Across North East London

THCVS has been working with the CVS’s in Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Redbridge and Newham to explore with the Voluntary and Community Sector across north-east London as to how we can develop a model for collaboration between the NHS and the voluntary, community, enterprise and faith sectors.

So far, we have commissioned some insights work via Redbridge CVS to establish what is currently happening in the boroughs and suggest recommendations for a potential model.

We held a meeting facilitated by NAVCA to inform the sectors and explore the values and principles by which we should develop a collaborative to ensure that the sector has access to the information and opportunities that can come from working more closely with the NHS at a system level.

There will be another opportunity to comment on the proposed model in September 2022 – date to be agreed. This will be advertised through our mailing list (see below).

In Tower Hamlets

In Tower Hamlets we are also exploring what this can look like for the sector at a ‘Place’ or borough level. The last Health and wellbeing forum looked at what is happening in the borough and how the sector can get involved. We are very aware that many organisations want to get involved but do not have the capacity to attend a lot of meetings so we are exploring how we can utilise the current structures to make links with what is happening at the system level with what is happening locally to connect people, to give organisations a voice and to ensure that organisations are aware of any potential training and funding opportunities and coordinate the response to strengthen the possibility of bringing in funds to the sector.

Working with the local NHS

Through the Tower Hamlets Together Partnership (THT) there are 4 Locality Health and Wellbeing Committees that work across the life course workstreams of:

• Born Well Growing Well
• Living well
• Promoting Independence

These meetings are an opportunity for the sector to promote your work to the health professionals working in each locality.

Health and wellbeing forum 

The forum currently hosts 4 meetings a year and is overseen by a steering group made up of local voluntary sector organisations. The forum aims to bring together organisations working to address the wider determinants of health to understand and explore a range of issues that affect the sector and to strengthen our response. We are proposing that the health and wellbeing forum supports a place-based partnership of organisations and is the borough mechanism to link with the ICS VCS collaborative.

Mailing list – if you would like your organisation to be on the mailing list for communications from the forum and the ICS please submit your details here

Rethink Mental Health alliance

In Tower Hamlets THCVS is collaborating with Rethink Mental Illness who have been funded through a charitable foundation to establish a mental health alliance. We want to strengthen the response to the opportunities that alliance working can bring in to the borough. 

For further information, contact phil.warburton@citizensuk.org. 

We will be updating this page when the system-level model has been drafted and a date for the next meeting is agreed.

For further information, please contact alison.robert@thcvs.org.uk.