Free Webinar:
Successes from a series of Community Engagement Initiatives
11th February 2026
10.00am – 11.00am
Microsoft Teams
Join Christine Hancock and Michaela Nuttall showcasing the long-term success of C3’s Community Health Engagement Survey Solutions (CHESS®).
Open to anyone working within Local Authorities, ICBs, HINs, charities and the third sector, NHS England, OHID, PCNs, ICSs, and related organisations.
About the webinar
CHESS®, as a strategy to engage communities has been commissioned by local authorities, foundations and corporates to improve the health of communities in disadvantaged areas of Bournemouth, Kent, London, and Norfolk. It’s never easy to demonstrate impact in public health projects, but results have included
- In King’s Lynn, a community orchard has been developed to increase healthy eating and a new affordable food supermarket developed.
- In Boscombe, 58% of survey respondents reported they are eating more fruit and vegetables per day and doing more physical activity. 79% of survey respondents reported that they had learned more about healthy eating and the importance of physical activity by participating in CHESS Action Plan activities. 58% of survey respondents reported that participating in CHESS Action Plan activities has provided them with new skills to help them make changes in their community. 79% of survey respondents reported that participating in CHESS Action Plan activities has improved their knowledge of health challenges in their community.
- In Medway, 83% of participants surveyed reported that they had learned more about healthy eating and the importance of physical activity through participating in CHESS® action plan activities. 88% of participants surveyed reported that they do more physical activity since participating in CHESS® action plan activities. 67% of participants surveyed reported that CHESS® action plan activities enabled them to develop new skills to help them create change in their community. 75% of participants surveyed reported that CHESS® action plan activities increased their knowledge of the health challenges in their community
About the speakers
Christine Hancock BSc(Econ) RGN
Christine Hancock founded C3 Collaboratig for Health after a career working in nursing working in nursing, becoming CEO of RCN and Britain’s NHS, CEO of Waltham Forest Health Authority. When she was President of the International Council of Nurses she saw the impact the growing burden of chronic disease was having across the world.
Michaela Nuttall RGN MSc
Michaela is a Cardiovascular Nurse Specialist with a unique and varied experience across the NHS and beyond. Director for Smart Health Solutions, Founder of Learn With Nurses, and Associate in Nursing for C3 Collaborating for Health. Former Head of CVD Prevention for Public Health England and OHID’s Clinical Advisor of the programme until 2023.
About CHESS®
C3’s community-engagement programme CHESS® (Community Health Engagement Survey Solutions) is an innovative, evidence-based approach that shifts decision-making to local communities by engaging them as ‘citizen scientists’ in an investigation about their health and the built environment (e.g., the shops, restaurants and parks in their neighbourhood).
CHESS® includes a mobile tool that equips local communities in identifying and mapping the barriers they face every day when making choices about diet, activity and healthy living. People from areas which experience poverty and disadvantage see the health data from where they live and the very different data from a nearby wealthier area (e.g. people living near Grenfell Tower have a life expectancy 16 years less than nearby Notting Hill). The local residents then develop an action plan which they present to local stakeholders and decision makers.
When funding permits, a local person is funded for a small amount of time to work with residents to implement the action plan and build in ways to sustain the work. As with many projects, we have to withdraw at the end of the project. Recently, we have been thrilled to discover one of our earliest projects is still working after 10 years
About C3 Collaborating for Health
C3 Collaborating for Health was founded in 2009 to work to prevent the major causes of ill health and premature death, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer and dementia which are due to 3 risk factors: smoking, lack of physical activity and what we eat and drink.
70% of those illnesses could be prevented.
The levers of change did not lie within any country’s health system but in the whole of government and the whole of society. C3 works to bring together different communities to create changes that make it easier for people to: stop using tobacco, improve what they eat & drink & do more physical activity. The charity works with many organisations in the business world, the public sector, and other charities in a variety of ways, always dependent on project funding. The current work is focused on 3 broad programmes: community engagement, working with professionals, particularly nurses and teachers, and oral health
