Between March and December 2021, in partnership with Lambeth Council, Royal Society for Public Health Training Solutions, in partnership with Lambeth Council and RBE Associates, delivered the Level 2 Award in Encouraging Vaccination Uptake to over 160 professionals in the borough ranging from contact tracers to social care staff.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the national vaccination programme, we’ve seen a real a need for skills and knowledge around vaccine hesitancy, which is why RSPH created the RSPH Level 2 Award in Encouraging Vaccination Uptake. We worked with Graham Rushbrook, Director of RBE Associates, who helped design the training as well as lead on the delivery.

The qualification provides learners with an understanding of the importance of vaccination programmes, and the key causes of vaccine concern and vaccine hesitancy. It supports learners to develop their knowledge of behaviour change models and ways in which they can be applied in one-to-one conversations and group consultations about vaccination programmes. We worked with Lambeth Council for eight months to deliver the Level 2 Award to over 160 professionals including contact tracers, public health teams, housing staff, volunteers, and social care teams. We also delivered a bespoke version of the training to Lambeth Councillors to provide them with the skills and knowledge to have conversations around vaccine hesitancy with their constituents. The feedback from the training was incredibly positive, with:

• An 87% increase in knowledge about vaccination programmes. 
• A 97% increase in knowledge about the sources of vaccine concern and vaccine hesitancy.
• A 92% increase in confidence in having conversations with individuals about vaccination programmes.
• 100% of respondents said they would recommend the training to others.