Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent VCSE Healthy Communities Alliance
Community collaboration for better health equity
The VCSE Healthy Communities Alliance is a recognised partnership between voluntary sector representatives and the Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS), that enables the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to be involved in the local health and care system.
Members come together at a number of forums to engage with and consult each other on health and care services and initiatives on an ongoing basis.
Alliance members are made up of representatives from relevant boards and groups—that cover the seven portfolios of health as defined by the ICS in their five-year plan—are by election, and these are:
Children and Young People, and Maternity Care
Urgent and
Emergency Care
Mental Health,
Learning Disabilities,
and Autism
Planned Care
Population Health, Prevention, and Health Inequalities
Primary Care
Urgent and Emergency Care
Community-based approach
It’s the already embedded VCSE groups that know their communities best, and they’re the best route to finding out what the people in those communities really need, and which portfolios are in most need of consultation. By engaging fully with the voluntary sector, health and care authorities can fully understand the needs of local residents and shape their services and initiatives accordingly.
This community-based approach to health and wellbeing not only supports the health and care agenda for the area, but it’s also extremely empowering for the voluntary sector, knowing that by simply being heard, they’re helping to improve the health and wellbeing of people in their communities.
The overarching aim of the Healthy Communities Alliance is to increase health equity across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire through these community-based approaches and by engaging with VCSE organisations through a number of agreed forums, networks, meetings, and partnerships. These forums and networks are a space to come together to inform, engage, consult, and empower one another in relevant health and care structures, relationships, policy, and practice.
The current forums are based on either locality or theme:
Locality Forums
Thematic Forums
- Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire
- Southwest Staffordshire
- Southeast Staffordshire
- Social Prescribing Advisory Group (SPAG),
- Mental Health Forum
- Children, Young People and Families Forum
Collaboration, contribution, cooperation
The Alliance nurtures the developing working relationships between organisations and across sectors to form a strong collective voice for the VCSE sector, increasing the role and influence with statutory health and care bodies’ strategic thinking and decision making, creating a culture of collaboration and using the voluntary sector’s knowledge, skills, and expertise to address health inequalities across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.
It’s built upon five ‘Principles of Cooperation’:
Contribution, Inclusion, and Respect
Commitment to Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Communities
Openness and Transparency
Learning and Sharing Good, and Best, Practice
Continuous Quality Improvement
Get involved
If you have any questions, or to find out more about how to get involved, please contact [email protected].
A condition of membership is to sign up to this VCSE Healthy Communities Alliance Cooperation Agreement which has been developed in consultation with members. You can read the cooperation agreement here.
To see when the next Healthy Communities Forums are taking place, please check out our events calendar.
