News bulletin July 2026

Central East ICB

Lots has been happening within the world of the NHS and the merger of three ICB’s has been a huge part of that. You may have seen that the newly formed Central East ICB are working through what new looks like and have set out their Our Way Strategy which will lead the work they are doing. This is a very useful and informative document for our members to understand as it sets out priorities, intentions of ways of working in partnership, commissioning and culture. We recently welcomed Nicky Ward, Director of Partnerships & Integration, to a VSN meeting and Nicky shared more with us on the strategy but also on what that is starting to look like in terms of practicalities. You can find Nicky’s slides attached.

An update from Jan Thomas is also included in the attachments as she takes on a one-year secondment with NHS England as the new Executive Director for System Development.

Committees

As the ICB establishes and governance is thought through we can also start to see where meetings are placed and where there are VCFSE seats offered. Sharon Allen is holding the VCFSE seat at the Intergrated Care Board meetings, you can find Sharon’s first write up attached. I am the VCFSE seat holder at the monthly Neighbourhood Delivery Committee for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough which is to be opened to invite more partners in on a quarterly basis.

We can also see where these all fit in together with the Health and Wellbeing board, and how the partnership boards also integrate into the bigger picture.

In addition to the ICB changes there are significant shifts to what Integrated Neighbourhoods look like and again we have many seats on committees and boards across the whole. Including Partnership boards, locality boards and much more.

At the recent Peterborough Locality Board meeting it was particularly valuable to hear the impactful work that the Citizen’s Advice in Peterborough has been carrying out and I am sharing some slides that were included in their meeting.

Your questions answered

This is going to be a new feature for the VSN newsletters and I hope you will be sending me your questions for health and public sector colleagues to answer.

This month I was asked to find out “Does the ICB have intention to use the Social Impact Framework for commissioning in its current form?” Some members felt it was very challenging to use and were put off. The response from health was that there is no current firm plan around this so a conversation about concerns and insights was welcome. We will be looking at how we arrange that conversation for members in the next few weeks.

Funding

• Thank you to Rob Henchy for sharing the press release from government that there is to be a £60 million fund launched that Businesses, Charities and Innovators are being invited to compete for with the goal to transform how disabled people and those with health conditions are supported into work. You can find the details here
• Cambridgeshire County Council Public Health has launched a Health for All Inclusion Health Seed Funding programme for local charities and community organisations working with inclusion health groups with the greatest health inequalities (for example people experiencing homelessness, migrants in vulnerable situations, or those facing multiple disadvantages). Grants of £5,000–£25,000 are available for new ideas, early-stage initiatives, or existing work that can be enhanced, that can make a positive difference.

To find out more and apply, visit:
Health for All inclusion health seed funding | Cambridgeshire County Council.

Deadline: 5pm, Friday 14 August 2026.

• There has also been an update from the Crisis and Resilience Fund which you can find in the attached emails

Invitation to Collaborate

The Budget Hub CIC is looking to collaborate with organisations that support the March, Fenland area and invite you to join them in putting on events from this month into October. The events will be held in March Library and they are looking for a wide variety of organisations that might want to share the space at no cost to attend. They would love your help in sharing the events with your communities though. Please find an email from Rebecca Barker attached with details and how to get involved.

VSN Updates

Terms of reference for both the strategy group and the main membership are currently being revised and we will share those with you soon.

We are looking at the membership and introducing levels based on balancing what is possible and desired and it being proportionate. We really recognise that some of you are here to keep up to date, whereas as some want to have a bigger influence and voice, some can offer time and resources where as others don’t have the luxury and it doesn’t make your contribution any less worthwhile. I will be in touch with that soon.

I am also building a communication strategy which I hope to have finalised in September so you can see how we are using our collective voice amongst us but also from us into other sectors.

I also need to ensure I can map our membership more to help build relationships and collaborative opportunities so a survey will be coming out soon.

And lots lots more to follow in the coming months.