In 2022, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTM) set out its first formal Anchor Strategy. The strategy established clear objectives and accompanying goals across five key areas of focus: employment; procurement; capital, estates and facilities; environment; and corporate.

The strategy was developed in collaboration with health board staff across multiple directorates and wider partners, and involved a combination of mapping existing activity and horizon scanning for best practice nationally. The full strategy can be viewed here. 

By 2025 (the end of the strategy period), progress has been significant - however lots has changed in the interim. Some ambitions have been fully realised, others have evolved, and some have proven more complex than anticipated. Along the way, the Health Board has gained valuable insight into what it means in practice to act as a locally rooted anchor institution.

This case study highlights some of the impact highlights from the last 3 years of anchor action across CTM, before exploring some of the key learnings in the final section.

Paying the real living wage is one of the most impactful actions employers can take to address poverty. In this case study, we explore how local campaigning helped bring together a range of partners across Cardiff - including the Council, Cardiff University, and Cardiff & Vale University Health Board - to take action on the real Living Wage. This in turn has led to a whole city-wide movement, with Cardiff going on to become the fi rst major urban area in the UK to be recognised as a Living Wage City.

Workforce pressures are among the biggest challenges facing the NHS and social care sector, and they are felt particularly acutely in rural communities. Limited transport infrastructure, a shortage of local training pathways, and other structural barriers can make a career in health and care feel out of reach for many people living in these areas. Yet this challenge also represents a significant opportunity: roles across the NHS and social care offer stable employment that can strengthen local economies and help address the entrenched inequalities rural communities so often face.
This case study explores how partners in Powys - the most sparsely populated county in Wales - have come together to tackle this challenge and realise the full potential of the NHS and social care sector as vital anchor institutions in rural settings.

Swansea Bay University Health Board serves a population of around 396,000 people across the Swansea and Neath Port Talbot areas. Like many post-industrial regions, it covers an area where pockets of deep deprivation persist alongside pockets of relative affluence.
With a budget of around £1.7bn and a workforce around 14,700 people, the Health Board is one of a handful of local anchor organisations that are well-placed to address these inequalities through its role as a major employer, its spending power, and through working in partnership with local communities, groups and other anchors.
In recent years Swansea Bay has set out to increase this impact by becoming a more “purposeful anchor organisation”, putting its role as an anchor organisation at the heart of its wider strategy to improve population health.
In this case study we showcase some of the impact that this focus has achieved locally by highlighting three initiatives from their Widening Access work - as well as looking at what’s next for the Health Board as it looks to continue to maximise its impact as a local anchor in partnership with others.