Bridging the gap
Facilitating engagement with the
public sector in Wandsworth
Wandsworth CVS
New structures
• Public Health in the Town Hall
• Clinical Commissioning Group instead of the
Primary Care Trust
• Health and Wellbeing Board and Partnership
• All working towards the priorities in the Joint
Strategic Needs Assessment
Spaces for community engagement
• LINk has a seat on the Health & Wellbeing
Board
• 20 spaces for voluntary organisations on
the Health and Wellbeing Partnership
• Patient Groups and LINk are represented
within the Clinical Commissioning Group
There’s more…
• Public Patient Involvement within the Primary
Care Trust
• Community Development Workers from Public
Health and the Mental Health Trust
• ‘User Involvement Groups’ and ‘Advisory Boards’
run by several Council departments
• ‘Standard Consultations’ on specific issues and
plans undertaken by all public agencies
What do VCS organisations want
from Clinical Commissioning Groups?
• Ways of holding the CCG to account
• To understand and influence VCS involvement in commissioning
• Direct links with Clinical Commissioning Leads and Localities
• GPs to know the organisations operating in ‘their patch’
• To link their preventative work to GPs’ clinical work… maybe
through social prescribing?
• Someone to facilitate and help build relationships
• Services to be co-delivered in community settings, e.g. IAPT
• Ease fears around private sector involvement in commissioning
services for vulnerable people and specific community groups
What do VCS organisations want
from the Health and Wellbeing Board?
• More visibility – web access to papers and regular
updates via email
• To bring up important issues directly with the Board via
LINk or VCS representation
• Incentives to get involved
• Opportunities to talk to commissioners
• To understand the direction of travel
• To be invited to discuss key issues – identify which VCS
groups are most relevant
Comments from the VCS about the Joint
Strategic Needs Assessment
• Separate from the reality on the ground, but also useful to get
an overview of priorities
• The JSNA web page should show what is being done about
each priority. It could have a section where organisations could
contribute information
• Strong health focus – needs links with social and community
care
• Links with communities, knowing who to call.
• Facilitation and relationship building – community intelligence
can inform priorities beyond clinical data. Too resource
intensive to achieve?
• Poor health is related to deprivation and disempowerment –
can we incorporate this into the conversation?
How do the
conversations happen?
• CVS – an expectation that we will do it, but no funding
– 2 FTE currently grant funded
• LINk – not representing the VCS – under resourced
and stretched to the limit
• Community Empowerment Network – working with
BAMER groups and faith communities
Jo Lofgren
Head of Policy
[email protected]
020 8875 2843
Lifetimes, Wandsworth CVS
www.life-times.org.uk