Workforce research project
Using collective employment power to positively influence the social determinants of health and address workforce challenges, this project will involve developing a shared local plan to enable the mos...
The Test and Learn grant funding programme was part of a two-year programme of work between the Health Foundation and NHS England to explore and enhance the role of the NHS as an ‘anchor institution’.
The programme also included the Health Anchors Learning Network (HALN), which launched in 2021 for participants to share and develop ideas, knowledge and skills, supporting them to implement anchor strategies in practice.
Test and Learn grant funding was provided to six NHS anchor institutions who are participants of the HALN to make progress on their anchors work and test new approaches. This generated new and valuable learning for both HALN participants and the wider health and care system on what it takes to deliver anchor work in practice.
Anchor institutions are large public sector organisations which are rooted in place and connected to their communities, such as universities, local authorities, and hospitals. Anchors have significant assets and spending power and can consciously use these resources to benefit communities.
For the NHS, this means the potential to make a make a far greater contribution to improve health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities, by enhancing their role as anchor institutions.
The Health Foundation report Building healthier communities: The role of the NHS as an anchor institution showcases where NHS organisations are already implementing anchor practices and outlines opportunities for maximising the NHS’s contribution.
Six projects received up to £25,000 for projects that lasted between six and nine months.
The projects focused on a wide range of anchor topics, including improving youth employment opportunities, encouraging social value procurement and developing an anchor framework for coastal communities.
This work led to several practical impacts and outputs, including:
The projects in England were co-funded by the Health Foundation and NHS England. The projects in Scotland and Blackpool are funded by the Health Foundation.
All projects found that commitment and buy-in from key stakeholders is critical to a successful anchor project. Excellent communication and engagement with local partners and the community ensured that projects were relevant, focused on the correct areas, and could share learning. Project teams identified and connected with people or organisations in the local area through drawing on existing relationships and, where relationships didn't already exist, the anchor project was a helpful way to leverage and mobilise new partnerships.
Most projects cited senior leadership support as a key enabler of anchor work. Project teams found that commitment from senior members of their trust helped with engaging other teams leading to more effective working (eg communications). It also facilitated further buy-in from system leaders and those external to the organisation, which was invaluable to a project’s success (as above).
Read more about leading an anchor mission effectively in HALN’s learning tools and event recording on the role of leadership in anchor work.
Early engagement and planning with a clear timeline of activities was found to be important, particularly when engaging with stakeholders at the outset. However, project teams’ ability to be flexible, adaptive and responsive to emerging learning or barriers is crucial to successful anchor work. Most projects found that it takes time to do this work well, particularly building relationships needed for secure partnerships.
All projects experienced challenges with recruitment or capacity in some form, often due to the fact it was difficult to recruit for a short-term post or due to capacity changes within the trust. However, all teams made it work in some way and found a range of solutions, from commissioning external support, to absorbing capacity within existing resource.
Early findings and outcomes have been shared on each project page below, but it takes time to fully realise the impact of anchor work, especially when the long-term aim is addressing health inequalities. Tools such as the Anchor Measurement Toolkit, developed by UCLPartners and supported by the Health Foundation, provides guidance and support to anchors to capture anchor activity and impact.
Watch the recording where five Test and Learn teams speak about their projects and the learning generated.
Read more about each of the six projects below, including their individual case studies on the HALN website.
Find out more about the Health Anchors Learning Network and become a participant.
Using collective employment power to positively influence the social determinants of health and address workforce challenges, this project will involve developing a shared local plan to enable the mos...
This project aimed to diversify NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s supply chain and involved analysing existing supplier data and developing an engagement programme to provide a bespoke range of support ...
With the aim of supporting young people’s employment opportunities in Mid and South Essex, this project involved developing a Youth Partnership to improve pre-employment support for young people, in p...
This project developed and implemented an evaluation framework for social value procurement, with the aim of generating learning and identifying improvements and best practice.
This project involved developing a model of engagement with schools and young people to inform, shape and deliver a ‘Foundation School in Health’ in the Bassetlaw area.
Working with communities facing multiple disadvantages across Blackpool and the Fylde Coast, this project embedded five community researchers who worked with the Trust’s research team to co-develop an...
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