Health Alliance Group Update April 2023
This month’s meeting was chaired by Julie Farrow, CEO of Hunt’s Forum. A welcome and a round of introductions were made as there were several new attendees.
Julie apologised for the change in the agenda due to the proposed speaker being unavailable at the last minute.
From the action log a question was raised around the State of the Sector survey (produced by CCVS and Hunts Forum).
Although the survey has ended, the full report and analysis is still to be completed. Once this has been done this will be shared with anyone who would like it and put on the Support Cambridgeshire website.
A future discussion is planned to see how more workforce data could be collected. The ICB People Board is looking at the workforce and it seems like a good time for the VCSE to be included.
Hewitt Review
Instead of the speaker, Julie proposed a discussion around the Hewitt Review and shared a synopsis slide deck with the group. The Hewitt review looked at the oversight and governance of the ICS arrangements.
Read the paper HERE
A link to the full review is below.
It was agreed that understanding how this applies in our area and which recommendations would be taken up was important for the voluntary sector going forward.
The recommendation of 1% increase in funding for prevention (often an area the voluntary sector organisations are involved with) over the next 5 years sounds positive. Still, without knowing what the start point is or understanding if the monies are being drawn from other health areas, it is difficult for the Alliance members to have confidence in the proposal.
It was agreed that it would be good to have a meeting with the ICS and the voluntary sector so the route going forward was clearer. Julie agreed to try and get this arranged. It was also suggested that reps that attend ICB committees also refer to the review, where appropriate, during meetings to get more incite.
Attendees felt there was still some disconnect in this ICS between North and South place, with both doing things differently- could this exacerbate the health inequalities within our region? Both directors for North and South Partnerships are being invited to future Health Alliance meetings (subject to their availability)
Julie’s Update
Julie then gave a brief update on the Healthy Futures Funding that has been launched and is being managed by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation (CCF). This programme makes £2 million available to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners across the area to deliver health and well-being improvements for local people, their neighbourhoods and communities. The minimum amount is £50k and it maybe that a few organisations will want to come together to apply.
Applications are open from the 1st May to see more details-www.cambscf.org.uk/healthier_futures_fund
Hunts Forum, PCVS and CCVS will be supporting groups to make applications for funds- a meeting between these organisations and CCF on what support and how it will be delivered is planned. More information will follow soon.
Julie also mentioned that each district has also received monies for tackling prevention and supporting community engagement. Each district is using this money in different ways.
Health Alliance successful in gaining Secretariat funding from the ICS – this funding will support the following:
- Programme Director 14 hrs per week – hosted by Health Alliance member = £20k key tasks ensuring implementation of the VCSE Strategy, attending high level meetings (ICB in future as per goal in Strategy), chairing Alliance meetings
- Project Officer 21 hours per week – hosted by Health Alliance member = £20k key tasks organising all meetings, collating feedback from reps, supporting Programme Director and Health Alliance members (currently being hosted by Hunts forum (Debbie’s role).
- Communications 7 hours per week – hosted by Health Alliance member = £5k key tasks circulating information and opportunities to partners
- Data collection 7 hours per month – hosted by Health Alliance member = £5k key tasks continuation of the data project, collating and bringing together key data sets from VCSE Health Alliance members
Julie asked that any organisations interested in the above get in touch with her.
Other Updates
As the ICS committees have not met since the last Alliance meeting any updates for these will be shared later.
The tackling inequalities group have three projects
- Skill Swap – Oasis Centre Wisbech
- Child safety/ health – Oxmoor
- Chair-based yoga- Peterborough
The skills swap event has taken place with an attendance of 16 (a few no shows) with an age range between 7 and 92. Debbie was able to have some conversations with attendees about the priorities for the ICS and capture their views and where they feel there are gaps in provision.
The Integrated Neighbourhoods Updates
St Neots Integrated board has met, and 3 priorities were chosen- Prevention, Mental Health and Access to services (primarily a directory).
Huntingdon/ A1 has agreed 2 hub areas in principle- Coneygear Centre (Oxmoor) and Sawtry- The plan is to engage with existing groups to identify gaps in provision. There will be liaisons with HDC, too so that there is not duplication.
Fenland IN have some engagement events planned in the libraries and have secured some funding to run some cooking sessions.
Debbie explained that she is attending as many of the IN meetings as possible and linking them in with local voluntary sector organisations. As Debbie is not attending any IN in Peterborough or Cambridge it would be useful if other Health Alliance members attended these. They could give updates at the meeting or via Debbie.
Some organisations wondered how they could be involved. The list of known contacts would be reshared after the meeting, and if anyone had an interest in a specific project, Debbie is happy to do an email introduction to the leads.
Goals update
Julie briefly updated people on Goal 2- There was not much time for discussion due to the active discussions previously- However some of the goals on this are covered by previous discussion such as training opportunities.
There is no meeting planned for May as there are several Bank Holidays. The next meeting will be the 14th June 2pm and is an in person meeting being held at Peterborough Football ground.
