Community Chests in London: Evaluation Report

Our evaluation highlights key learnings and recommendations for areas considering the adoption of the Community Chest programme.

The Community Chest Programme, developed by Transformation Partners in Health and Care (TPHC), is a collaborative initiative designed to reduce health inequalities by bringing statutory and non-statutory partners together. The programme establishes shared investment funds at the local level, co-produced and co-owned by the NHS and local authorities. These funds are tailored to local needs, ensuring accessibility, equity in funding, and a community-led approach to commissioning. The programme has been piloted in seven North East London boroughs, with a new pilot underway in Haringey, showing promising outcomes in patient access, VCSE capacity, and cross-sector partnerships.

TPHC commissioned us to independently evaluate the programme in two London boroughs, focusing on its system-wide impact, including system integration, partnership trust, and social prescribing service maturity. The evaluation compared two distinct approaches: a traditional grant model outsourced to a third party, and a more collaborative, VCSE-led approach. Both approaches had unique strengths, with the traditional model better addressing unmet local needs, and the VCSE-led model fostering stronger cross-sector collaboration.

This evaluation highlights key learnings from both approaches and offers recommendations for other areas considering the adoption of the Community Chest programme.