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Here you can find inspiring examples of anchor programmes, projects and initiatives already happening - both across Wales and the UK.
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Students mustViewHow can public bodies make healthy, sustainable travel the easy choice?
This case study explores the development and roll‑out of the Healthy Travel Charters in Wales, showing how cross‑sector collaboration helped embed walking, cycling, public transport and decarbonisation into everyday organisational practice across Wales. Drawing on real‑world experience, it shares the impact achieved so far and practical lessons for organisations looking to drive healthier, fairer and more sustainable travel choices. -
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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.
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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.
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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. -
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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.
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Climate change is the greatest threat to human health, and it is therefore essential that healthcare professionals are educated in the science of climate change, how it impacts themselves and their patients, and what they can do to combat it.
As healthcare professionals are fundamentally science communicators, and are some of the most trusted professionals in the UK, they have significant potential to accelerate climate action. However, knowledge on what people can do can be lacking, and people may feel like they don’t have the power to make a difference. “Our Health, Our Planet” aims to change that, with empowering individuals in their knowledge and fostering collective action.
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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.
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Organisation: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Location: Glasgow
Populations served: Circa 1.2m people across Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, InverclydeNHS 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.
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Organisation: Leeds Health and Care Academy
Location: Leeds
Populations served: 1.5 millionThe 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.
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Organisation: East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT)
Location: East London, Luton and Bedfordshire
Populations served: 1.8 million peopleA 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:
- Ensuring our suppliers pay the Real Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation
- Investment to grow and retention of spend in local economies
- 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
- A commitment to sustainability, including a reduction in carbon emissions
- 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.
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Organisation: Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Location: Blackpool
Populations served: Fylde Coast and Lancashire and South Cumbria for tertiary servicesOur 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.
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We welcome submissions of examples of anchor practice from across Wales. We are particularly interested in showcasing examples of best practice which may be adopted and adapted by other anchors in the health system, or which highlight key learnings to common challenges faced by anchors.
To submit, please complete this form, where you’ll be able to submit your case study under the following headings:
- Background & Context
- Actions Taken
- Impact & Outcomes
- Key Learnings & Reflections
For further information on Health Anchors Wales please contact oliver.clayton@innovationunit.org