By Jo Duffy, Senior Health Improvement Officer and Elspeth Russell, Consultant in Public Health.

NHS Lanarkshire has a strong strategic commitment as an anchor organisation to help tackle some of the things that create Lanarkshire’s socioeconomic inequalities – the imbalance in social and economic resources people have based on their social class. These can include differences in education, income, earnings and other factors.

What are anchor organisations?

They’re typically large local employers with a strong presence in an area, like the NHS, local authorities, colleges and large businesses. Public Health Scotland has recently created an animation which illustrates NHS Scotland’s role as an anchor.

Anchors also often deliver crucial services vital for health and wellbeing and are rooted in the local community, offering stability and support to communities, giving us the term “anchor”.

Anchor organisations can have a sizeable positive influence on the health and wealth of communities as they employ large numbers of local people, spend substantial amounts of money and own and manage local land and buildings.

Key to being an anchor is intentionally using these to:

• increase access to fair work opportunities for local people (Fair work means secure employment with fair pay and conditions, where workers are heard and represented, treated with respect and have opportunities to progress)
• ensure local goods and services are purchased;
• make better use of buildings and assets;
• improve local partnership working and reduce environmental impact.

The graphic below shows the potential scale of NHS Lanarkshire’s contribution as an anchor.

Monklands Replacement Project (MRP)

The MRP is a substantial and exciting project, which will have far reaching benefits to the local community and has the potential to contribute to reducing inequalities.

The MRP Community Benefits Strategy, which was developed following co-produced work with communities in 2023, will make a significant contribution to NHS Lanarkshire’s anchor role. Key actions from this plan have been cross-referenced with a wider Anchor Plan developed by NHS Lanarkshire.

This includes ensuring the early stages of hospital construction support local procurement and employment opportunities. Early examples include involvement of MRP construction partners Laing O’Rourke in the delivery of career development days for local schools and also “Meet the Buyer” events with local businesses.

The NHS Lanarkshire Annual Report of the Director of Public Health (2023) highlights the health board’s role as an Anchor and has a specific chapter on the contribution of the MRP Community Benefits Plan.