities.
- Enable the ICB commissioning and financial planning cycle to prioritise health equity in future decision-making processes based on the actionable insights and impact of this project.
- Create and capture opportunities to address other health issues for service users accessing the screening programme aligned to Making every contact count (“MECC”); these opportunities will be documented to inform future service planning.
The project will recruit an Integrated Care Board (“ICB”) hosted Engagement Officer (Band 6) who will identify and manage four volunteer Cancer Champions who will be based within four identified health inequality communities for 12 months to identify barriers, increase early engagement, raise awareness, and collate data both qualitative and quantitative to measure success. The Engagement Officer will target specific surgeries to interrogate screening lists and identify Service Users eligible for screening who have not attended a screening appointment.
Planned Milestones:
| Milestone | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Project Kick off meeting |
| 2 | Collection of aggregated baseline data, confirmation of recruitment readiness, development of protocols and completion of HEAT documentation. |
| 3 | Confirmation of recruitment, completion of shared work plan and Performance Monitoring Framework documentation. |
| 4 | Confirmation of 3 months completed activities in line with developed protocols & completion of HEAT documentation. |
| 5 | Confirmation of 6 months completed activities in line with developed protocols, completion of 1st Service User Case Study and completion of HEAT documentation. |
| 6 | Confirmation of 9 months completed activities in line with developed protocols, completion of 2nd Service User Case Study and completion of HEAT documentation. Delivery of Mentorship programme materials and delivery to identified ICB. |
| 7 | Delivery of Mentoring / Best Practice Sharing to a minimum of 2 ICBS |
| 8 | Confirmation of 9 months completed activities in line with developed protocols, completion of 3rd Service User Case Study and completion of HEAT documentation. |
| 9 | Submission of final report, business case development and outcomes summary |
Expected Benefits:
Anticipated benefits for patients:
- Access to screening services will enable earlier detection and intervention/treatments to occur with better outcomes in the longer term.
- Increased trust in the Health System.
- More equitable access to care.
- Tailored Health Information to improve health literacy.
Anticipated benefits for the collaborative working partner:
- Improved screening rates for breast cancer vs national performance measures.
- Working towards key priorities and objectives in the ICB Health Inequalities Strategy.
- Potential earlier diagnosis of breast cancer so less system burden from more complex case management.
- Deeper understanding of the impact of health inequalities to help inform future decision making/commissioning cycle/financial allocations.
- NHS resources deployed with maximum efficiency.
Anticipated benefits for Novartis:
- Better understanding of overall HCP and patient needs.
- Optimal use of medicines in line with local/national guidance (including Novartis medicines) in appropriate patients.
- Ethical, professional, and transparent relationship between Novartis and the Healthcare Organisations.
- In line with the Novartis Health Inequalities Pledge.
Start Date & Duration: October 2024 – 15 months
FA-11295707
Project Name: Black Country ICB Cancer Health Inequalities in Wolverhampton Project
Organisation(s): Black Country Integrated Care Board
Completion Date: January 2026
Outcome Summary:
The Collaborative Working Project (CWP) delivered a structured, community-led Cancer Champions model in Wolverhampton, engaging underserved populations through targeted cancer awareness, screening support and culturally tailored outreach. Delivered through partnership working across the Integrated Care Board (ICB), public health, primary care and community stakeholders, the project improved awareness and engagement with screening programmes, and generated insight to inform future service design and approaches to reducing health inequalities.
Key Project Outcomes Data:
- Delivery of 60+ cancer awareness and engagement events across Wolverhampton, including sessions in GP practices, community venues and faith-based settings, designed to improve understanding of cancer symptoms and screening programmes.
- Direct engagement with over 1,000 individuals from underserved and high‑deprivation communities, providing tailored education and signposting to screening and support services.
- Delivery of three culturally tailored focus groups with Sikh, Muslim and Hindu communities, enabling in-depth exploration of barriers to healthcare access, including language, cultural perceptions, stigma and awareness gaps.
- Media outreach, including a Punjabi TV appearance, reaching an estimated 40,000 viewers.
- Evidence of improved breast screening engagement in some participating practices during the project lifecycle, supported by targeted interventions aligned to screening cycles.
Outcomes:
The CWP focused on reducing inequalities in cancer awareness, screening uptake and access to care across underserved populations through a structured, community-led Cancer Champions model. Delivered via an Involvement Specialist, the project enabled targeted engagement across primary care and community settings, including awareness events, outreach in faith-based venues and the use of translators to improve accessibility for groups with historically lower engagement.
This approach improved understanding of cancer signs, symptoms and screening programmes, while focus groups with Sikh, Muslim and Hindu communities provided insight into barriers such as stigma, fear, language challenges and limited awareness of services. These insights informed more tailored engagement and helped build confidence in accessing screening and support services.
The project also supported primary care and public health teams to deliver screening engagement aligned to local need and screening cycles, including the development of locally relevant resources and direct engagement with GP practices. This contributed to improved screening engagement in some areas and supported wider NHS priorities around prevention and reducing health inequalities.
Learning from the project has been shared beyond the local system and is informing consideration of similar approaches elsewhere, supporting wider adoption of community-led, culturally tailored engagement.
Conclusion:
The project demonstrated that a community-led Cancer Champions model can improve cancer awareness and support engagement with screening, particularly in underserved populations. Targeted, culturally tailored outreach helped address barriers to care while generating practical insight to inform future service design and commissioning. Learning from the project is informing future initiatives and supporting consideration of similar approaches in other areas.
FA-11728902 | June 2026