Primary care cluster scoops top vaccine award

A team of health professionals have won a prestigious national award for their work in improving uptake of childhood vaccinations. 

The Cardiff South West Cluster, which works together to improve health and wellbeing for communities in Ely, Caerau, Canton, Riverside and Pontcanna, was presented with the Equality and Inclusion Award at the Vaccination Saves Lives ceremony in Wrexham on Wednesday, April 26. 

After identifying a less than 90% uptake of the pre-school booster for four-year-old children, the cluster - which includes children from a range of social and cultural backgrounds - implemented a three-month quality improvement project to increase the number of children having their routine vaccinations. 

They established a successful partnership comprising of representatives from GP practices, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, the cluster, and Cardiff and Vale Local Public Health team. They worked together to develop and implement a range of evidence-based actions to increase vaccination uptake rates among five-year-olds living in the area.  

This included a data cleansing process, an invitation for parents/children to attend for their vaccinations informed by a behavioural insights approach, the development of information resources and communication materials to increase knowledge and raise awareness, as well as the promotion of immunisations at community events.  

A web-based ‘Padlet’ of all the communication campaign resources included animations about childhood immunisations in a variety of languages.  

Judges said this was a great example of innovative partnership working to address an inequality. 

Karen Pardy, Rebecca Phillips and Laura Wilson from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board collected the award on behalf of the Cardiff South West Cluster. The Vaccination Saves Lives ceremony was held during the Welsh Immunisation Conference in Wrexham. 

Fiona Kinghorn, Executive Director of Public Health at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: "Vaccination is one of the most important healthcare interventions we have to protect children. I am delighted that colleagues working from different teams have delivered some excellent work together, with the key focus of improving childhood vaccination rates in our local communities. They deserve this recognition." 

Commenting on all the award winners, Dr Chris Johnson, consultant epidemiologist and head of the Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme at Public Health Wales, said: “We were really impressed by the volume and quality of the submissions for our first ever Vaccination Saves Lives awards.  

“Over the past few years, so many teams and individuals in Wales have worked hard to promote vaccination in the most challenging circumstances. We applaud the commitment, leadership and resilience shown by all of our Vaccination Saves Lives award winners and thank them for their incredible work.”