Leeds Health and Care focussed third sector has an income of £281 million and employs around 15,000 people. 

Third Sector Leeds has long believed that the while the contribution that the third sector makes to Leeds is recognised and celebrated, it is sometimes underestimated. In order to begin to understand and explain the difference that third sector organisations in Leeds make, we need a ‘State of the Sector’ report for the city which shows: 

• How many organisations there are 
• What size they are and how much work they do 
• What they do 
• Examples of how they change people’s lives 

Last year, our partners at Forum Central secured budget from the ‘Harnessing Power of Communities’ programme, which is funded by NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group and West Yorkshire & Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H) to make this happen.  As a result, Nifty Sustainability CIC and Leeds Beckett University were commissioned to research and produce a report. 

Recently, the initial findings have been shared with TSL and other key partners. Whilst this ‘State of the Sector’ report focusses first and foremost on the parts of the third sector working in health and care (representing 77% of the third sector in Leeds) , TSL believes it provides some evidence we can all shout about when we want to show how the third sector acts as an anchor in our communities: 

• There are around 3,500 third sector organisations in Leeds and about 70% of them are micro (income under £10k) or small (income between £10 and £100k) organisations, many of them working in neighbourhoods or with communities of interest 

• It employs an estimated 20,000 people (with around 15,000 of those working in health and care) and works with an estimated 40,000 volunteers 
• The health and wellbeing part of the third sector had an estimated income in 2019/20 of more than £281 million 

Wider research covering the West Yorkshire and Harrogate and Humber Coast and Vale health service areas that seeks to understand the economic value of the third sector is now being planned. 

As soon as the full Leeds report is published we’ll let our members know. 

Find out more 

You can read a report that was shared with health leaders in Leeds which includes 

• headline findings about the State of the Sector, 
• results from VAL’s recent sector resilience survey 
• & some key actions being taken to support the sector 

Third Sector Leeds