Tag Archive for: October 2023

VCSE Health Alliance – Update Bulletin – December 2023

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December 2023

Next meeting

Our December meeting will focus on health inequalities. This topic was top of the list in your requests. We will have a local organisation show casing their partnership work and a number of colleagues from the ICB to explain specific programmes of work. This will include CORE20+5 and Population Health Management. It will be an interesting session, so we do hope you can make it. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions about the exciting development work that is happening at the moment.

Developing the Health Alliance

We can now tell you more about the support we have from NAVCA and the grant-making Trust, Assura. Over the next six months Aimie Cole from NAVCA will be helping us think through our plan for the future. And we have £75,000 from Assura to support this. Our plan is to focus this funding at community level and enable small local groups to play an active part in local neighbourhood teams. Aimie, working closely with our Alliance and the CVSs, will be planning the detail over the next two months. We will keep you informed as this takes shape.

Quality Development Tool workshops

This is a tool that has been put together by voluntary sectors partners and NHS England, to help Alliances assess where they are in their development. And more importantly, how they move to the next stage. In the New Year we will be holding workshops to look at this. Thanks to some funding from NHS England we will offering backfill funding to your organisation for attendance. We’re delighted that this has come at the same time as the NAVCA support so we can link this all together. Watch this space!

New brand, new name

Thank you to everyone who responded to our engagement survey and the suggestions for a new name. There was a lot of common thinking, as well as new ideas. We will take all of this into consideration as we work with Speed, the agency commissioned to develop our new brand. A group of Alliance members are involved and we’ll be making sure that our members are included in decisions. We are aiming to launch the brand in February. We know that there is a big comms job to be done to raise awareness of our Alliance and its benefits.

Workforce: Offers and asks

Sharon Allen, our rep on the Local People’s Board, does a great job raising awareness and securing opportunities for our sector. Please can you respond to some questions to help her in this role:

· Does your organisation complete any form of staff survey? If so, would you be willing to share results for comparison across the system?

· Does your organisation have a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian? If so, there is a system-wide network which we can link them into.

· Are any Health Alliance members able to attend the Enabler groups where we do not currently have representation? Unfortunately, we can’t offer funding to support this. Please contact Sharon if you can help with any of these Sharon.Allen@arhc.org.uk

VCSE Influence and Participation Project

The ICS Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Partnership (Accountable Business Unit) have appointed a VCS influencing post. Those of you working in these areas will know Fiona Kerr and may have attended the recent launch. The Health Alliance will work closely with Fiona and her Project Board to ensure we are strategically aligned.

Health Alliance meetings

Here are the dates of our future meetings, please do put them in your diary. If you would like to suggest a theme please contact sandie@huntsforum.org.uk. We are also keen to get members to Co-Chair meetings on their theme of interest.

  • 6th December 1-3 pm Health inequalities Zoom
  • 17th January 1-3 Health Alliance business March Library
  • 28th February 9.30-11.30 Building partnerships Zoom
  • 17th April 1-3 Health Alliance business Peterborough
  • 22nd May 10-12 Theme tbc St Ives Corn Exchange

See here for more information about the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Health Alliance. You can also find the notes from the October Health Alliance meeting on this page.

Spread the word!

Last but not least, please pass this newsletter on to your team and other groups and organisations who may not yet be Health Alliance members. Anyone wishing to join should email Debbie Debbie@huntsforum.org.uk.

VCSE Health Alliance – Update Bulletin – November 2023

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November 2023

 The Future of the Health Alliance

We are delighted to be receiving some support from NAVCA (the national voluntary sector support organisation) to help us develop to the next stage of our partnership. Some of you may remember Aimie Cole who helped shape the first stages of the Alliance. We now have six more days of Aimie’s time to help us think about and plan our future. This will be supported by a small amount of funding from NHS England and Assura, a national grant-making Trust.

Our Partnership Development Group are planning how this will progress. If you are interested in shaping our future please do step forward and join this group. Contact Sandie to find out more. There will be more opportunities to get involved as the work moves on.

 

A new name and a new brand

You will have received a survey asking for your views on the Health Alliance and how this could look in the future. The findings from this engagement exercise will influence a new name and a new brand for our partnership. Please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to complete it. The information will also be used as a basis for our development plans. The survey is here.

 

Volunteering opportunities online

Volunteers are the lifeblood of all community groups and charities but recruiting them is increasingly challenging. That’s why the Support Cambridgeshire partnership has just launched Volunteer Cambs, a website that offers features beyond just promoting volunteer opportunities. They are currently looking for groups to sign up and start promoting their opportunities so that there is content for the more prominent promotion campaign to the public in early 2024. Support Cambridgeshire is also offering a range of support and workshops to groups for them to get the most from their experience of the site. Read more here.

 

Explaining the Integrated Care System

The Integrated Care System and all the supporting structures and names are incredibly confusing. We have recorded a presentation given by Kit Connick, from the ICB, explaining how it all works. Click here to watch the video

 

Integrated Care Board publicity

Do you have an ICB-funded project or service that you would like to showcase? The ICB are keen to include more voluntary sector work in their newsletter. Please contact Sandie if you would like to take up this offer. You will need to provide a summary of the work, the difference it makes and preferably a weblink, a quote and/or photo or two.

