The programme is rooted in the principles of raising local communities’ voices, and investment in grass-roots VCSE – to address barriers to accessing statutory services and deliver a community asset-building and engagement programme to tackle health inequalities across NCL.
We gather vital insight into our communities’ lives, and their lived experiences of accessing health and care services and wellbeing support, to inform Borough Partnership priorities and decisions. We have created a systematic approach to both working with our local communities and collating and evaluating local communities’ experiences.
Key achievements:
- Building strong and diverse VCSE partnerships in each Borough: bringing together a lead facilitating organisation and grass roots organisations – equitably sharing funding and utilising the unique skills of each organisation to work with local NCL communities who experience high health inequalities, deprivation and barriers to access
- Raising the voices of local communities who experience high health inequalities and/or barriers to accessing services through targeted community research delivered through the VCSE;
- Meeting communities where they are, so they can raise issues which matter to them and set outcomes which are meaningful for their lives.
- And, through a research & action approach, tackle health inequalities and address identified issues as they arise – harnessing local VCSE and communities’ strength to both co-designing solutions with local communities and people and bringing the services and support they need to them.
- Raising the knowledge of local healthcare services across VCSE organisations and local communities
- To act upon the feedback and views of local communities to ensure Borough Partnerships and services are planned and commissioned with local people
- Innovative community research methods used across each Borough VCSE partnership – with local grass roots organisations given additional training in community research
- Embedding community engagement into our Borough Governance structures – all VCSE partnerships and their research feed directly into each Borough Partnership Board with regular meetings between VCSE partnership leads and Borough Partnership leads
- A VCSE Partnership Peer Network – sharing challenges, best practice, building action – bringing multiple partners together across NCL
In engaging with our local communities and the grass roots organisations they work with we also recognise their skills and strengths. These programmes commit to acting on what we hear and investing in local knowledge of health and care services and how residents can look after their own wellbeing. We hope this work will serve to tackle health inequalities and strengthen relationships across north central London for the years ahead, particularly as we develop each borough’s Place-Based Partnership in the move to an Integrated Care System.
First year reports – are coming soon.
Programme briefs
In each Borough we created a brief – asking VCSE organisations to come together, developing a collaborative and proposal which demonstrated how they would develop a partnership and engagement approach.
For more information on each borough’s programme and the brief’s please see below: