BME Cervical Screening Project
An award winning project to help ethnic minority women to overcome fears and barriers around attending Smear Tests.
We support BME women in Coventry and work closely across GP surgeries and outreach venues.
FWT play a vital role in identifying barriers around knowledge and culture, leading to solutions. We raise awareness around the importance of cervical screening, and educate and empower women to access screening services within the age ranges of 25-64 encouraging uptake wherever possible.
We work in partnership with the ICB to identify areas in the city where uptake is low and then undertake targetted work with GP practices to increase uptake.
Over 3,100 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and it is the most common cancer in women under 35. National data by Cancer Research UK shows that cervical screening prevents at least 2,000 cervical cancer deaths each year in the UK.
Cervical Screening’s save lives.
In the community FWT are cascading messages on bowel, breast and cervical screening
As part of January’s ‘Cervical Cancer Awareness Month’, ITV have been investigating why Cervical Screening uptake is less likely by women from ethnic minority backgrounds, and the barriers around this.
ITV contacted FWT, as they found about our barrier breaking health inequalities work, and particularly our Cervical Screening Awareness Project, commissioned by NHS Coventry & Warwickshire ICB.
ITV joined us onsite at FWT on 19th January 2024, and filmed a community workshop led by two of our frontline team, who cascaded key health information around the importance of Cervical Screening to a group of service users.
FWT have taken a two-step approach to delivery, as follows:
Community Model – ‘Health Peer Support’ workers engaged women through community settings through face to face engagement and workshops..
GP Practices – FWT worked with the surgeries to increase uptake. They call women that have not attended a smear test, were due a test or have not attended in the past. Women were educated opportunistically, encouraged to take the test and appointments made.
Cervical Screening & Women’s Health – Support for BAME women aged 25+ We also continue to raise awareness on breast and bowel cancer and are supporting BAME women to inform them of the importance of attending screening appointments 1-1 support & online sessions provided.
For more information, please email MAMTA@FWT.org.uk
Workshops & Events
A 27 year old local resident, Indian origin, new to the country said;
Punjabi speaker is a Sikh and new to the country said: “I was informed by FWT Cervical Screening Peer Workers. They gave me NHS Cervical screening leaflet and also explained and discussed the importance of the test in Punjabi language which was very helpful and I did smear test after FWT intervention. “Thank you to FWT for raising awareness in the community”
FWT Recognition & Awards
Some of our key external recognition has included:
- FWT have won six Coventry Compact Awards in recognition of partnership working between FWT & statutory bodies including a GOLD award for Raising the Awareness of Cervical Cancer Screening BME Cancer Awareness in partnership with Coventry and Rugby CCG Coventry.
- Innovation Award for its work with the CCG.
- Marmot – with Coventry & Rugby CCG, FWT featured in a video as the CCG’s named project, celebrating addressing Health inequalities and being a “Marmot City” in March 2015. We sit on the Marmot Steering Group.
- Our MAMTA delivery model is award winning and was seen as a best practice model of community engagement in the Daphne Replace2 international FGM Toolkit
- Channel 4 News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvf8MzLSaY
- ‘OSCA’- UHCW 2008
- Articles national and local
- Partner of the Coventry City Council Reducing Health Inequalities Beacon Award 2008/9
- Recognised as good practice (Evaluations, Reports IDEA, West Midlands Review of Maternity services for Migrant Women, Changing the Experiences of Pregnancy, Migrant Health In Coventry
- DPH Report, which was launched in December. This film was a very useful way of illustrating the valuable services we have in Coventry, capturing some of the specialist services such as MAMTA – FWT, that support Coventry’s children and families representing the makeup of our city https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvf8MzLSaY
- Sharing good practice health programmes: West Midlands Strategic Partnership, DOH IDEA, CWPT Health events, Peer Reviews
- UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) Award
Award Winning – Voluntary Action Coventry Innovation Award
Press release for our Cervical Screening Awareness project that appeared in the Coventry Telegraph
- Cervical Screening Awareness Press Release
- Volunteers have trained on Cervical Screening at FWT
- These volunteers speak English and other languages
MARMOT Conference – Tackling Health Inequalities in Coventry
FWT was mentioned as an example of good practice project which helps to reduce health inequalities in Coventry, by supporting women from new communities & ethnic groups, eliminating their fears & myths, and helping them to book for cervical screening