 

Household Support

Colleagues at Cambridgeshire County Council are keen to hear from voluntary sector groups and organisations about their views on the Household Support Fund. It takes a few minutes and will increase understanding of the support needed by local people. The closing date is Friday 3 November 2023. The survey is here.

 

Adults safeguarding conference

This year’s Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board Conference is on 21st November and will focus on partnership. The voluntary sector are particularly welcome to attend. You can find out more and register by following this link:

Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board Conference 2023 | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Partnership Board (safeguardingcambspeterborough.org.uk)

 

Health Alliance meetings

Here are the dates of our future meetings, please do put them in your diary. If you would like to suggest a theme please contact sandie@huntsforum.org.uk. We are also keen to get members to Co-Chair meetings on their theme of interest.

  • 6th December 1-3pm Health inequalities               Zoom
  • 17th January 1-3 Health Alliance business     March Library
  • 28th February 9.30-11.30 Theme to confirm               Zoom
  • 17th April 1-3 Health Alliance business    Peterborough
  • 22nd May 10-12 Theme to confirm               St Ives Corn Exchange

See here for more information about the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Health Alliance. You can also find the notes from the October Health Alliance meeting on this page.

 

Spread the word!

Last but not least, please pass this newsletter on to your team and other groups and organisations who may not yet be Health Alliance members. Anyone wishing to join should email Debbie Debbie@huntsforum.org.uk.

 

VCSE Health Alliance – Update Bulletin – October 2023

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October 2023

Help with your workforce

The Health Alliance meeting in September focussed on the workforce. Sharon Allen, CEO of Arthur Rank Hospice and our rep on the ICB People’s Board, co-chaired the meeting and facilitated the involvement of ICB colleagues. Those who came along were able to hear about the ICB commitment to ‘One Workforce’ and discuss how we make this work for our sector. A key to this will be to explore how we collect and share data.

 

We also learnt that VCSE organisations will be able to equally access ICB initiatives that are being put in place to help recruitment and retention – watch this space for more details. We will be taking forward the agreed actions and revisiting them at a future meeting.

 

Question: Can your organisation or group contribute some very simple headline data about your workforce? This will help the ICB understand our sector and see us as integral to health and care provision.

Contact debbie@huntsforum.org.uk

 

Since the meeting, we have been notified of an opportunity for VCSE organisations to participate in a work and health employers conference next spring. The idea is to bring together examples of great practice and discuss the issues employers experience in supporting staff wellbeing. This will contribute to the ICS work, health and wellbeing strategy. To find out more email Nicola Ward: nicola.ward68@nhs.net

 

Smaller organisations and community groups

As we all know our sector is incredibly diverse; in size, communities supported, services provided and geography. This is the richness that makes the sector so very valuable but at the same time, brings a challenge around partnership. How can we meaningfully engage with the broad spectrum that is the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector? If you are a small group, we want to hear your ideas and how we can work better for you.

Contact sandie@huntsforum.org.uk

 

Social prescribing and JOY app improvements

The findings from the social prescribing survey have been combined with feedback from members and written up as a report. This is now being shared with ICB colleagues to identify and progress a number of improvements. The Health and Wellbeing Network will continue its information sessions to help us connect with social prescribers and improve our understanding of the app.

The next Health and Wellbeing Network meeting is on 17th October from 12-1pm on zoom. Megan McGrath will be talking about the JOY app. Join the meeting to find out more about the app and how participating can benefit your organisation. To reserve a place please use the link below (note we have moved to Microsoft Forms).

https://forms.office.com/e/eJdZmdeNDY

 

Project proposals, please!

We all know how frustrating it is to receive notice of funding with short turnaround times. That’s why we have sent around a project proposal form. This will help us compile a bank of ready-to-go projects. Please complete and return with your ideas. We’ll keep this open until the end of November and then take stock of what you have sent us.

 

Health Alliance meetings

Here are the dates of our future meetings, please do put them in your diary. We have tried to get a mix of times, locations and formats to enable as many people as possible to get involved. You’ll see that we are alternating themes with the general Health Alliance business.

 

A number of members have requested a meeting focussing on health inequalities and this has been scheduled for December. If you would like to suggest a theme please contact sandie@huntsforum.org.uk. We are also keen to get members to Co-Chair meetings on their theme of interest.

  • 18th October 9.30-11.30 Health Alliance business     Zoom
  • 6th December 1-3pm Health inequalities               Zoom
  • 17th January 1-3 Health Alliance business     March Library
  • 28th February 9.30-11.30 Theme to confirm               Zoom
  • 17th April 1-3 Health Alliance business    Peterborough
  • 22nd May 10-12 Theme to confirm               St Ives Corn Exchange

More members, please!

And lastly, please pass this newsletter on to your team and other groups and organisations who may not yet be Health Alliance members. Anyone wishing to join should email Debbie Debbie@huntsforum.org.uk.

See here for more information about the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Health Alliance. (You’ll see we have updated our webpage please do let us have any feedback)