The Health and Wellbeing Collective (HaWC)
We’re excited to announce a new initiative:
The Health and Wellbeing Collective (HaWC)
This is your opportunity to join a group of like-minded organisations to feed into health and care policy!
In April, we ran a survey asking what you would like to see us focus on for the remainder of 2021. Most of you said you would like to see us organise more consultations with policymakers. We want to answer this and give you the opportunity to better connect with the cutting edge of Government health and care policy.
As you may know, FaithAction sits on the national Health and Wellbeing Alliance, jointly managed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England/Improvement (NHSE/I). The Alliance gathers organisations and coalitions representing communities across England. We are there because we represent a cross-section of social action organisations motivated by faith.
The Alliance gives us access to many opportunities to feed into current health and care policy, as well as speak directly to policymakers who are keen to hear from the sector. With this in mind, we want to gather a group of our members, as well as a wider circle of faith-based organisations, who have a particular interest in influencing health policy.
As a member of the Collective, you'll get:
- Invitations to two meetings of the whole Collective each financial year
- Access to sessions with policymakers from DHSC and NHSE/I presenting directly to you on current priorities, with the chance to respond
- Invitations to whole-sector (wider VCSE) meetings with NHSE/I policymakers on current priorities
- Opportunities to be involved in strategic projects, with funding attached
Some of the key priorities we anticipate to be covered within the remit of the group are:
- COVID-19 recovery
- Loneliness and social prescribing
- Mental health
- Social care reform
- System transformation (ICS development)
- Patient privacy, dignity and safety
- Health inequalities
- Prevention
If you, or the communities you support, are affected by or interested in any of these issues, we’d love to have your voice added to the Collective.
We don’t expect all members to attend every meeting, but wanted to give a range of organisations the opportunity to feed in according to interest/priorities. The two whole-Collective meetings will be set further in advance, but we anticipate many of the other opportunities will be ad hoc.
What if I'm not a "health" organisation?
Even if your organisation runs a programme of activity not directly linked to health and care, the chances are your experiences and those of your beneficiaries will add value to the Health and Wellbeing Collective.
Many faith-based organisations, community centres and befriending groups work with people who experience health inequalities and might not be accessing statutory services. Often faith groups have a long-term, trusted position in being able to reach these communities, and are doing quite innovative work that helps to overcome inequalities.
- Perhaps some of your beneficiaries are living with long-term conditions, and need help managing them.
- Perhaps your beneficiaries face barriers to accessing health care, and you would like policymakers to be aware of this.
- Perhaps the services you offer build community, and therefore help prevent isolation and poor mental health.
What do I need to do?
The Collective is free to join. Just complete the simple form below, and we’ll be in touch in due course to let you know more.
