Organisation: One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (ICS)

One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (ICS) brings together key anchor organisations in Gloucestershire, including NHS, social care, public health and other public, voluntary and community sector organisations to build a healthier Gloucestershire.

Over the last year, One Gloucestershire ICS has delivered ‘We Want You’ - a co-designed health & social care careers outreach initiative. Reaching over 8000 secondary school students across the county, the team are supporting young people to think about their hobbies, skills and interests, and demonstrating how these interests can translate into meaningful careers within the health and social care sector.

Organisation: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Location: Glasgow
Populations served: Circa 1.2m people across Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) successfully applied to the Test and Learn programme, funded by the Health Foundation and NHS England for Health Anchors Learning Network members in late 2021, to test new approaches to diversifying the Board’s supply chain. The Supplier Development Programme (SDP) was engaged as a key delivery partner in recognition of its leading Scottish wide role as a experts in supporting SMEs and social enterprise better connect to public sector procurement opportunities.

The immediate trigger for the pilot was identification in the NHSGGC Talent Inclusion and Diversity Evaluation (TIDE) report (July 2021) of the need to strengthen an inclusive organisational culture through improved procurement practice.  The subsequent TIDE ‘roadmap’ details the procurement actions required to make a long-term strategic change to become more inclusive. This informed the pilot project plan, and its overall aims to reach businesses owned and led by people from diverse backgrounds and overall, increase diversity within the supply chain.

Organisation: Leeds Health and Care Academy
Location: Leeds 
Populations served: 1.5 million

The Connecting Communities with Health and Care Careers programme (CCHCC) aims to work with people and communities in disadvantaged areas of the city, who may also be under-represented in the health and social care workforce. Building on a successful programme of work in the Lincoln Green area of Leeds, CCHCC seeks to improve access to employment opportunities and provide practical support for people in their chosen career. Focusing on discrete communities in Leeds, the programme aims to remove barriers to recruitment and employment and provide the support that people need to succeed.

The programme’s rationale is to engage at local levels so that activities and opportunities are relevant. This includes identifying a career that’s suitable for the individual, and signposting appropriately to local vacancies or education and training courses.

Organisation: East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT)
Location: East London, Luton and Bedfordshire
Populations served: 1.8 million people

A process evaluation of the implementation of social values in procurement at East London NHS Foundation Trust.

ELFT recognises its significant role and responsibility as an anchor institution to support the health and wealth of the communities it serves. In 2020, its Council of Governors voted and agreed on five social value priorities to embed in our procurement processes:

1. Ensuring our suppliers pay the Real Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation
2. Investment to grow and retention of spend in local economies
3. The creation of equal employment and training opportunities for local people, people with protected characteristics, service users, and groups hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic
4. A commitment to sustainability, including a reduction in carbon emissions
5. Support for young workers, school leavers and apprenticeship schemes

We commissioned a process evaluation of our implementation of these social value priorities in the procurement and delivery of two key contracts; with Big Blue Door (a SME) to develop a new intranet and website, and with OCS (a multinational corporation) to provide soft facilities management. ​

Organisation: Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Location: Blackpool
Populations served: Fylde Coast and Lancashire and South Cumbria for tertiary services

Our project, Anchoring on the Coast, set out to co-design an anchor framework for coastal communities and test a model of co-production.  We embedded community researchers in the BTH research team to co-design an anchor framework for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with the community, staff and other partners. The research team co-designed and delivered the research. Using these methods, the research team worked with stakeholders and communities facing multiple disadvantage across Blackpool and the Fylde Coast to understand the challenges faced in these communities and how the Trust can discharge its responsibility as an anchor organisation to better the lives of those living in the Fylde Coast and working for the Trust. The project will continue until the end of January 2023 when we will complete the Anchor Framework for Coastal Communities that can be adopted locally and shared nationally for other coastal areas.