Overview
Creating health and wealth by stealth explores the role of large, well established community organisations in promoting good health and preventing disease in their neighbourhoods. Working with 20 CAOs across England and 10 service designers and commissioners across local, regional, and national health systems, we found four distinct areas of learning:
- Maximising good practice – across pandemic partnerships learning, peer-led health promotion, and co-location of clinical services in CAO settings.
- Finding the right delivery approach – including ‘Integrated Health and Wellbeing Services’, and social prescribing.
- Achieving collaborative commissioning – through inclusivity and cultural competence, asset-based community development, and capacity and capability building.
- Measuring outcomes usefully – by understanding the impact of services on the wider determinants of health, and collecting data and monitoring impact in a meaningful way.
The report contains real-life examples demonstrating good practice across these four areas that can be repeated across the country. But there are also warnings of the pitfalls that threaten this progress.
We present 12 recommendations for the health system across the four areas above – at Primary Care Network, Integrated Care System, local authority, and national level. If embraced, these can help capture the significant and sustainable impact that CAOs have on the health and wellbeing of local people. We have also developed a set of five recommendations for CAOs themselves. These aim to support the increase of their involvement in health system prevention services, including by:
- Understanding and communicating to the health system the value of the CAO approach for the wider determinants of health
- Find the right contacts within Integrated Care Partnerships
- Connecting with local Primary Care Networks
- Tackling local priorities with other VCSE partners
- Demonstrating their ability to meet the rigours of current health system contracts
Related reports
Better collaboration between Primary Care Networks and the VCSE
This project has been carried out with NHS England and NHS Improvement, as part of our work on the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance.
We’ve worked with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), Primary Care Networks (PCNs), GPs, and VCSE organisations across England to understand the challenges and opportunities in this area. This has taken place through our Community of Practice, wider Community of Influence, and further-reaching stakeholder interviews.
Community anchors and the wider determinants of health
This research was conducted with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), as part of our work on the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance. We worked with 20 community anchor organisations across England to understand their impact on the wider determinants of health in their communities.
We found that their holistic, whole-person approach to support plays a vital role, allowing them to:
- Reach a wide range of population groups
- Impact a broad range of wider determinants
- Improve the quality of life of their broader communities
- Improve the quality of life of those most affected by health inequalities
The paper contains case studies, testimony, examples, and statistics on the important role community anchors play in supporting community health.