How health and care systems can work better with VCSE partners
The voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector is an important partner for statutory health and social care agencies and plays a key role in improving health, wellbeing and care outcomes. Partners across local government, health, housing, care and the VCSE sector have come together during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Closer working with voluntary sector partners will be vital as local systems recover from the pandemic. This briefing from the NHS Reset campaign outlines five ways integrated care systems can work with the sector to rebuild local systems and reset the way health and care are planned, commissioned and delivered. It has been developed with organisations involved in the NHS England and NHS Improvement’s VCSE Leadership Programme. The programme works with 18 health and care systems in England to support the development of VCSE alliances across systems.
Key points
- VCSE organisations are essential to the planning of care and supporting a greater shift towards prevention and self-care. They are key system transformation, innovation and integration partners.
- Organisations across the VCSE sector are uniquely placed to support people and communities and are vitally important to COVID-19 recovery planning, supporting population health and reducing health inequalities. Deepening partnerships with VCSE organisations will be essential in supporting communities to rebuild and recover following the coronavirus outbreak.
- NHS organisations should maximise the social value they generate by working more closely in partnership with the VCSE sector.
- Local VCSE organisations need to be included in health and care pathways and service redesign planning across systems, including population health management and social prescribing in primary care networks.
