“We are society”: Anchors as exemplars

“We’re the largest employer in the country, we have huge reach. So when people talk about anchor institutions. For me, it usually feels a bit technical, a bit trendy, a bit inaccessible.

But all of us, all of our colleagues, touch lots of people in society. We are society. We are the community. 

We have a really big responsibility that comes with that. And we have to become completely intolerant, as an exemplar, of those sorts of horrors and divisions.”

These were the words of Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive Officer of NHS England, in his speech at ConfedExpo last week. Reflecting on the appalling terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in October 2025 - not far from where the conference was being held in Manchester - he spoke about the responsibility that comes with being one of the country's largest institutions.

As someone who spends a significant portion of my working life trying to make anchor work more accessible, hearing it described as "technical" and "inaccessible" was a good reminder that we still have work to do on that front... But that wasn't my main takeaway from Jim's comments.

When we talk about the NHS, or a local council, as an anchor institution, the conversation often moves quickly towards employment and recruitment practices or local procurement spend. Whilst these remain vital areas, where we have perhaps paid less attention - and where Jim’s comments were pointing to - is another source of influence anchors hold. Not over money or jobs, but over culture itself: the values that anchors model, the standards they set, and the signals they send within the communities they both serve and represent. 

In an increasingly divided society, the NHS and other anchor institutions have a powerful role to play in promoting tolerance, inclusion and respect, while actively challenging hatred and discrimination.

For the NHS, that means starting at home. Creating workplaces where staff treat one another with respect, and standing firmly behind NHS workers who face rising levels of harassment, bullying and abuse from patients or members of the public in the course of their work.

But it also means having the confidence to project these values outwards within local communities, in partnership with others. In his speech, Jim recalled seeing staff in Newcastle accompanying one another safely to bus stops after shifts during the 2024 riots, and the powerful message of solidarity this sent out.

Some anchor organisations and networks have already made this approach a core part of their anchor work. 

In Morecambe Bay, for example, the local anchor network has established an Anti-Racism Anchor Group. The group has worked together to send a collective message that racism has no place in our society and will not be tolerated in any form, supported by examples of action being taken by anchor organisations to back this up. They’ve also worked with Cumbria and Lancashire constabularies to outline the steps for reporting hate crime incidents.

No single institution can solve those challenges alone - but large anchors, working together across councils, universities, housing associations and businesses, have a real role in modelling the values they want to see reflected in the places they serve. This, I think, is what Jim was reaching for: the responsibility to be, as he put it, an exemplar. 

It is great to see the NHS Alliance throwing its backing behind this agenda too. 

It has called for a national campaign to address rising levels of abuse faced by healthcare workers, arguing that protecting staff is essential not only for workforce wellbeing but for the future of the health service itself.

This work will not always be easy - especially for public sector organisations like the NHS. It will require organisations to have difficult but important conversations. And it will require them to be clear that challenging cruelty, harassment and division is not a political position. 

For those of us involved in coordinating and supporting anchor work, this raises the following questions: 

• What would it look like to approach these challenges through an anchor lens?

• What opportunities exist for NHS organisations and other large anchors - including councils, universities, housing associations and businesses - to work together to promote respect, inclusion and belonging within their places?

• And if we accept that anchor institutions have a responsibility not only to strengthen local economies but also to strengthen the social fabric of their communities, what role might they play in actively challenging division when it emerges?

These are not always questions that feature prominently in all anchor strategies today. But increasingly, perhaps, they should be. If anchor work is ultimately about using institutional assets to improve local places, then influence and leadership around values may be one of the most important assets we have.