Health trainers spend up to an hour with clients, and see them for up to six sessions

Four Bradford PCTs were chosen as one of 12 early adopter sites to pilot the health trainer programme. Almost 60 per cent of participants made some progress towards their goals in the six-month pilot and the project was particularly successful in recruiting Asian women.

Since January 2006, 17 health trainers have been recruited from local communities to provide one-to-one support to people wishing to make positive health changes.

The trainers have no clinical training and several of them were unemployed. They were selected from 21 people, with a good mix of gender, ethnicity and age, who completed a 15-day health trainer training course.

The course was accredited by the Open College Network, and all students were assessed on a portfolio of work.

The trainers now attend monthly training days to extend and develop their competencies.

Health trainers spend up to an hour with clients, and see them for up to six sessions. Clients self-refer or can be referred by a community or health worker. The health trainer helps the client develop their own health action plan and encourages them to work towards health goals and by doing this boost their confidence.

Where necessary the trainer also signpost the client to appropriate services and activities, such as a local walking group or smoking cessation service, and accompanies them on the first visit if required.

In the pilot, trainers were placed in 26 different organisations, including GP surgeries, extended schools and healthy living initiatives. Data was collected on 121 clients who made contact with the service after hearing about it via a flyer, their GP or through a community centre.

Ninety-seven people attended at least one session and more than two-thirds saw the health trainer three or more times. No correlation was found between the number of sessions a client had and the progress made.

Eighty-three per cent of the clients were women; 47 per cent were white and 30 per cent of Asian descent; the most common ages were 46-59 years and 26-35.

Eighty-six per cent of clients went to the health trainer with more than one issue, and the most common were weight management, healthy eating and exercise, followed by stress, emotional issues, anxiety and social issues. Around half of clients had a mental health issue. Twenty-one per cent who attended at least once met or made good progress towards their personal targets and 37 per cent made some progress; 45 per cent were signposted to other services.

Another 19 people are training as health trainers in Bradford, 17 of these are men in an effort to increase the proportion of men using the service. It is hoped this will be aided by piloting of the Life Check in Bradford next year.