Flourish / Birmingham City University Community & Cultural Immersion: Integrating Community Support with Clinical Care and Research

Background: As populations change, healthcare professionals working within integrated care settings need to understand how to adapt practices to reflect cultural norms, expectations and circumstances of people they support. Failure to do so can result in poor healthcare experiences, mistrust and lack of engagement, entrenching health inequalities.

 

Within the super-diverse context of Birmingham, the Community & Cultural Immersion Programme (CCIP) explores how best to provide healthcare professionals and health inequalities researchers with the skills and confidence to work with the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector to provide joined-up person-centred practice.

Created by Flourish with Birmingham City University (BCU), and supported by Birmingham’s Public Health team, the CCIP has been running since 2023 and gives participants a first-hand understanding of, and lasting relationships with Birmingham’s diverse communities.

 

Approach: Working across education, healthcare and research, the CCIP aims to simultaneously restore trust between service users and healthcare providers/researchers, while creating new trusting relationships between CCIP participants and VCFSE colleagues, allowing everyone to approach healthcare in a more integrated, collaborative way. Personal responsibility to equity and anti-racism are strongly represented in the programme content.

 

Following pilot cohorts in 2023, the final shape and content of the programme was determined through 360-degree co-production with Public Health, local universities, NHS Trusts, participants and VCFSE hosts. The final format comprises 6 days’ Training, (uniquely) Immersion, Reflection, Reading and post-programme Volunteering.

We now run cohorts supported through NHS Research Engagement Network programme, the Research Support Service, BCU and NHS Trusts.

 

Programme Evaluation: We use multiple evaluation channels, including: pre/post participant surveys to test knowledge/skills gained and attitudinal shift; a longitudinal survey to assess the ‘stickability’ of learning and application to practice; structured and informal feedback from community hosts to assess the impact on them and their service users and improve the programme.

A ‘Daily Debrief’ provides immediate feedback and quality assurance, while formal end-of-programme reflection gives the opportunity to share knowledge and provide focus-group-style feedback.

Early evaluation shows direct impacts to include changes in attitudes and workplace practice, among other benefits.

 

Implications: The need to embed practical understanding and exploration of equity in both professional practice and undergraduate education is internationally recognised (Tschannem et al., 2025; Ryder 2019).

Still at an early stage, the CCIP appears effective in shifting attitudes, increasing self-efficacy in filling knowledge/skills gaps, enhancing practice and informing decision-making when working with and caring for diverse patients.

 

By developing participants’ self-awareness and ability to recognise and challenge power imbalances that perpetuate health inequalities, this programme not only drives professional growth but also catalyses long-term systemic change: valuing and legitimising the role of the VCFSE sector in patient support, promoting appropriate referrals, strengthening community engagement, building trust and forging formal and informal partnerships.While the complexities of delivery are specific to local context and need, the focus on trust and multi-sector collaboration is portable to any context and inequality. We are mentoring colleagues in Nottingham to co-produce a version of the CCIP, and accrediting a CPD module, enabling wider access and sustainability.