CITIZEN Advice Harlow are delighted that our Advice in GP Surgeries programme is continuing with support from The National Lottery.

It reflects a simple but important truth: health is shaped by far more than what happens in the consulting room. Problems with debt, housing, benefits, employment and energy costs can all damage wellbeing, increase anxiety and place real strain on people’s lives. These wider determinants of health are often the issues sitting behind the problems that bring people to their GP.

That is why this work matters. By providing accredited advice through GP settings, we are helping patients tackle the non-medical problems that can so often undermine health. It means people can get help earlier, resolve practical issues, and find greater stability at what is often a very difficult time.

This is not just good for individual patients. It is also a practical example of more joined-up public services, linking primary care with trusted community based advice and support. If we are serious about prevention, this is exactly the kind of model we need to build.

It is also the approach set out in our manifesto for Essex. We have called for an Essex Advice Guarantee, so every resident can access free, impartial, accredited advice when they need it, and for advice to be recognised as part of prevention, not simply a response to crisis.

Our work in GP surgeries brings that vision to life. It shows what it means to treat advice as part of the prescription of treatment and to address the wider determinants of health in a practical, human and effective way.

With National Lottery support, we are proud to be building on a model that is making a real difference in Harlow and pointing the way towards a more integrated, preventative and person centred public service system.