It’s Not Just About Services: What We’ve Learned and What’s Next
By Stephen Craker, Chief Executive of Communities 1st
As CEO of Communities 1st, I come to this work from a background in health and social care, having worked across the statutory and voluntary sectors. That experience continues to shape how I see the role of community organisations in supporting people’s wellbeing. Health is about more than medicine or hospitals - it's shaped by the homes we live in, the income we rely on, the support we can access, and the networks around us.
To make a real difference, we need to talk plainly about poverty. It’s not just about having too little money - it affects housing, food choices, education, confidence, and physical and mental health. At Communities 1st, we support people in practical ways, but also work with partners to look at the bigger picture. If we want to improve health and wellbeing, we can’t ignore the daily pressures many people face.
Good partnerships are at the heart of this work. But they’re not always easy - they take time, trust, and ongoing effort. Different organisations have different priorities, and keeping things moving forward requires regular conversations and a willingness to listen. We’ve found that strong relationships, where people feel heard and valued, are key to delivering joined-up support that works. It’s not just about structures and meetings - it’s about people showing up for each other over the long term.
In our work, we also think a lot about the people doing the supporting - particularly in areas like adult social care, where demand keeps rising while staff face burnout, low pay, and uncertainty. We need to build organisations that look after their teams, where wellbeing is built into how we work. That means checking in regularly, being flexible, and making sure staff and volunteers feel listened to. Sometimes the best support we can give is making someone feel their contribution really matters.
Workplaces also need to be inclusive in practice, not just in policy. Inclusion isn’t just a line in a strategy document - it’s about making it easier for people to do their jobs well, especially if they face additional barriers. We’ve still got things to learn here, but we’re putting the work in. We’re starting to have better conversations about how we recruit, how we make adjustments, and how we value different perspectives.
We’ve been working on a mobile community supermarket project, and early on we realised we were asking the wrong question. It wasn’t just about what people needed - it was how they wanted to be supported. That insight helped us reframe the project around dignity and choice, not just access to cheap food. It reminded us that listening comes before designing.
We’re also exploring how we use tools like EFQM and our Distance Travelled framework internally to reflect on how we support individuals and improve services. These approaches help us identify what good looks like, not just in terms of outputs, but in how people feel about the support they receive. It’s a useful check-in on whether we’re meeting people where they are.
Even locally, we’re not immune to wider pressures. We’re seeing the impact of extreme weather on vulnerable residents, whether it’s heatwaves or cold snaps. So while climate change might seem like a global issue, its effects are showing up on our doorsteps. We’re responding by thinking more about resilience - how we support people to cope with
challenges and bounce back. And when it comes to digital access, we’re also tackling the reality that not everyone can easily get online or feel confident using technology. It’s not just a tech issue - it’s a health, housing, employment and wellbeing issue too.
We’ve also started paying more attention to the unintended consequences of how support is delivered. Sometimes, without meaning to, services can feel difficult to access, or don’t reflect the lived experience of the people using them. That’s why we’re focusing more on listening and co-design - making sure that the people we support help shape how we work.
There are times the numbers don’t add up and the decisions are tough. But being open about that - bringing people with us, not just handing things down - makes us stronger. It builds trust. And it helps ensure we stay rooted in the reality our communities face.
We understand the pressure public bodies are under - balancing targets, tight timelines, and political demands. But unless we build trust at the local level and back it with flexible funding, we risk missing the very outcomes those policies aim to achieve. Too often, funding structures reward outputs over outcomes, or ask for certainty in areas that need innovation. If we want to shift the dial on health equity, we need commissioning models that back community insight, allow space for co-creation, and trust organisations to adapt in real time.
At Communities 1st, we’re not perfect, but we’re committed to keeping going, trying new things, and sharing what we learn along the way. We’re learning a lot - and we think the system needs to learn with us. That means rethinking what 'value' looks like - not just in efficiency savings, but in the strength of relationships, in the ability to prevent crises, and in whether people feel supported and respected.
We’ve increasingly seen our role as not just delivering services, but helping to shape what good looks like across the system. That means being a test-bed for new ideas, sharing what works (and what doesn’t), and modelling ways of working that others might learn from. As we look ahead, we want to create more space for community voices in decision-making, to push forward models of support that are co-created - not just commissioned. Over the coming year, we’ll be focusing on strengthening that work - whether through deepening place-based partnerships, rolling out our Volunteer Pioneer Programme to support hyper-local action and build stronger community leadership from the ground up, or continuing to develop our approach to engaging businesses more meaningfully in community wellbeing and social impact.
Health equity isn’t a destination - it’s something we have to work at every day. But with the right people around the table, a willingness to listen, and a focus on what really matters to local people, we can keep moving forward together.
If we measured success by how supported someone feels - not just by numbers on a report - how different might our services look? And what would we need to change to get there?
In a system full of pressure and complexity, our role isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to keep asking the right questions - and to keep people at the centre of how we respond.
Stephen Craker,
Chief Executive, Communities 1st.