New report into VCSE’s role in improving health & wellbeing of local people

Momentum welcomes the recent report from the Health and Care Partnership for Norfolk and Waveney in response to the VCSE engagement events that took place in October 2019.

The events, organised by the Partnership in association with local VCSE infrastructure organisations including Voluntary Norfolk, aimed to ensure the sector has meaningful input on the priorities within Norfolk and Waveney’s five year strategic plan for health and care services.

They also explored a future model of working between the voluntary sector and health and social care statutory partners to support the delivery of the plan.

Over 100 representatives from VCSE organisations of all sizes across Norfolk and Waveney attended the events.

Among the key findings of the Report are:

• The voluntary and community sector needs to be treated as an ‘equal partner’ by statutory health and care organisations
• There needs to be a change in culture, to enable more collaboration and integration and remove logistical barriers that exist (like data sharing and training)
• Norfolk and Waveney’s five-year plan needs further focus on prevention (and the role of the voluntary sector in this)
• The voluntary and community sector workforce needs to be recognised as a key part of health and social care
• Health and social care funding for the voluntary sector needs to evolve – current commissioning is rigid and inflexible
• Work should continue on developing an ‘Assembly’  to improve working between sectors, but this must complement and work with local arrangements that already work well, and it must have independence and authority
• Developing an assembly that covers the whole of Norfolk and Waveney must enable a balance between voluntary and community groups of different sizes and enable effective locality engagement
• A Memorandum of Understanding must be jointly owned and collaboratively developed to be meaningful.

Download the Report from VCSE Engagement Events October 2019.

Would you like to participate in developing the Assembly to meet the needs of our sector and the people we support? Get in touch to register your interest or for further information.