About
Who we are
Sheffield Community Contact Tracers (SCCT) is a volunteer-led project sitting within a local charity, Heeley Trust. SCCT help to identify gaps in systems relating to COVID-19 and raise awareness on these issues. SCCT also conduct studies and demonstration projects to show possible solutions to these problems; through supporting communities to become more confident and resilient on this topic and to amplify seldom heard voices by giving them a platform to share their experiences.
SCCT was established in March 2020 with the initial pilot project of setting up a contact tracing initiative for residents of Sheffield, before the government had a national scheme in place. Since conducting this study, SCCT has grown and expanded its work, having also provided vaccine and COVID Confidence training workshops to communities across the city, hosted regular updates on Sheffield’s management of the virus and volunteered to support the national vaccination programme. We continue to meet regularly, with a focus on research into COVID and Long Covid, and reminding the public of the dangers that COVID can still present.
In February 2024, we submitted our story to the UK Covid Inquiry and in August 2024, the Sheffield Tribune wrote an in depth article about us.
Meet the team
Andy Jackson
I lead on strategy and development for Heeley Trust; a small community development charity in inner city Sheffield. Projects I have helped to create and develop in my 20 years at the Trust include; Heeley People’s Park, SUM Studios, ReCycleBikes, and Sheffield Online.
Dr Ian Bowns
I’m a retired public health consultant, having worked for most levels of the NHS, local authorities, academia, and been a temporary advisor to the World Health Organisation’s European Office on health information and statistics. In addition to a modest contribution to SCCT, I’m also a director of Transition Buxton and a trustee of Buxton Festival Fringe, as well as being an amateur folk performer.
Dr Jack Czauderna
I was a GP in Darnall, Sheffield for 30 years and moved my focus of care from individuals through families and on to communities, founding Darnall Wellbeing more than 20 years ago to engage primary care towards a community public health perspective. Darnall Wellbeing is now rooted within its communities and works closely with primary care to deliver 'social prescribing'. I am also the Chair of the Pioneer Health Foundation which keeps alive the legacy of the famous 'Peckham Experiment', the first Health Centre in the world and the model for health we should be following. I play violin and fiddle in different bands and spend as much time with grandchildren as I can.
Dr Janet Harris
I am a semi-retired public health professional. I continue to teach on the Masters programmes in Public Health and International Health Management at the University of Sheffield. My special interests are community-based participatory research and mobilising knowledge across sectors to promote health and wellbeing. In SCCT, I am coordinating Covid Confidence with community organisations across the city.
Dr Paul Redgrave
After a career in general practice and then public health, I was enjoying retirement doing lots of things unrelated to medicine until the Covid pandemic happened. Working with SCCT from early in 2020 and chairing the evaluation group has been a privilege.
Professor Shona Kelly
I am a Professor of Interdisciplinary Health Research at Sheffield Hallam University. I have worked on Public Health problems in Canada, Australia and the UK. Much of mywork focuses on the impact of social factors on health.
Dr Tom Heller
I am a happily retired GP who worked in several of the most deprived areas of Sheffield for many years. My wife and I developed Covid-19 during the early days of the pandemic and this experience motivated me to join the SCCT team when I was sufficiently recovered. I also worked as an academic at the Open University creating health-related teaching materials and prior to that spent some years working in Nepal, mostly establishing TB clinics in rural areas. I live in a cohousing community and spent as much pre-Covid time as I could rolling on the floor with at least one of my grandchildren.
Fran Arnold
I have worked for Darnall Well Being since September 2019, currently as their Communications & Contracts Manager. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was involved in establishing and running Covid Confidence sessions with members of SCCT, and then in the evaluation research project into Covid Confidence. I now manage the website and communications for SCCT, alongside working for Darnall Well Being.
Other current members include: Steve Pagden, Judy Stewart, Paulina Ramirez, Carrie Hedderwick and Oliver Chamberlain.
Past members have included: Bing Jones, Jillian Creasy, Mike Tomson, Tim Woolliscroft, Cheryl Plant