The VCSE Partnership Programme, hosted by VONNE in collaboration with Cumbria CVS, has secured a £75k grant from The Assura Community Fund, administered by Cheshire Community Foundation, to strengthen and sustain strategic working relationships between the VCSE sector and health and care partners across the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Integrated Care System (ICS).
The funding supports the delivery of a new project that will focus on the collection and collation of evidence to demonstrate the impact of effective partnership working between the VCSE sector and health system across our region, and the value of VCSE interventions in tackling health inequalities and improving patient outcomes. As part of this, the project will co-produce an outcomes framework, and also develop options for changing NHS strategic commissioning processes – with the aim of ensuring ongoing funding and support for VCSE-driven health initiatives.
The VCSE Partnership Programme team will coordinate this work over the next 12 months, involving partners and stakeholders across our regional VCSE sector, ICS, and strategic leads in the NENC Integrated Care Board (ICB). Workshops will be carried out across the ICS, with reimbursement for participating VCSE organisations in recognition of their time and expertise.
Lisa Taylor, Health and Wellbeing Director & VCSE Partnership Programme Lead, VONNE, says: “We’d like to thank Assura plc for their grant to enable us to drive forward this important partnership work.”
She explains: “In order for the NHS to invest in the VCSE sector in a more sustainable and strategic way we need to demonstrate that collaborative working between VCSE organisations and health and care services leads to improved health outcomes, and reduces health inequalities for people and communities.
“There already exists a wealth of data that shows the impact and value of the VCSE as deliverers of health and care. But currently this data and evidence is not being collected or collated in a way that allows it to be easily used strategically and systematically. This project will take important steps to change that.”
The focus and aims of this work have been developed in close collaboration with strategic leads within NENC ICB and the VCSE Partnership Programme Executive Group, with the support of NAVCA who - alongside Assura plc and Cheshire Community Foundation - will be supporting the project throughout.
Karen Nolan, Head of Social Impact for Assura plc, says, “We are delighted to be supporting this strategic programme which has huge potential for reshaping the current relationship between the VCSE and the wider system. I look forward to watching the progress over the next 12 months.”
About the project partners
VONNE hosts the regional VCSE Partnership Programme, one of 42 VCSE alliances across England created to ensure that the VCSE sector is embedded at all levels of the NHS Integrated Care Systems (ICS). Working in partnership with Cumbria CVS, VONNE leads and delivers the integration and enables the VCSE sector to shape and inform the North East and North Cumbria ICS into a system which works for everyone.
Assura plc develop, invest in and manage a portfolio of over 600 healthcare buildings across the UK, from which over 6 million patients are served. The Assura Community Fund has distributed more than £2.2 million to health-improving projects in the communities around its buildings across the UK. That funding has helped over 200,000 people in projects which are reducing health inequalities, improving mental and physical health, supporting young people, expanding access to local community services and helping people with education, employability and skills.
Cheshire Community Foundation are expert grant-makers, ensuring that money donated reaches right to the heart of the local communities that need it the most. Assura contracts Cheshire Community Foundation to hold and administer their grant funding. Its role in the partnership is the effective administration of the Community Grants programme.
NAVCA (The National Association for Voluntary and Community Action) is the national membership body for local VCSE infrastructure organisations in England. Its 181 members cover 80% of local authority areas and 84% of the population. Health and care has long been a specific focus for NAVCA. In recent years, NAVCA has been NHS England’s Learning and Development Partner for the Embedding VCSE in Integrated Care programme and NAVCA members are playing a pivotal role in this work and the VCSE Alliances established in each ICS area.
If you’d like more information about this work, contact the VONNE Health and Wellbeing team on email: healthandwellbeing@vonne.org.uk