NHS Ambassadors for Accessing Primary Care

As with much of the NHS, General Practice across the country continue to face a huge demand for its services.

Today, primary care is working differently towards a ‘modern general practice’ that offers more online and telephone appointments, triage appointments to a wider range of healthcare professionals and alternative services like pharmacy to ensure people get seen by the right expert for their level of need. 

These new ways of working are underpinned by key changes to the GP contract (March 2023) and statutory national including ‘NHS Long Term Plan’ (2019) and the ‘Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care’ (May 2023).

Recognising barriers to accessing primary care from our community conversations, we recruited “ambassadors” across the Black Country to help reach underserved communities in accessing general practice services across the Black Country.

Pilot project

An NHS Ambassadors pilot project took place in 2022 worked with eleven organisations across Wolverhampton and Walsall and had some great feedback and results with over 421 people being engaged with and 106 people supported to download the NHS App. The project aimed to recruit and train people from local VCSE organisations to act as Ambassadors in their local communities providing information on accessing primary care and assisting people with downloading and using the NHS App, building capacity within the community.

2025 Ambassadors

Building on the pilot, primary care ambassadors’ Phase 2 was about two-way conversation and education, and two of our previous ambassadors were heavily involved in the steering group to shape and scope Phase 2 based on the learning and best practice achieved from the pilot project.

The aims of the ambassador’s project are:

To complete pro-active work within our communities to focus the sharing of messages in our underrepresented communities - less likely to be engaged in patient participation groups
Ensure that the messages/wording that is used is the language that is best understood by patients and delivered by trusted voices in a way that works for them
Develop and co-design messages that inform patients as to how their experience of accessing their GP practice will change
Provide the opportunity to gain greater awareness of how to use digital tools – for those who are interested in learning.

Approach

We recruited 20 local VCFSE organisations that are trusted voices within our communities to be “Ambassadors” that will promoted, shared, and spread messages about changes to accessing general practice services to our people and communities, focusing on reaching those who face the poorest health outcomes. The ambassadors were funded for six months’ worth of work to ensure that conversations had longevity, built trust around the topic and gave people the time and the space to explore the barriers in the time that it needed.

To kick off the project, ambassadors were invited to a workshop where colleagues provided them with the information and knowledge to be able to have conversations around access to general practice but also to meet one another, share their ideas for the project and build a community around the project.

Feedback from the pilot ambassadors, and recognising that it’s a complex topic, we recognised that there was a need for a “buddy” system within the ICB, colleagues who were readily accessible to answer questions, troubleshoot and work directly with practices where issues were discovered. Working alongside our digital team and primary care team, each ambassador was assigned buddies who could be on hand to support throughout the duration of the project.

Whilst we provided the ambassadors with the messages we wanted them to deliver in the workshop, a core component was that ambassadors listened to understand the barriers our communities face in accessing general practice services and co-designing how we can work together to better improve their access, experience and outcomes. For this, we were completely un-prescriptive in how ambassadors hosted their conversations and as NHS organisations, we were completely out of the way. We saw a whole range of culturally competent and flexible ways of engaging people in the conversations, and found that ambassadors often adapted their plans and approaches throughout the course of the project to suit.

Ambassadors were provided with feedback forms to capture the content of their conversations, who they helped navigate elements of modern general practice, the barriers, myths or reluctance and subsequently the ideas people have for us better communicating the changes. We also held regular sessions to bring ambassadors together online to talk through the insight, make sense of it collectively and share ideas and learning throughout the course of the project.

Experiences of the ambassadors

Jean Claude
Jean Claude is from the African French Speaking Community, where over the past 6 months, a team has been sharing news in community around the shift from analogue to digital. He said, “it was very tough for my community”, explaining how French-speaking African people are a minority; “facing a lot of challenges and barriers, they lack understanding of how the health system works - sharing the message was not an easy task”. Jean Claude learnt that it’s not about telling people what they have to do, but instead putting the message in a story, so it can have an impact. NHS health messaging does not reach everyone, his community included. They taught about the benefits of app, by speaking of their own experiences, such as no longer queuing, now checking results or appointments from home.

He spoke of the simplicity needed of technology, particularly with those who are 65+ and often lacking in digital skills, but felt they are happy once they’re ordering a prescription from the app. “They acknowledge they have to adapt but the pace of adoption cannot be forced. We need to be patient. Give that time to the minority. We need time for this to be adopted by these communities.”

Mandy
Mandy represents the voice of aging adults, who often feel left out or not competent in technology, she has acted as their advocate over the last six months. She notes “there were always those reluctant to use their phones who will not change, but many were embracing the changes”. She gave an example of a group of 10, where some used the NHS app already and learnt about new functions, others went on to consider it and signed up after a month or so, acknowledging that engagement took time; “if they hadn’t been part of the project they would have never made the changes.”

“Telling people on the phone they need to go online doesn’t work for everybody. There will always be people who can’t afford a smartphone or don’t want one, and you need to make sure your taking everyone’s needs as individuals into consideration.” There was a 97-year-old, who had never used the app, was shown how to download and use it, and now uses it to order his meds. “I’ve loved doing it, I think we have made a difference and will to continue to, as long as we’re included!”

We’ve also heard of ambassadors who are now pursuing careers within the NHS

“I would like to thank you for the opportunity to become a NHS ambassador, it has not only improved my community research skills but it has allowed me to further my passion for mental health and pursue a career within the NHS in becoming a mental health nurse and I want to specialise within women mental health. it has been a dream for us to work alongside the NHS and finally we are and it means a lot to us so again thank you”

Outcomes

The listening phase of the project concluded in November 2025. The next phase will see Ambassadors, commissioners, providers and wider partners working together to activate what’s been heard into action in a number of ways:

Co-designed, community led communications materials that target the barriers and misconceptions of accessing general practice, developed in a way that works for, speaks to, and reaches the communities that our traditional communications don’t necessarily reach.
Co-designing an access blueprint with primary care colleagues to ensure that the standards of that blueprint are influenced and reflective of the experiences, needs and wants of local people and communities. The blueprint will support primary care to deliver the following core aims: