June 2024

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Voluntary Sector Network Update

A Century!

Our Network is growing and we are now at 100 plus members. This is a great achievement and reassuring that our work must be hitting the right note. Please do share this newsletter to any organisations that you think might benefit from joining us. We are always keen to welcome new members. Anyone wishing to join or wanting more information can email Debbie: Debbie@huntsforum.org.uk.

Voluntary Sector Network meetings

At our May meeting, we heard from Fiona Kerr who is leading the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism VCSE Influencing project. It was very informative to learn about the work and good to hear that voluntary sector colleagues are being involved at many levels. The project is now being evaluated and contributions are welcome via this survey.

Ellen Aboukhatwa and Anna Kostrubala, two of the Integrated Neighbourhood Managers from the Huntingdon area, gave an outline of how Integrated Neighbourhoods are developing and told us about the local projects they are coordinating. Slides from both presentations have been circulated to VSN members. Contact Debbie if you would like to see either or both presentations.

Funders and commissioners working together

The CVSs, Cambs ACRE and the Voluntary Sector Network are pleased to be part of a group that has been set up to align support and processes between our sector and statutory partners. The work, initiated by the ICB, includes district, county, police and combined authority is looking to develop more consistency and streamline funding and commissioning processes.

Three areas of priority have been identified as the initial focus including developing a set of shared and agreed principles based on the previous Compact; exploring how we jointly support the recruitment, development and management of volunteers; and developing a consistent and proportionate approach to measuring impact. This has great potential but clearly, it is a long-term piece of work.

Assura/ICB grants

Thanks to everyone who applied for this community grants programme. We were pleased to receive 23 expressions of interest. The panel were very impressed with the range and quality of these. 15 have now been invited to complete a full application. A panel, including colleagues from both North and South Care Partnerships, will meet on 19th June to decide the final 10. There will be a round two of this programme which will target projects in Integrated Neighbourhoods that weren’t funded in first round.

Health and Wellbeing Network meeting

The next Health and Wellbeing Network meeting is being held on 11th June 12-1.15pm online. Tiff Lane, Cambridgeshire Constabulary Action Against Hate Co-ordinator, will be talking about LGBTQ+ language. Book your place here.

Review of the NHS Constitution

The Department of Health and Social Care is undertaking a 10-year review of the NHS Constitution and running a consultation to inform this. Further information about the consultation can be found here. Please respond via the consultation page.

Tell us if we have helped you

We send out many emails to the Network with engagement and training opportunities. If you have taken up one of these opportunities, we would love to hear from you. A sentence or two about the difference it has made for you and your organisation would be perfect and will help us show the benefit of the Network.