Lancashire Teaching Hospitals is part of the fabric of the local communities we serve. A large organisation such as ours places us in a key position to influence the health, wellbeing and wealth of our local communities, by using our trusted position to influence the success of region by creating opportunities, reducing inequality to support healthier and fairer futures.
To do this we have created our Social Value Strategy, the vision of which is to ‘Improve the lives of our communities and colleagues through our role as an anchor institution’.
Being an Anchor Institution
Let’s start with explaining what an anchor institution is. “Anchor organisations are rooted in a place, with strong ties to the area in which they operate and large enough to make a significant contribution to the local economy through their purchasing power. They exert a substantial draw on local people for work and training, beyond just the services they provide.” (Source: NHS Providers - Being an anchor institution: Partnership approaches to improving population health 2023).
At Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, we are here to serve the populations of Preston, Chorley and South Ribble. We will always have our hospitals in this area, therefore we are anchored to this part of the United Kingdom. As an anchor institutions we are committed to serving our community not only through the healthcare services we provide, but also in our role as a large local employer, a landowner and purchaser of goods and services.
What is social value?
Social value is a ‘catch-all’ term used to describe the difference we can make to the communities we provide services too. Social value matters because it is the right thing to do.
Social value encompasses all activity across our organisation, it goes beyond the financial bottom line, it includes employment, training and education, commissioning or procurement, investment and service delivery. It also includes how we go about doing our work, such as the ethical approaches we consider, the community engagement we undertake through to the collaboration we have with partners and wider stakeholders.
Why does social value matter
Social value matters because it helps us to support our community to tackle long standing, deep rooted and interconnected challenges. The connection between workplace health in our organisation and population health is very close as many people live within a relatively short commute of our hospital sites.
Some examples of the challenges we have in our region include:
- In Preston, we have higher levels of deprivation and unpaid carers when compared within the North West and nationally.
- 19% of our population in Lancashire receive less than the living wage. This figure increases for females, with 23.4% in roles which do not pay above the living wage.
- We know that 28.2% of our residents aged 16 or over have no qualifications, with less people in Lancashire having a degree level qualification when compared nationally.
- 24.2% of Preston residents are ‘economically inactive’, with reasons for this being due to long term sickness (50.9% for Preston), which is far higher than the North West average at 32.3% and the national average at 28.2%.
- Being out of work or worklessness is strongly associated with risk of mortality and morbidity including cardiovascular disease, poor mental health, suicide and health-damaging behaviours.
The Social Value Strategy 
The Social Value Strategy is an umbrella strategy, with a number of strategic plans aligned to and underpinning the delivery of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals being an anchor institution. This strategy is not designed to replace or supersede other core strategic aims of work. Its focus is on creating a framework which underpins and emphasises the programmes of work which acknowledge the leadership role we have in our community as an anchor institution and deliver tangible social value.
The programmes of work that underpin our Social Value Strategy crosses different portfolios of work ranging from reducing health inequalities for patients, to improving sustainability and our Green Plan, how we use our estate, procure from local suppliers, through to working in partnership with neighbours and others sectors, along with supporting the ongoing development of our workforce, improving colleagues health and wellbeing and being consciously inclusive in our approach to create a diverse and representative workforce that reflects our community make up.
The embedded and vital strategic programmes of work can be found in:
- The Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
- Our People Plan
- Green Plan
- Health Inequalities Plan
- Patient Experience Plan
- Education Strategy
To deliver on the Social Strategy Value vision which is ‘Improve the lives of our communities and colleagues through our role as an anchor institution’, we have 3 strategic aims. These are:
Creating careers and opportunities by being a local employer of choice
We know our actions speak louder than words for our colleagues and communities. To enable our region to retain its talent we will need to continue to widen access to good employment through understanding local demographics, creating opportunities, targeting positions for local people and inspiring young people into healthcare careers.
Through our drive to be a great place to work, we will support the health and wellbeing of colleagues, create inclusive teams where members of the community can see themselves reflected in our people at all levels and across all roles. We will support continual professional development and career progression along with supporting fair pay and conditions of employment to enable colleagues and our community to flourish and achieve their aspirations.
Levaraging our contracting, estate, and sustainable practices to deliver local benefits and social value
We need to put our money where our mouth is, influencing sustainable practices in the community through how we procure from local suppliers and ensure social value is embedded in all our purchasing decisions.
We need to work in partnership to maximise the wider value of our estate, enabling local groups and businesses to use our facilities. Through the work delivered through our Green Plan, we need to shape colleague and community behaviours, encouraging their buy-in for environmental sustainability.
Connecting Community and Partnerships
We need to walk the talk, as a healthcare service provider. We have a wider role to play as an anchor institution to influence, mobilise, convene and coordinate wider activities of our partners and stakeholders for the benefit of the people in our region.
Organisationally, we have a role in partnering with other anchor institutions, to develop collaboratives which support shared learning, create community engagement opportunities designed to support health, wellbeing, redressing inequalities, empowering communities and reducing deprivation within our region.
Actions being taken as part of our Social Value Strategy
We have a number of current programmes of work ongoing, along with future aspirations and plans, more detail can be found in the Social Value Strategy, but an indication of the type of work you may see and could be part of includes:
- Expanding our apprenticeship programme offer to create opportunities for our current and future workforce to obtain a qualification whilst in employment in the Trust.
- Delivering a Health and Wellbeing plan for colleagues alongside supporting reductions in levels of sickness absence.
- Seeking to understand the experience of colleagues from different socio-economic background, so we can deliver intelligence-led actions to improve levels of staff satisfaction and engagement.
- Increasing the proportion of minority group colleagues at all levels and across all professions.
- Creating community connection through the implementation of a colleague volunteering scheme, supporting local partners and businesses to benefit from the skills of our workforce by enabling them to take up volunteering opportunities.
- Creating opportunities as part of our leadership development offer to develop skills in system and partnership working where applicable, by creating opportunities for leaders in all professions to develop community partnerships with colleagues from the voluntary, charitable sector, local government and public health.
- Developing new ways to use our estate and green spaces to support local health.
- Increasing the amount we spend locally when purchasing goods and services.
- Working to ensure all our suppliers pay above the living wage and are working to be environmentally sustainable.
- Working towards having University Hospital Status by working in partnership with the local universities.
- Supporting a reduction in poverty of our patients through signposting relevant advice and guidance on wider benefit or charitable support individuals with health needs can access.
- Using an intelligence-based and intelligence-lead approach to develop cross sector multi-disciplinary working to manage complex health conditions and needs, social issues, and substance abuse. For example, with patients who are high intensity or frequent users of emergency care services by taking an integrated, multi-sector approach to bringing about wider place-based changes.
- Partnering with other anchor institutions across a place by establishing anchor collaboratives and networks to develop shared approaches on building community understanding of the importance of self-care and empowering communities to take greater control of their health and wellbeing.
- Developing charitable fundraising campaigns that bring together diverse sections of our community and range of local businesses to have a shared aim and create sense of collective pride.
