The VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance
Working together for better health and care
The Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Alliance (HW Alliance) is a partnership between sector representatives and the health and care system. It is a key element of the Health and Wellbeing Programme, enabling the sector to share its expertise at a national level with the aim of improving services for all communities.
The Alliance is made up of 18 VCSE Members that represent communities who share protected characteristics or that experience health inequalities and a VCSE coordinator. Through their networks Alliance Members can link with communities and VCSE organisations across England.
The aim of the HW Alliance is to:
- Provide a co-ordinated route for health and care organisations to reach a wide range of VCSE organisations
- Support collaboration between VCSE organisations and provide a collective voice for issues related to VCSE partnerships in health and care
- Enable health and care organisations and VCSE organisations to jointly improve ways of delivering services which are accessible to everyone. By making it easier for all communities to access services this will reduce health inequalities
- Ensure health and care decision-makers hear the views of communities which experience the greatest health inequalities.
- Bring the expertise of the VCSE sector and communities they work with into national policy making.
The HW Alliance will amplify the voice of the voluntary sector and people with lived experience to inform national policy, facilitate integrated working between the voluntary and statutory sectors, and co-produce solutions to promote equality and reduce health inequalities.
You can find out more at www.england.nhs.uk/hwalliance, contact the Alliance by email at [email protected] or [email protected] and use #HWAlliance to join us on Twitter.
The Alliance is jointly managed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England and NHS Improvement.
FaithAction represents the voice of faith groups in the programme, which replaced the Voluntary Sector Strategic Partnership programme in 2017. We were a member of that programme since it began in April 2009.
FaithAction builds organisations’ capacity to demonstrate the impact of their work on health and wellbeing, and facilitates their involvement in local decision-making and networks. We work with the health and care system to highlight the issues faced by faith-based organisations and the difference their work makes to health and wellbeing locally and nationally.
All members of the HW Alliance support the development of knowledge and capability in the sector to engage in the wider health and social care reform agenda, and are selected to reflect the views of their members and networks.
- Age UK
- Mental Health Consortium (Association of Mental Health Providers (leads), Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Foundation, Mind, National Survivor User Network, Rethink Mental Illness, Young Minds)
- Barnardo’s (consortium with Barnardo’s, Friends of the Horn Foundation; Women’s Inclusive Team; Himmat; QED Foundation; Communities Engage and Thrive; Wellbeing Connect Services (formerly known as Ebony Peoples Association); African Community School (ACS); Minaret Community Centre; Approachable Parenting; Association of Muslim Schools UK; Education and Skills Development Group; Muslim Youth Helpline; Somali Community Parents Association; Somali Development Services; Mindful Peak Performance)
- Valuing People Alliance (collaboration of British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD), Learning Disability England, The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG), Foundation for People with learning disabilities, Respond, The Gr8 Support Movement hosted by Paradigm)
- British Red Cross
- Carers Partnership (consortium with Carers UK and Carers Trust)
- Clinks
- Complex Needs Consortium (Including National Autistic Society, Sense, VoiceAbility, Embracing Complexity)
- FaithAction
- Friends, Families and Travellers (consortium with Roma Support Group)
- Good Things Foundation
- Homeless Health Consortium (Groundswell, Pathway and Homeless Link as lead partner)
- Palliative and End of Life Care Consortium (with Hospice UK, Marie Curie, Together for Short Lives, National Bereavement Alliance)
- National LGBT Partnership (consortium led by LGBT Foundation and LGBT Consortium – other partners include a large range of LGBTQ+ VCSE organisations)
- Locality (consortium with Power to Change)
- Race Equality Foundation
- Suicide Prevention Consortium (with Samaritans, National Suicide Prevention Alliance, Support After Suicide Partnership, We Are With You)
- Tommys and Sands Maternity Consortium (with Tommy’s, Sands, National Maternity Voices, the Pregnancy and Baby Charities Network, Five X More CIC, Muslim Women’s Network UK and LGBT Mummies Tribe)
- National Voices in partnership with NAVCA (coordinator role)
You can also subscribe to the monthly Health and Social Care e-news bulletin.
Our work will be two-way. One, we will input to policy makers and commissioners to encourage an intelligent design of health and social care services, and two, we will give advice and support to faith-based groups on how they can support their community in the area of health and wellbeing.
