CHURCHES within the UK save the NHS an estimated £8.4 billion a 12 months, through the supply of foodbanks, drug- and alcohol-addiction support, mental-health counselling, and youth groups, a recent study suggests.
The National Churches Trust’s report, The House of Good: Health, was launched on Tuesday on the House of Commons. It describes the country’s churches as “local wellbeing workhorses” which can be “multiplying health and happiness across the UK, enriching lives and stopping illness and suffering before it has a probability to take root”.
The 38,500 churches relieve “immense pressure” on the NHS in 3 ways, it argues: promoting positive mental and physical health that helps people thrive; stopping conditions that may otherwise send more patients to the NHS; and providing a location for health treatment. They are, it suggests, “the UK’s most underappreciated preventative care providers”, providing services for “probably the most disadvantaged and most vulnerable in society”.
The first House of Good report was published in 2020 (News, 23 October 2020), when the NCT commissioned economists at State of Life to quantify the the social value of all church buildings within the UK. In 2021, the estimate was revised to £55 billion (News, 5 November 2021). The calculation involved using the WELLBY measure of life-satisfaction to quantify the direct well-being value for the individuals benefiting from church activities.
WELLBYs are based on observable changes in people’s responses to the Office for National Statistics’ really helpful measure of life satisfaction. A “wellbeing-year” (WELLBY) represents a one-point improvement on this scale for a period of 1 12 months. The Treasury recommends a price of £13,000 per WELLBY in 2019 prices.
To analyse the connection between attending church activities, volunteering, and life satisfaction, the researchers drew on the Understanding Society survey, the UK’s foremost household longitudinal survey, administered by the Institute for Social and Economic Research on the University of Essex.
They also drew on the National Churches Trust survey of 2020, which found that 29 per cent of church buildings were either providing or hosting mental-health counselling; 10.4 per cent of them, drug or alcohol support services; 42.4 per cent of them, youth groups or activities; and 58 per cent of them, foodbanks.
The recent report explores the indirect cost relief to the NHS made by churches’ provision of those 4 services. The researchers did this by converting WELLBYs (about 4 million delivered by churches every 12 months, in line with their 2021 report) to the usual Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) metric utilized in health economics.
The Department of Health estimates that it costs the NHS £15,000 to deliver one QALY. The conversion put the full cost relief at £8.7 billion a 12 months, rounded all the way down to £8.4 billion, given the closure of some churches since 2021. This is comparable to 3.7 per cent of the £225 billion that the UK spent on health care in 2022/23.
The researchers describe this as a “conservative valuation”, provided that churches provide a much wider range of support, from warm spaces and lunch clubs to activities that alleviate loneliness, and a number of musical and cultural activities. They also argue that the full is just not “directly visible to NHS commissioners” nor “directly cashable at a neighborhood level”, but will “in practice reduce what’s already and excess demand for health services”.
The report includes six case studies illustrating churches’ contribution to health and well-being, noting that most of the UK’s 4000 AA groups meet in churches, and that the majority foodbank users find assist in a church constructing. “By investing in church buildings and integrating churches into local health service provision through initiatives including social prescribing, we are able to alleviate pressures on healthcare budgets while delivering immense value to individuals and communities across the UK,” it concludes.
Among the churches hosting AA groups is St Martin’s, Roath, in Cardiff, where the Team Vicar, the Revd Irving Hamer, greets people, and is present for conversation afterwards. “Many of the people comment on how much they appreciate the stillness, silence, and great thing about the church — perhaps it helps calm and focus them for the AA session, or after they leave to return to their lives, work, family, and other commitments,” he said. “A one that repeatedly worships here bakes cakes for the group; it’s an indication of our welcome and hospitality to all who come.”
The chief executive of the NCT, Claire Walker, described the findings as “remarkable”, but “alarming”, provided that the UK’s church buildings were “dangerously underfunded, with many in probably the most deprived areas falling into disrepair”. About 3500 had closed lately, she said (News, 26 January). “Without urgent support, we risk losing this shock absorber for the NHS, and an important safety net for probably the most vulnerable people in our society.”
Among the charity’s recommendations is additional ring-fenced annual public funding of no less than £50 million for major repairs, and the extension of the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme, which allows listed churches to reclaim the VAT on repairs (News, 20 September).
