Churches provide healthcare that would otherwise cost the NHS billions, says new research
Faith groups play an important role in “neighbourhood level preventative care”, said Esther Platt, Senior Consultant for Good Faith Partnership and its ChurchWorks Commission, at a parliamentary event in October 2024.
Simple opportunities such as Warm Welcome Spaces or coffee mornings offer holistic care and support to the wider community.
Research by the National Churches' Trust shows that the contribution of the church to the wellbeing of our communities would cost the NHS £8.4 billion a year to deliver. This is the equivalent to nearly 4% of all UK health spending and the same cost as employing 230,000 nurses.
One key way in which faith communities can contribute to the wellbeing of the local neighbourhoods is through social prescribing. Faith groups offer activities such as running clubs, Warm Welcome Spaces and befriending schemes that can be prescribed by social prescribing link workers and which demonstrably improve wellbeing.
However, at a time when Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting is emphasising the importance of neighbourhood level, preventative care, faith groups can also play a role by supporting individuals in the community before a problem becomes more acute.
Faith groups offer a support network and a listening ear, and they also offer a holistic access point for a wide range of community support services such as debt advice, exercise classes, parenting courses and support with meeting essential material needs for example through baby banks and foodbanks.
If the Secretary of State intends to make a Neighbourhood Health Service a reality, there must be better networking, partnership and planning between faith groups and the local NHS. As Lord Chartres, former Bishop of London (1995 to 2017), said at the launch of the report: “We have an amazing network of community centres, in the form of faith groups, across the UK. We must enliven the imagination of policy makers to see the potential of this asset.”
The NCT research, 'House of Good: Health', is available here: https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/house-good-health