ELFT has been named as one of six Trusts nationwide to receive funding to progress their anchor institution work.
They have been selected by the Health Foundation and NHS England and NHS Improvement to receive funding that will enable them to make progress on their anchor ambitions, test their approach, and generate new and valuable learning for the Health Anchors Learning Network (HALN).
This new funding programme is providing six NHS anchor institutions, who are all participants of the Health Anchors Learning Network (HALN), with grants of up to £25,000 each for projects that will last between six and nine months.
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.
The aim of the funding is to support these NHS anchor institutions to deliver projects that will enable them to make progress on their broader anchor ambitions and contribute to tackling health inequalities.
It is also hoped that it will lead to new and valuable learning for the other HALN participants, as well as others working on anchor activities across health and care.
“Our focus is not only on delivering care to the communities we serve but becoming an integral part of those communities as an employer and in procuring services at a place-based level,” said Dr Mohit Venkataram, the Trust’s executive director of commercial development.”
ELFT programme: Evaluating and embedding social values in procurement February-September 2022)
ELFT is a large employer and spends nearly £500m a year on goods and services, which means that the Trust has an important role to play in improving the health and wellbeing of the communities it serves, and in tackling health inequalities and social injustices.
In 2020/21, the Trust agreed on a list of social value priorities to be adopted and embedded within ELFT as part of its strategy to tackle the wider determinants of health and reduce health inequalities. Part of this has been to make sure that the suppliers that are contracted with the Trust are doing their bit to support, grow and invest in the local communities.
Building on this work, this project will involve assessing how well efforts to implement social values into procurement has been working so far, and how the Trust can measure its progress and the impact it is having on health inequalities.
This evaluation will generate important new learning and identify best practice which can be adopted in other areas of the Trust’s anchor programme, including creating better employment, improving environmental sustainability, and better use of land and estates.
The learning from this evaluation will also be shared with other organisations in the anchor network that are embarking on a similar journey.