Author Archives: Rodie Garland

The Chancellor Philip Hammond had to somehow make good this week on Theresa May’s announcement at the Conservative Party conference that austerity is coming to an end. The budget he has come up with – called ‘populist’ by some – is characterised by tax cuts […]

One of the reasons that FaithAction often gets invited to take part in health projects is that ‘faith and belief’ is a ‘protected characteristic’ under equalities legislation. That means that it’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their faith or beliefs – just as it’s illegal to discriminate against them because of their age, race, gender or other characteristics. When policy makers are developing new initiatives, they want to make sure that they are bearing in mind these protected characteristics, and that their plans won’t unfairly disadvantage any of these groups of people.

The role of faith groups is also essential. They play a vital part in meeting the need for greater integration and community cohesion. They are embedded within communities, well-able to recognise real local need and offer important services, particularly for marginalised and isolated groups. As […]

If I didn’t start by saying it’s a time of change in the health and care landscape, you would probably wonder what on earth was wrong. So I won’t disappoint you – although it’s fair to say that there has been more upheaval recently than usual, with the recent departure of Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary.

A friend who works for a café run by a faith-based charity recently told me about one of their regular customers whom she had been able to help. This elderly man’s wife had been taken into hospital, but he was confused and did not know exactly where she was. Without anyone else to rely on, he was alone and distressed.

Sound familiar? Rodie Garland looks at why organisations tend not to look at their impact – and why they definitely should. If you’re anything like me, most of the time you don’t have time to even do your work, let alone evaluate it. And it […]

This is Dementia Action Week, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to highlight some of the great resources that are available on dementia and are particularly suitable for faith groups to make use of. With dementia being a growing social issue, it’s likely that […]

Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week. What has this got to do with faith communities? Well, more than you might think. If one in four people experience some kind of difficulty with their mental health in any given year, then there’s no way that […]

How do you solve a social crisis? The headline in this week’s Budget was the cut to stamp duty, alongside a raft of other measures to tackle homelessness and improve the supply of housing. Whether or not these will prove to be effective – and […]

What is it that faith communities and faith-based organisations provide that helps to support health and wellbeing? This is a question we often grapple with at FaithAction. It’s something our work with the Health and Wellbeing Alliance helps us to explore, and it’s something we […]