CHURCHES in the UK save the NHS an estimated £8.4 billion a year, through the provision of foodbanks, drug- and alcohol-addiction support, mental-health counselling, and youth groups, a new study suggests.
The National Churches Trust’s report, The House of Good: Health, was launched on Tuesday at the House of Commons. It describes the country’s churches as “local wellbeing workhorses” that are “multiplying health and happiness across the UK, enriching lives and preventing illness and suffering before it has a chance to take root”.
The 38,500 churches relieve “immense pressure” on the NHS in three ways, it argues: promoting positive mental and physical health that helps people thrive; preventing conditions that would 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 “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 in the UK. In 2021, the estimate was revised to £55 billion (News, 5 November 2021). The calculation involved the use of 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’ recommended measure of life satisfaction. A “wellbeing-year” (WELLBY) represents a one-point improvement on this scale for a period of one year. The Treasury recommends a value of £13,000 per WELLBY in 2019 prices.
To analyse the relationship between attending church activities, volunteering, and life satisfaction, the researchers drew on the Understanding Society survey, the UK’s main household longitudinal survey, administered by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at 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 new report explores the indirect cost relief to the NHS made by churches’ provision of these four services. The researchers did this by converting WELLBYs (about four million delivered by churches every year, according to their 2021 report) to the standard Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) metric used in health economics.
The Department of Health estimates that it costs the NHS £15,000 to deliver one QALY. The conversion put the total cost relief at £8.7 billion a year, rounded down to £8.4 billion, given the closure of some churches since 2021. This is equivalent 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”, given that churches provide a much wider range of support, from warm spaces and lunch clubs to activities that alleviate loneliness, and a host of musical and cultural activities. They also argue that the total is not “directly visible to NHS commissioners” nor “directly cashable at a local level”, but will “in practice reduce what is already and excess demand for health services”.
The report includes six case studies illustrating churches’ contribution to health and well-being, noting that many of the UK’s 4000 AA groups meet in churches, and that most foodbank users find help in a church building. “By investing in church buildings and integrating churches into local health service provision through initiatives including social prescribing, we can 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 beauty of the church — perhaps it helps calm and focus them for the AA session, or when they leave to return to their lives, work, family, and other commitments,” he said. “A person who regularly worships here bakes cakes for the group; it’s a sign of our welcome and hospitality to all who come.”
The chief executive of the NCT, Claire Walker, described the findings as “remarkable”, but “alarming”, given that the UK’s church buildings were “dangerously underfunded, with many in the most deprived areas falling into disrepair”. About 3500 had closed in recent years, she said (News, 26 January). “Without urgent support, we risk losing this shock absorber for the NHS, and a vital safety net for the most vulnerable people in our society.”
Among the charity’s recommendations is additional ring-fenced annual public funding of at least £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).