At the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), we’re working with local councils and councillors to find residents who might be eligible for infected blood compensation.
In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, around 30,000 people were infected with HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C through contaminated blood and blood products, making it the biggest scandal in NHS history.
IBCA’s mission is to pay compensation to living and deceased infected people and their close relatives, such as parents, brothers and sisters, children, and unpaid carers.
Local authorities are uniquely placed to reach eligible people because of the close relationship they have with their residents, and the different ways they reach them.
Our collaboration with councils – including with North Tyneside Council’s public health team and Wrexham Council – has been raising awareness of the scheme in their local areas, supporting the campaign through their own communication channels.
Both councils have shared information provided by IBCA on their public-facing websites to reach residents, and on their staff intranets to raise awareness internally.
We’ve also issued joint press releases with each council to their local media, helping the message reach a wider audience across the community.
Building on this success, we’re now reaching out to surrounding councils to extend our awareness campaign further. We’re particularly keen to work with authorities in areas where we’re hosting community sessions, and we will contact those areas directly this autumn.
We’re incredibly grateful for the support so far, but thousands of eligible people still haven’t registered with us. Together, we can change that.
- If you can help, please contact us at ibca-media@ibca.org.uk. We’ll share ready-made information and bespoke materials, so every eligible person knows how to claim.