Sovereign Health Care’s backing boosts Bradford 2025 health and wellbeing ambitions

Sovereign Health Care is the latest company to be announced as a Delivery Partner – using its 150-year heritage to further boost ambitions to develop and deliver a UK City of Culture programme that puts health and wellbeing at its heart.

The Bradford-based business, which provides healthcare cash plans to more than 68,000 individuals and businesses across the UK, was one of more than 35 companies that officially backed the district’s winning bid over its two-year campaign. Sovereign Health Care has also committed substantial funds over the next four years, which will go towards the development and delivery of the district’s UK City of Culture programme as well as helping to fund a legacy year in 2026.

Originally established in 1873 as a Bradford-based hospital fund, Sovereign Health Care is one of the UK’s leading cash plan providers, and remains committed to the original principle of a hospital fund: to support people to put their health and wellbeing first. The company’s ethos chimes with Bradford’s UK City of Culture ambitions to have a transformational impact on the lives of its citizens. The 2025 programme will include a first-of-its-kind study using medical research led by the Bradford Institute for Health Research to measure the benefits arts and culture can have on the health and wellbeing of local people.

This will be done in partnership with the pioneering Born in Bradford project, which has been tracking the lives of 13,500 babies and their families for more than a decade, looking at how issues such as poverty and pollution have affected the health of the city’s children. The first members of the Born in Bradford cohort turn 18 in 2025, providing a natural opportunity to demonstrate the positive link between culture and the wellbeing of children and young people as they get involved in this landmark year.

‘It’s brilliant to have Sovereign Health Care on board as Delivery Partners, as I know support from our incredible business community played a key part in securing our UK City of Culture 2025 title,’ said Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.

‘From the very start, we knew we wanted to do something different here in Bradford – that winning was about much more than creating incredible cultural experiences that will uplift and inspire, more than attracting inward investment and putting Bradford in the spotlight. It is also about empowering local people to learn new skills and explore new cultural and creative opportunities, which will in turn improve their wellbeing and create a sense of pride in their home district. It’s bold and ambitious – but then so is Bradford.’