A new parish nurse will be serving an Aylesbury housing estate, thanks in part to funding from the Diocese of Oxford.
St Peter’s Church in Quarrendon applied to the fund for £52,000 to provide some of the costs for the five-year project, after they identified the impact a parish nurse could have in the area.
The Revd Pete Wheeler said: “It is a fantastic preventative measure that creates community cohesion. We are in one of the estates which Opportunity Bucks have highlighted as one of the most deprived areas in the county. Having the grant from the Development Fund really strengthens our application to the council.
“It is a great thing to have the Development Fund to seed projects like this. This is one of the best things about having the development fund to support churches, to get things like this off the ground.”
It is hoped a further £55,000 will be provided by Buckinghamshire Council to add to £32,000 granted by the Benefact Trust and £20,000 from the National Lottery.
- The church hopes the parish nurse will support the local estate community in five different ways:
- Improving health and wellbeing in a holistic way
- Demonstrating God’s love in practical action
- Reaching people who fall through the gaps
- Tackling loneliness and isolation
- Strengthening partnerships and signposting
Pete added: “I would say the parish nurse is greater than the sum of its parts because one of their roles is to establish a serving pastoral team around them, who they train and enable.
“There is so much need here we could employ five parish nurses! One senior who comes to our Community Café told me, ‘It’s a good job you welcomed me!’. When I asked him what he meant by that, he said, ‘Well, the social prescriber who brought me to café just left me here’. Social Prescribers just don’t have the time get alongside people to the extent that they feel cared for and followed up – they’re just not able to do that.
“I spoke to another lady who said that when she was struggling with her mental health it was far easier for her to contact her dealer than it was to get a doctors’ appointment. They closed the local doctors surgery here a couple of years ago, without really checking that there were bus services to get to the one in the next estate. We’re hoping our Parish Nurse will help plug a gap in signposting and services.”
It is hoped once all the funding is in place, that the St Peter’s Parish Nurse could be starting around spring 2026.
Find out more about the Development Fund.