Community health and well-being workers (CHWWs) for preventive healthcare services uptake in the UK: a cluster-randomised controlled trial protocol

Introduction: Recognised within the National Health Service (NHS) 10-year plan as an innovative workforce solution to enable the left shift care towards integrated, neighbourhood models, community health and well-being workers (CHWWs) are rapidly expanding across England. Inspired by Brazil’s Family Health Strategy, the model has scaled from an initial pilot in Westminster to over 28 localities. However, despite this national expansion, robust empirical evidence of its impact remains limited. This protocol describes a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial in Westminster designed to provide definitive evidence on whether embedding CHWWs within local communities effectively improves the uptake of preventive healthcare services.