18th February
Bassetlaw VCSE feedback
on the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Alliance Update to the ICB Board - May 2024
In support of the BCVS strategy #Working Together and particularly our work to support point 6 ‘Voice – Listening to and sharing the voices of groups and all people connected with them to influence and shape policy, funding, services and communities’.
BCVS regularly reviews draft policy, strategy and JSNA documents and feeds back on behalf of our membership, sector and communities we serve. Over the last 12 months this has included detailed feedback on the NNICS Strategy, The NNICB Joint Forward Plan, Place Plans and a wide range of related documents.
The draft VCSE Alliance Update paper was shared with NNICB VCSE Alliance members and discussed at the Alliance meeting on 6th February. It has been drafted by ICB colleagues as a collective response of Alliance members following a workshop held to discuss content needed in January 24.
BCVS has since flagged the paper and feedback deadline via the following channels with our membership and wider stakeholders and communities:
- Discussion at the VCSE Leaders Group Feb 24
- Discussion at the VCSE Voices Group Feb 24
- Circulation of paper to all leaders group and all VCSE voices members for comment
- Update to Bassetlaw Partnership Collaborative
- Update to Bassetlaw Cabinet
- Discussion with Nottinghamshire Together Partners and support to develop a separate and collaborative Nottinghamshire Together response
Outcomes:
- Collation and submission of this paper to NNICB to feedback as requested by 16th February.
- Co-development of the Nottinghamshire Together infographic – and submitted by the Nottinghamshire Together Chair directly for inclusion in section 4 of the NNICB VCSE Alliance paper on behalf of all Nottinghamshire Together Infrastructure Organisation members – we will share this as soon as publicly available.
Collated feedback from Bassetlaw aligned to reference numbers in V5 draft paper:
1f. ‘We will understand our community’s experience and aspirations for health and care.’
The paper doesn't seem to highlight the wider determinants of health and care - could this be added to this section so that it reads:
1f) We will understand our community’s experience and aspirations for health, care and the wider determinants of health, including financial aspects such as; debt, housing, welfare benefits.
2. We are surprised Citizens Advice isn't mentioned in the local representatives of larger charities as such a key member (although appreciate that it is an example list)
Again - perhaps add wider determinants of health to:
- 'improving health and well-being outcomes for residents' - and any other areas that it can be mentioned such as: 3.4 (bullet point 4)
- After the Keep Warm Keep Well this Winter flyers, within the following paragraph: the social and wider determinants of health and well-being
4.2 The Value of the VCSE Sector
Some good case studies are included in this section, and positive to see Bassetlaw included, however this section doesn’t reflect examples from all NNICB places.
No detail is included here or elsewhere in the paper on the specific scale and scope of the VCSE sector across the NNICB footprint.
The Nottinghamshire Together Infographic supplied by the Chair of Nottinghamshire Together will in part address this as includes a summary of NCVO Almanac data for general charities in the NNICB footprint.
4.3. Challenges to the VCSE Sector
This section includes a good overview of some of the key challenges but is lacking in specific detail.
There is one specific example of the risks and issues currently faced by the VCSE in Nottingham City but no reference to the specific and escalating risks and issues facing the wider sector across the county.
The table within the Nottinghamshire Together infographic quoting NCVO Almanac data illustrates the declining income and number of general charities across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and also highlights the inequity across places and districts.
There is positive recognition of the importance of the VCSE sector in addressing wider determinants of health and wellbeing across the ICB. However, the increasing reliance on non-NHS funded VCSE activities by wider NHS partners does not appear to be balanced with recognition that the sector is contracting significantly in size, income and workforce which creates a risk of increasing impact on primary and secondary care as a result. These risks have been flagged at all VCSE Alliance meetings to date and continue to escalate as we move towards 24/25.
The national VCSE Barometer data and the NCVO Almanac both provide robust evidence of the scale of impact the sector is facing. A brief summary of this data and references would add value to the aims of the paper.
The above reference to wider determinants of health could also be added in the 3rd paragraph: This oversight may negatively impact the effectiveness of programme evaluation, and the capture of citizen intelligence to support the design and delivery of health (and its wider determinants) and care services.
- Same perhaps for 4.4?
In summary the paper is well written and will make form a useful resource for both VCSE Alliance members and wider ICB and ICS colleagues. We believe the paper will be strengthened by the above additions