Blackpool Better Start appointed seven “health connectors” in 2018 to work across the town and to connect the local community with health-related programmes, services and volunteering opportunities.
These roles – filled by local people with a knowledge of the community and parents’ needs – were created alongside a number of “community connectors” to help build support and confidence among families that could be considered “hard to reach”.
In Blackpool, however, we avoid using the term hard to reach because we believe it is the services that can be difficult to effectively engage, not our families.
Many families in Blackpool report feeling poorly connected with services in their communities, so health and community connectors support families to access appropriate support and also work alongside services to consider different ways of working. Trust in professionals is often low, and therefore having a peer-led approach is an effective way of building community participation and engagement.
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