NHS England’s VCSE Leadership Programme in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West

The VSCE sector plays an important and integral part in delivering health and social care services within our communities.

Recognising their crucial role, NHS England is encouraging Integrated Care Systems (ICS) to work closely with the VSCE sector to ensure that key delivery organisations are part of the transformation of the NHS as outlined in the NHS Long-Term Plan.

The VCSE sector development agencies in our region are now formally working in partnership with Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care System (ICS) under the banner NHS VCSE Leadership Programme.

The project will help improve ways of working together, and enable VCSE organisations to be key partners in the transformation of the NHS in the region as well as be key deliverers of services and activities across health and care systems. The project will:

  • Embed partnership working with VCSE organisations within both Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) structures
  • Develop and support active, two-way communication and feedback mechanisms between the ICS and VCSE sector. This will be done on three levels: system (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System), place (e.g. county of Buckinghamshire) and neighbourhood (Primary Care Networks i.e. clusters of GP practices)
  • Create and strengthen VCSE leadership groups or alliances at three levels (system, place and neighbourhood) to enable better co-ordination and communication within the VCSE sector. This will ensure that organisations of all sizes and from diverse communities are involved, including those dealing with protected characteristics or with health inequalities.

This work is being led by an alliance of VCSE infrastructure and support organisations, namely:

  • Community Impact Bucks
  • OCVA (Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action)
  • RVA (Reading Voluntary Action)
  • Involve Community Services (Bracknell Forest & Wokingham)
  • Volunteer Centre West Berkshire

The project, which is supported by NHS England and the BOB ICS (as part of NHS England’s VCSE Leadership Programme), is expected to run from January 2020 to June 2021.

We will share developments as the project moves forward; if you would like more information in the meantime, please contact Community Impact Bucks’ Katie Higginson, Chief Executive, or Diane Rutter, Head of Services.

Further information:

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