Community Chest for Social Prescribing

NHS England | NHS North East London | Soda | Transformation Partners in Health and Care

Overview

Redesigning how health funding reaches communities through co-production — by putting communities in charge of the decisions.

My contribution
Project director
Co-production design Workshop facilitation

Team
SODA
Transformation Partners in Health and Care
North East London ICB NHS England

Year
2022 - 2023

The Challenge

1 in 5 GP appointments now address social needs rather than acute medical issues. The voluntary and community organisations best placed to meet those needs are rarely treated as equal partners in how funding gets allocated. The result: money that doesn't reach the right places, and communities shut out of decisions that directly affect them.

What I brought

Working with SODA and Transformation Partners in Health and Care, I facilitated the design and launch of Community Chest pilots across all seven places within the North East London Integrated Care System. I held lead responsibility for three London boroughs: Hackney, Barking and Dagenham and Tower Hamlets. In Barking and Dagenham I led the full co-production process for a participatory budgeting model, where community applicants themselves voted on how funds were distributed — a genuine shift of power to the people most affected.

What changed

Over £500,000 allocated to 82 voluntary and community organisations in year one
Many had never previously received funding or been connected into local social prescribing
Delivered across all seven places in the North East London Integrated Care System
Adopted as best practice across the NHS nationally

"Since the Community Chest model was launched, we have seen some really inspiring projects make a difference to communities across North East London."

Professor Kevin Fenton 
Regional Public Health Director, London

Project Media

I worked with external partners to produce this short animation which was used as part of the communication campaign for the initiative and to advocate for the model London wide.