Initial results from a project to map all church-based social action in England suggest that more than 250,000 “essential services” are regularly delivered by the country’s 33,000 churches – plus many more by other faith denominations.
A report called Heart of the Neighbourhood – How the Church is Providing Essential Services in Every Part of the Country – was launched at a parliamentary event this week convened by the Gather Movement, a networking body comprising more than 8,000 churches in over 150 towns and cities.
It is the first report of the Gather Movement Mapping Project, which aims to identify the extent and scale of welfare support provided by faith groups, specifically services supporting families and children, food security, mental health and wellbeing and housing and homelessness.
By building a clearer picture of local provision and neighbourhood assets, and making these available to civic authorities, health and social care bodies, and the wider charity sector, the mapping exercise aims to identify gaps, improve signposting and foster collaboration.
To date, 1,632 churches and Christian charities across 25 local authority areas have completed telephone surveys for the mapping exercise, representing populations of 6.1 million people.
This research identified 12,840 instances of community provision – equivalent to eight activities per responding church. The Gather Movement extrapolated these figures to estimate that around a quarter of a million services are being delivered by the around 33,000 churches nationally.
In Trafford alone, churches are running 30 parent and toddler groups – reaching 50% of all families with young children in the borough.
Ongoing mapping of services
Roger Sutton, Gather Movement chief executive, said that further research is already under way or being planned among 3,000 more churches in 60 local authority areas.
In many of these areas, Gather Movement has partnered with the local authority to map not just Christian church provision, but services offered by the wider faith sector.
Discussions are also under way to extend the mapping to the other UK nations, with an ambition to cover the whole of the country within the next three years.
Sutton acknowledged that faith organisations are just one part of the wider social impact sector, but added “churches are often overlooked and hidden in plain sight”.
“Recognising this significant contribution and integrating it into the wider response is essential if communities are to make the best use of the resources and relationships already present locally.”
He also said he hoped the data would “change the current narrative that ‘the church is dying, it does some good things but it’s pretty irrelevant’.
“This data chucks that all out of the window. It’s not dying at all – it’s doing more than a few good things because it’s at the heartbeat of every single neighbourhood.”
Jane Moffat, family hubs lead at Coventry council, told the event that the mapping, completed a year ago in her area, had been a “doorway to building and consolidating relationships” and had helped the council to be “intentional about sharing power”.
Pilot mapping survey sparked by Burnham exhortation
The first mapping survey to be carried out by Gather Movement was commissioned by Oldham council in 2024, after the then mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, challenged church leaders to be more ambitious and collaborative in their quest to support local people.
The success of the Oldham pilot soon generated interest across England, as local councils, health and social care bodies, and other charities recognised the value of building a shared picture of local provision.
Alongside the report launch, Gather Movement also unveiled a practical toolkit aimed at strengthening cross-sector collaboration between faith groups, public services and voluntary sector partners.
The toolkit is designed to help users to identify local assets, build partnerships, and “maximise everyday support for people in every neighbourhood”.
