Blog

Recently I spoke to Keith Banda, the Mission Action Plan Coordinator for Ascension Church in Salford. Ascension Church is one of our members delivering our Creative English classes after purchasing a licence. It is part of the Church of England and has been delivering Creative […]

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 […]

Currently, the main media outlets have been highlighting the various issues surrounding rogue landlords from the private rented sector. Although most landlords are honest law-abiding citizens, some are not. Tenants have been suffering at the hands of unscrupulous landlords who demand monthly payments, but do […]

Monday, the 16th of October; the day the Government announced A connected society – A strategy for tackling loneliness. A day that we hope will help to change the health and well-being of millions of adults and young people living in the UK. Prime Minister […]

This summer, I was faced with the tragic news that a friend had died, suddenly and unexpectedly. It would be fair to say the cause of death was a combination of depression, isolation, and a crushing of dreams. My grief was such that, in the […]

Before I started working on FaithAction’s Creative English programme, I spent a year living and working as teacher of English as a foreign language in Italy. I had learnt a bit of Italian, having spent the previous two summers working at camps across the country […]

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.

Quietly, beyond the reach of scurrilous headlines, a review of the way forward for the NHS is underway. Quietly – maybe too quietly – this goes on, away from the partisan shouting around Brexit and the various fights going on within the Labour and Conservative parties. Maybe there is a political consensus – a place of sensible consideration: that we have an important asset in our health service, but it cannot continue into the next 70 years as it has done with its first 70 years.

This week, I had the opportunity to speak with one of our most established Creative English hubs who have been delivering the course for four years. The Oasis Centre in Luton is run by Gill, a community worker from the local area. She runs the […]

As long-term partner of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, we had the opportunity to attend the NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo on the 5th and 6th of September in Manchester. It was a unique celebration of innovation, enterprise and collaboration, uniting NHS and […]