Community Blood Pressure Champions
We want community organisations in Liverpool to express an interest in joining our network of community blood pressure champions.
What's on offer?
Liverpool Public Health has received funding from NHS England to offer a package of support to community organisations to become Community Blood Pressure Champions.
Full training, equipment and support will be provided. The programme will start in early 2025. We will offer the following for free:
- Accredited Blood Pressure Check training, including guidance on the interpretation of results and what to do when someone has a high reading.
- Making Every Contact Counts conversation training, including key information on lifestyle topics, local service providers and guidance on how to have an effective conversation.
- Blood pressure monitor device to every person attending the course.
- Ongoing support and mentoring to help deliver safe intervention and build confidence.
How you can collaborate with us
You can apply for up to three places for your organisation to collaborate, in kind, with public health in delivery of the community blood pressure champions initiative.
You will need to provide information about how you intend to utilise the training and offer access to blood pressure checks and health promotion advice within your community. Each nominated person must be able to attend two training sessions.
You must be willing to commit to providing regular data reports using a data collection template, and participate in a feedback workshop with the Liverpool public health team to help improve the Community Blood Pressure Champions programme.
Express an interest now
If you would like to express an interest in becoming a Community Blood Pressure Champion programme provider, please complete the online form below by 10am on Monday 20th January 2025.
Complete an expression of interest in the Community Blood Pressure Champion initiative
How we process your data
We will not share this information with any other council service or external agency. We will store your data securely and retain it for 90 days following the closing date, whilst we process applications and allocate places. After that, all data will be destroyed securely and will no longer remain on our systems. For more information please email publichealth@liverpool.gov.uk.
What happens next?
The deadline for expressions of interest is 10am on Monday 20th January 2025. Successful organisations will be notified by Friday 31st January 2025.
If you do not hear from us by Friday 31st January 2025, please assume your application was unsuccessful. Unsuccessful applicants can email us at publichealth@liverpool.gov.uk for feedback.
Training will take place in February and March 2025:
- Blood Pressure: Friday 7th February 2025 and Wednesday 19th March 2025.
- Making Every Contact Counts: Monday 10th February 2025 and Friday 28th March 2025.
How we evaluate and select providers
Places will be prioritised to target activity in the wards with the highest rate of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease.
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View rates of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease in each ward
Download this document: View rates of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease in each ward (PDF: 143 KB)
Our evaluation criteria for selecting successful providers will be as follows.
- Willing to commit staff or volunteers to participate in training and deliver blood pressure checks, and provide monthly anonymised data to help us understand impact (33%).
- A clear plan to explain how your organisation will utilise the training offer and deliver blood pressure check intervention (33%).
- Evidence of how your organisation works with our target audiences in high deprivation communities, or diverse population groups at higher risk of cardiovascular disease (33%).
How we score applications
Liverpool City Council will assess each provider's response to the requirements in this brief.
| Score value | Grade | Indicative score description |
| 0 | Poor | Offer no evidence, or incomplete evidence |
| 1 | Satisfactory | Provides minimum expected evidence |
| 2 | Good | Good evidence |
| 3 | Excellent | Clear and logical rationale with good evidence |
Why blood pressure checks matter
Premature deaths from cardiovascular disease are higher in Liverpool than elsewhere in the country, and within the city, rates of premature death are higher in the more deprived postcode areas. In addition, people with a black or south Asian ethnicity are known to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Current estimates suggest that there are around 33,000 Liverpool residents that are unaware that they have high blood pressure.
In the most deprived areas, more Liverpool residents are becoming ill from a younger age and are expected to spend more than a quarter of their lives in ill health on average.
The state of health in the city 2040 report predicted large increases in the number of Liverpool residents that have hypertension over the next 15 years. High blood pressure, or hypertension:
- often has no symptoms and can lead to heart attack and stroke
- is preventable with a balanced, healthy lifestyle
- can be treated with medication to help control it
The NHS recommends that adults have their blood pressure checks at least every five years, and if you have hypertension at least once a year.
Having your blood pressure checked is a key intervention for preventing ill health and is also a very useful tool to frame health promotion conversations about lifestyle changes. The approach is widely used during the Know Your Numbers campaign and is a key element of an NHS Health Check.