Earlier this year we hosted a series of community events in partnership with local Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector organisations to better understand people’s thoughts around flu and covid-19 vaccinations.
Between January and May 2025, a total of 344 NEL residents from Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Romanian and Roma, and d/Deaf communities took part in these events and shared their views by completing a survey and attending focus groups and Q&A sessions.
We would like to thank all the residents and VCFSE organisations for their invaluable contributions and we are working with local and regional teams and stakeholders to share the learning from these engagement activities.
Key recommendations for future covid-19 and flu vaccination programmes
- Involving communities in the work as early as possible and allowing time for meaningful engagement and co-creating solutions where possible
- Focusing on building partnerships and trust with communities through ongoing involvement with VCS organisations, faith and community leaders and others as opposed to dipping in and out, always feeding back how the information they’ve shared has been used and what happens next
- Sharing easy to understand, clear information about vaccinations, considering language and communication barriers, including information about how vaccines were researched, developed and tested
- Being clear and transparent about potential side effects vs. benefits
- Avoiding jargon and messaging that could be perceived as forceful, conflicting or misleading
- Ensuring unrushed opportunities for people to ask questions and raise concerns with clinicians where possible
- Emphasising personal choice and reassuring people that it’s OK to have questions
- Recognising and learning from mistakes, including acknowledging previous injustices, inequality and racism and how this has shaped people’s thinking
- Aligning vaccine engagement and outreach activities with what matters to people (for example work, family, health, religious or cultural beliefs and practices etc.)
You can read about all of the above in more detail in our Winter Immunisations Engagement Report. You may also be interested in reading our Participation Framework, which explains our thinking behind this.
