ESOL Cancer Awareness – reducing barriers to healthcare for ESOL learners
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Information about the provider
Cardiff and Vale Community Learning Partnership was established in 2013 from the former Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan adult learning partnerships. There are four main delivery partners: Cardiff and Vale College, Cardiff Council, Vale of Glamorgan Council, Adult Learning Wales. The partnership serves Wales’ capital city, Cardiff, and the adjacent, largely rural, local authority of the Vale of Glamorgan, and offers provision at a range of venues including community centres, libraries and the college’s campuses.
The partnership employs approximately 193 part-time and 43 full-time teaching staff. Approximately 5814 learners are enrolled on courses, of whom 2209 are English for speakers of other language (ESOL) learners. The majority of its learners are at entry level and level 1 or short course provision. Across the partnership 39% of learners live in the most disadvantaged areas. Sixty-three per cent of the partnership’s enrolments are from ethnic minority backgrounds. Sixty-five per cent of the partnership’s enrolments are female.
The vision for ALC in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan is one where there is:
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increased participation by those who have benefited least from education in the past or who are most at risk of not benefiting in the future
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improved quality in the learning experience including increased progression to other learning opportunities or work
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greater coherence in the nature and patterns of provision across the providers.
Context and background
A key driver for the partnership is where it perceives learners have a particular need and there is a gap in the provision, it often works strategically with other partners to address the issue. An excellent example of this is the ESOL Cancer Awareness Project in Partnership with Public Heath Wales and Velindre Cancer Centre (Charitable Trust). The Welsh Government and NHS were working to engage with communities and improve education about cancer and cancer prevention. Research has identified that people from ethnic minority communities were less likely to participate in national breast, cervical and bowel screening programmes and reported lower awareness levels of cancer signs and symptoms. Lifestyle risk factors, such as diet, smoking and exercise, may also be poor. The reasons for this are multi-faceted but lack of awareness and understanding were identified as fundamental barriers.
The purpose of this project was to address this health inequity by working in partnership with ESOL specialists to develop a health education resource that could be embedded within the ESOL curriculum and delivered through ESOL classes. ESOL courses are recognised to deliver more than just English language development. These programmes are also an effective means of communicating important information to learners with limited English language skills in a supportive and sympathetic environment.
Description
ESOL Cancer Awareness was a successful partnership between Cardiff and Vale Community Learning Partnership and Velindre Charitable Trust to develop contextualised ESOL Health and Cancer Awareness resources for use in entry level ESOL classes across Wales. The partnership produced materials including student resources, teacher notes and an online interactive resource. These raised ESOL learners’ awareness and understanding of the signs and symptoms of cancer, as well as providing them with the vocabulary that would enable and empower them to have effective conversations with English-speaking NHS health professionals, to vocalise their symptoms. There were specific modules on both female and male cancers. Through the course learners became more aware of free national screening programmes, and engaged with preventative health promotion messages (such as the benefits of quitting smoking or doing more physical activity) that are so key to a healthy life. The project was piloted across the partnership during its development stage.
Impact of the provision
Feedback from the learners has been incredibly positive. As a result of undertaking this programme, learners have gained in confidence to seek medical services in a timely manner. Learners showed more awareness of NHS services and they were more aware of lifestyle changes they could make to live a healthy life. Learners fed back that in many cases this was the first time they had been able to talk about their health concerns.
How has the practice been shared?
The resources are now part of the learning experience of all learners within the partnership. Further modules were developed over the pandemic to support COVID- and vaccination-awareness. This project has been rolled out across Wales. The project has been shared more widely via the Association of Colleges Equality network and through the National Centre for Diversity where it won an award for innovation.