Actions to support partnership - Addressing barriers to working with the VCSE sector in Integrated Care Systems.
The King’s Fund have released a report and framework about “addressing practical barriers to integration of the VCSE sector organisations”. The report was produced by Shilpa Ross and Helen Gilburt and commissioned by the NHS England Voluntary Partnerships Team. The report and framework, released in late April, takes a case-study based approach to identifying key actions which could improve the state of integration and involvement of the VCSE sector within the NHS ICS’s.
The research looked at, “commissioning, service design, and delivery”, “sharing data”, and “funding”.
Highlights:
- Key to achieving aims “is that ICSs work with the organisations that contribute to those aims” (aims being the delivery of services and wider determinants of health inequalities) and “develop greater collaboration”.
- VCSE sector as “an integral part of local health and care systems.” Recognising the VCSE as a key delivery partner and contributor to “vital insight and intelligence” on their communities.
- Actions to addressing barriers of involving the VCSE included, “involving the VCSE sector early in planning and decision-making”, “building an understanding of the sector”.
- Recognises that “There is no ideal starting point” to improving integration but the report also identifies “actions that NHS England, other national bodies and funders can take” to alleviate the barriers.
The full key findings can be found on this King’s Fund blog.
The VONNE Health and Wellbeing team welcome this report as it touches upon some of themes which have been raised previously by our Sub-Group members and at our Partnership Forum. We have also covered the issue of Sustainable Funding in this blog post and have begun to look at some of these barriers at our Workforce Sub-Group. Our NENC VCSE Engagement Manager, Siobhan has also discussed these issues previously with her blog posts below:
- What is the value of involving the VCSE within the Integrated Care System (ICS)? | Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (vonne.org.uk)
- Exploring the challenges of engaging the VCSE sector in the Integrated Care System (ICS) | Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (vonne.org.uk)
Find out how to access the report and the framework via The King’s Fund website. Further blogs on this issue are also available.