National charitable fundraising for the NHS , 1948–2023

Bibliographic Data

ID11197838
AuthorsEllen Stewart (0000-0003-3013-1477, University of Glasgow Glasgow UK, corresponding author), Rosemary Cresswell (0000-0002-5203-7994, University of Strathclyde Glasgow UK), Christian Möller (0000-0003-1731-5431, University of Strathclyde Glasgow UK)
Year2024
Volume58
Issue6
Pages960-972
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Policy and Administration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/spol.13049
PMID40901631
OpenAlexW4400177617
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited28

Whether charitable fundraising might play a part in funding Britain's ostensibly tax‐funded NHS has been a longstanding dilemma, which until recently has received only occasional scholarly attention. In 1946, Aneurin Bevan argued that one of the main goals of the reformed health care system was to liberate health care from the ‘caprice of private charity’. Seven decades later, NHS Charities Together's Urgent Covid‐19 Appeal became a powerful societal rallying cry in the health emergency of the pandemic and raised £150 million in the process. This paper draws together findings from new archival research, a witness seminar with key actors in the NHS charity sector, and qualitative research based on interviews with NHS charity staff and trustees ( N = 13), all conducted between 2021 and 2023. We investigate the way in which national appeals have been proposed, debated and implemented at different times in the NHS's history. We trace the recurrence of conflicting ideas about the acceptability of national fundraising for the NHS, about whether public loyalties are to their local services or the national ‘brand’ and about the introduction of national appeals into a complex ecology of local NHS charities. The history of charitable fundraising for the NHS is, we argue, neither a simple story of spontaneous public generosity, nor often of formal policy reform, but is an artefact of more complex dynamics between a changing cast of local and national actors over the last 75 years

Appeal · Dilemma · Generosity · Health care · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Witness · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Healthcare Systems and Challenges · Law · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Public Administration

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